Slices, Beats, Tempos and Events

[JamminFool]

i'm a little confused about how LiveSlice is calculating the Tempo and Beats and how this then affects how many Events will be used in a Track when i use Lock To Loop.

let me explain.

sometimes, i load a loop, and it gets sliced into 16 Slices. the Tempo shown is set to half of the correct tempo (the loops are named by tempo) with 4 Beats set. now i use Lock To Loop in a track and the track shows 16 events. when i play this simple arrangement, i hear what is essentially the original loop synced to the host tempo.

however, other times a loop will slice into 16 slices and show the correct Tempo, with 8 Beats assigned in the Slicer. When I use Lock To Loop now, i only get 8 Events; thus i am not hearing the original loop when i hit Play.

i guess i don't know how it works exactly, since i start with a loop of known tempo and sometimes LiveSlice gets the Tempo right with 8 beats and other times it is set to half of the known tempo with 4 beats.

can anyone help me understand this?

[R.A.W.]

there are two things i can think of right now how the tempo is calculated.

1. the manual states "LiveSlice will assume the loop is either 4, 8, 16 or 32 beats long and that the bpm is not too far from the project tempo" - so the host tempo is one indication for calculating the bpm

2. amount of transients is another thing. e.g. you got a 8 beats loop with very few transients, that might lead to the conclusion that it's a slower 4 beats sample.. the other way round, a 4 beats loop with very much transients might lead to the conclusion that it has 8 beats.

well, if it's not calculated correctly, just adjust it manually.. and use the button to save acid-info, so next time you load that loop everything is just fine.

[ohm]

R.A.W. is right about the tempo calculation - I try to match the project tempo, so that if you work on a 200bpm drum'n'bass tracks your hip hop loops will automatically be set to 220bpm instead of 110. If there's a tempo saved in the wave file it is read, and I don't try to guess, but the usual wavefile does not contain any tempo information.
You only have to save a loop once to get the tempo saved in the file, as R.A.W. corretcly points out.

other times a loop will slice into 16 slices and show the correct Tempo, with 8 Beats assigned in the Slicer. When I use Lock To Loop now, i only get 8 Events

This happens when the arranger is only 4 beats and the loop is 8 beats.
The size of the arrangement is not changed automatically.

I am considering to change this actually: To automatically extend the duration of the arrangement when a loop is locked. Some users might not approve though, because they'd expect the arrangement to stay 4 beats when they set it that way, so I haven't decided yet.

Hope this answers your questions

[JamminFool]

thanks for your replies, guys. i appreciate your input.

i need to take what you explained and go play around some more in order for it all to sink in properly, esp. adjusting the host tempo to match loops of known tempo, to see if things are more predictable with respect to all this...