- Use of tempomaps to reflect song structures, in a simple text file that klick and musicians can easily read.
- Tempo (including ramps) and time signature changes in a hydrogen song.
- Sincronization of hydrogen and ardour in non-fixed tempo (including ramps) and non-fixed time signature songs.
What we take for granted: Jack works stable
The software we need: klick, klick2ardour
http://das.nasophon.de/
Please, read the klick manual. (BTW, gtklick is a wonderful metronome with an intuitive GUI)
We will use klick as the jack master transport (-T option). We don't want volume and pattern changes in the tempo maps for this. The Example Tempo Map in the klick manual, with not needed stuff removed:
###########################################################
intro: 8 120 # play 8 measures at 120 bpm (4/4)
verse1: 12 120 # 12 measures at 120 bpm
4 120-140 # gradually increase tempo to 140 bpm
chorus1: 16 140
bridge: 8 3/4 140 # change to 3/4 time
8 3/4 140
verse2: 12 120 # back to 4/4 (implied)
chorus2: 16 140 # jump to 140 bpm
outro: 6 140
2 140-80 # ritardando over the last 2 bars
#Number of bars: 40 4/4 + 16 3/4 + 36 4/4 = 92 bars
#############################################################
Now we have defined the structure of the song, we can have a hydrogen song with 92 squares... too much?
If the "one bar, one pattern" approach for writing drums seems awkward, we can also define "double" bars in the tempomap. So, one 8/4 counts for two 4/4 bars, one 6/4 for two 3/4 bars and so on. Following with the same example, now we will have:
###################################
intro: 4 8/4 120
verse1: 6 8/4 120
2 8/4 120-140
chorus1: 8 8/4 140
bridge: 4 6/4 140
4 6/4 140
verse2: 6 8/4 120
chorus2: 8 8/4 140
outro: 3 8/4 140
1 8/4 140-80
#Number of bars: 20 8/4 + 8 6/4 + 18 8/4 = 46 "double" bars
######################################################
Let's copy the above to a text file that we can name... tempomap.
In hydrogen, each square in the song editor will correspond to patterns of the following sizes:
From square 1st to 20th: size 16
From 21st to 28th: size 12
From 29th to 46th: size 16
For starters, let's try with just two simple patterns. The song editor looks like this (o means void):
pattern1(s16): xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
pattern2(s12): ooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooo
In hydrogen, select jack transport (no jack master) and song mode. Do in the terminal:
Code: Select all
klick -T -f /path/to/tempomap
You can also export a tempomap to ardour with 'klick2ardour' and then use ardour as the jack master to drive a "non-fixed-tempo, non-fixed-time-signature" hydrogen, without further need of klick. In adition, intro, verse1, etc, markers will be created in the right locations.
Thanks a lot to Dominic and Hydrogen and Ardour developers for making this posible. You rock!