If I supply MIDI Clock to the MIDI input on my Ribbons, the Looper is always constrained to a speed scale of 8ves (1 up, unison, or 1 down). This constraint goes away when I stop the MIDI clock.
I assume this is intentional? What’s the reasoning there?
Yes, the loop length is quantized when receiving midi clock. Can only change the speed by divisors or multiples of 2
Otherwise, if you switched the timing to a non multiple of the original, the loop would need to trim/add time to stay on beat.
Yes, it’s intentional.
The goal with syncing to MIDI clock is to keep things synced to a grid. So the speed is constrained to 0.5x, 1x, or 2x speed because other division/multiplications would throw the loop out of sync.
We considered doing sub-divisions / other multiplications but it became confusing when you recorded something at one sub-div/mult and then switched to another. Especially if you adjusted the speed in the middle of a loop that didn’t align with the grid.
If you don’t want your loops to be synced you can always send MIDI CC 51 to tell Ribbons to ignore MIDI clock. If you have the latest Ribbons with the 2.0 firmware, then this is persistent between power cycles. If you have an OG unit, this update is on the way.
I just got the ribbons and have yet to delve into midi clock syncing. The question I have about this is, does the sync constrain all tracks to be the same length or does it just quantize the punch in and out so that the loops can still be different lengths - which is one of my favorite ribbons features.
It does this. Loops can still be different lengths.
Speaking of loops, MIDI Clock and time grids. Maybe it’s just me and my awful sense of rythm, but I can’t for the life of me make a proper loop using the 4-track looper with MIDI clock on ))) If i hit Touch AND start playing at the same time, in 99% of cases the recording starts that tiny little bit later, because the Ribbons wait for the clock pulse. And my first note has no attack ))) And when I hit Touch again to close the loop, I seem to never be able to hit it right where I need, because Ribbons closes the loop not when I hit it, but at the next downbeat.
I can record a very decently timed loop with MIDI Clock off, so my internal timing is not hopeless, but in this case I can no longer “re-snap” it to the grid, because it sort of drifts away.
I know it’s intentional, and it “snaps” to the Grid, but even if I am using the audible click - it’s very difficult to open and close the loop “on time”.
Which leads me to the following questions:
Can we think about adding a feature to set the BPM manually? Maybe, via a MIDI command? By “manually” I mean a method, by which I can tell Ribbons that the loops tempo is, say, 120BPM, WITHOUT it syncing to the external clock? It will then “snap” its loops to such an “internal clock”, but will not wait for the external clock’s beats to start/stop the recording? The moment I hit the Touch fsw will be the downbeat, and all subsequent quantization and snapping will be relative to this point in time.
Can we dream of adding some sort of “auto rec start” feature? I know it won’t solve the “wait for the beat to start” problem, but maybe make things a bit easier?
Can we add the option to tell Ribbons to start recording upon receiving the MIDI Start/Stop command from an external clock/MTC source? Like the “Listen to MIDI Start-Stop” in Ghosts (CC#52), where it will start the drum sequence, if this touch mode is “armed” and I hit start on my Rolan J6. Something similar for Ribbons would be utterly useful.