Recipe that fixates/quantises Beatgrid onto allready existing cue markers

What is the feature or ability you would like to have?
A recipe “quantise/fixate Beatgrid to Cue-marker”

How will this feature help you and others?
Well it seems to be happening sometimes that cross importing from different databases & apps can results in faulty bpm exports… these things happen… not often but ALWAYS on the most impossible times… so when disaster dares to strike again i came up with following solution that can fix the problem quite easy if i’m honest…

The idea is simple:

  • The user selects a track (or bunch of tracks)

  • rightmousebutton => goes to “edit”

  • in the track edit screen “Switch to Recipes”

  • There under the “CUES/BEATGRID”-tab the user finds a recipe called “Quantise/Fixate/Lock Beatgrid To Cue-Marker”

  • Going to the next screen we can choose onto which cue marker-slot (1-8) you want the beatgrid to fixate on…

=> priority is off course that the track(s) 1st need to be analysed in order to have the right bpm set up… or have the right bpm’s already set…

Is this feature available in an existing product? If so, what product?
Not that i know of

Does a workaround currently exist?
manually go to cue, shift grid to wanted position (per track …)

In how far this is possible… i really don’t know… BUT i can imagine there is an easy way to implement this feature based on already made cue-markers. As these markers have an exact fixated location on the waveform/in the timeline of the track… i can imagine there is a logic way to fixate the beatgrid (based on the right bpm) to those points… once 1 cue marker is linked, the beat grid takes the head-measure of the 4 beats, the whole beatgrid should be on point now for the whole track as well now…

(of course for tracks with shifting bpm’s (for example on breakdowns where the d&b tune’s bpm goes from 170 to a 140 garage vibe to build up again towards drop2…) this is not possible…

Just an idea that’s worth brainstorming on imo

Grtz N.

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I have to say if this is possible this could be a good solution to the Beatgrid issues as there will always be tracks with quirks that need amending, let’s hope it is not an impossible task

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a pointer i had in mind:

If this will be an automated feature locked in the “analyse” function, best not to take cue-marker slot 1,
as this slot often gets open again after an analyse session. imo it would be better to go from slot2 or let the user choose the slot 1-8 where lexicon will pin point the beat grid to after analysing…

Just brainspitballing here…

the feature is kinda based on the sync/quantisation feature of dj apps… track B’s grid fixates to track A when playing … the core-idea in my request is kind of similar in that point of view imo…

@Christiaan any opinions on the matter?

So this is like the Quantize cues recipe except reverse?

ps: I used your Feature Request questions as template for future requests

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@Christiaan

So this is like the Quantize cues recipe except reverse?

Sort of a backwards capatable workaround yeah from cue to grid indeed
if there allready are cue’s on point. More in the pov of if users just make 1 certain cue on a track… (being a drop or a certain measure (start, breakdown…) on their own which can/will be more precise…

Then select a batch of tunes & do a “set/fixate/quantise beatgrid to cue (at choice)” recipe on that batch… (important that the user can choose on which cue lexicon needs to focus (some times uppon importing the 1st cue falls off… so other cues need to do the trick)

This way the gridfixating function will have a more accurate chance of being 100% on point (IF the right bpm was assigned beforehand off course)

It’s just an idea pov of thinking @Christiaan but i’m pretty sure it’s worth to have some thoughts about hehe

PS: hit me up in DM if more brainstorming in details is needed… 'm not a programmer but 'm just linking certain functionalities & to be created automatisations around the matter…

Grtz N.

Added some mock up screens in OP to illustrate 1 way of achieving the feature through recipe function.

This recipe is very doable, but there are some edge cases some of which you mentioned.

  • It can’t do anything with multiple beatgrid markers, it will always only create one
  • You would select the cue number so you’d have to be sure that that cue number is the right one on all selected tracks. If the given cue number does not exist, it won’t do anything.

Personally I don’t even think selecting the cue number is that useful because you’d most likely use the first cue anyway. I don’t want to expand this to being able to choose a cue based on name/color/loop etc.

Also the option you added in your screenshot to assign it to future analysis is not how I see it because that is a very different feature and that’s not really what analysis is. I’d be more interested in making the analysis better and more reliable.

I personally would always use Cue 1 and don’t see a reason to select another cue unless there is an intro with no Beats on the track in which case cue 2 would be used.

I don’t agree with it being used on future analysis I see this more as a remedy tool rather than affecting the analysis as most analysed tracks are fine for me

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@Christiaan: * You would select the cue number so you’d have to be sure that that cue number is the right one on all selected tracks. If the given cue number does not exist, it won’t do anything. Personally I don’t even think selecting the cue number is that useful because you’d most likely use the first cue anyway. I don’t want to expand this to being able to choose a cue based on name/color/loop etc.

@StuR: I personally would always use Cue 1 and don’t see a reason to select another cue unless there is an intro with no Beats on the track in which case cue 2 would be used.

The reason i mentioned the ability to chose a certain slot is the following:

When importing a library from Engine it often happens that the very start cuepoint of the track where you have put a marker tends to fall off and opens the slot again

Engine waveform WITH start cue marker i have stored at slot1:

Lexicon waveform WITHOUT start cue marker; slot1 is free now:

My point is … it doesn’t matter which cue marker to work with, 'm just trying to clear out that some times the cue marker chosen to use for the very beginning of a track tends to slip of…
If the recipe is written to accidently use that very same cue slot… it probably won’t work…

EDIT: I just noticed it’s vice versa as well… the start-cue-marker in lexicon is perfectly on point but when synced to Engine, the start fell off (i remember Christiaan mentioning that’s a common issue unfortunately) then when importing from engine back to lexicon you end up with that result… (i get this issue when doing big loads (mostly when recupping a malfunction from engine… AGAIN!! But with normal loads of 10-20 tracks, this issue does not slip through of course. (big loads, more chance of not seeing / normal loads pefectly detectable and fixed after importing / syncing )

That’s why i suggested the ability to chose a marker of choice, where the user is very sure of, will be there (as it will most defo never fall from importing, of because it’s located IN the track’s waveform, far from the edges.) It’s purely a safety-net to be very sure.

(don’t know if this happens with importing from serato, traktor or rekord box tbh)

don’t agree with it being used on future analysis I see this more as a remedy tool rather than affecting the analysis

Very true indeed! “The main reason is to restore balace to our Library Galaxy” :asthmathic darth vader voice off: (But i can imagine IF this works… this method could be a perfect behind the scenes integration to more accurate located beatgrids (also in more hectic genres of music, again IF the user assigned at least 1 cue marker AND has defined the right bpm (round) ) But indeed that’s NOT what analysis is, completely agreed, was pure a handy tool in an IF situation (IF tracks contain certain cue-marker => fixate grid => move on from there for furter analyse calculations (dunno if it’s cpu friendlier if the system doesn’t need to calculate/figure it out/predict it then if this IF situation is being used)

Anyway, Thx so much for taking the time to clear this one out to it’s very core btw!!
To keep it most simple
To keep it most effective!!

'm realy glad for this!!

Grtz N.

@Christiaan

  • It can’t do anything with multiple beatgrid markers, it will always only create one

i think a clear sidenote message/banner is needed to state that

“Tracks with dynamic beatgrids / multiple / different beatgrid/bpm’s are to be left out of the selection”

'm going to let it sink in a bit for now.

Another big thanks for showing some interest into the suggestion @Christiaan & @StuR & @djductape for starting that topic.

Grtz N.

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Lexicon should be able to import your cues if they are >= 0. But Engine doesn’t show you where they are exactly so when you place it at the start, you might have accidentally placed it below 0. That’s why the first cue is missing here. The workaround here is to just make sure to place them later, maybe 1 bar or 4 bars later then.

Anyway this recipe would easily work by just automatically using the first (chronological) cue point, that eliminates the need for a position altogether.

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Anyway this recipe would easily work by just automatically using the first (chronological) cue point, that eliminates the need for a position altogether.

Meaning: If 1st slot not found let’s go automatically to next slot?
Or what also could work; directly automate to 1st found cue-slot that is settled INSIDE the 0 ↔ END timeframe?
(That way the user indeed does not have to assign a slot himself…)

Just brainfarting with you here bruv…

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Added Quantize beatgrid recipe in next version

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Oh! on it! so damn CURIOUS!!!

EDIT: THIS!! Thx so much @Christiaan

Just did a batch of tunes where the issue happened… you nailed it!!

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A little side note Advice for best use:

@Christiaan : maybe add a message about using the correct bpm value to have the best result??

I’ll adjust the text. It actually doesn’t add beat markers now if none exist

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QUESTION: With "first cue point" you mean “first found cue point in the timeline of a track”?
or do you mean the cue point in slot 1 (mostly named “cue 1”)?

'm just mega-curious on what this recipe runs to make it happen…


ps: been it testing on a whole back up library of ± 9999 tracks…

  • Analysed to get bpms
  • Rounded the bpms recipe
  • Quantize Beatgrid recipe

=> 100% FLAWLESS!! (on the tunes i was sure of)

(In the whole lot there are some dodgy vinylrips i put in there on purpose, also some hardware live recording jams with bpms like 178.89 & 150.44… so the “Round bpm” recipe would create wrong bpm values for those tracks… and indeed it resulted in a wrongly formed beatgrid further in the track… I created this situation to be 100% sure of what i earlier stated about the importance for us users of having the correct bpms before we start quantising… If a user imports a whole bulkload… this can be a bit time consuming indeed… but with adding small batches to the library this should be a piece of cake to find out if the bpms are on point to start with)

I am so happy with this recipe working! Just in time before the weekend, awesome to have a perfect archive on the road/stick/sd-card again!!! THX!

It’s the first chronologically found cue point, regardless of slot.

No problem, happy to help :slight_smile:

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Hey Christiaan!

Loving this feature and using it daily!!
And because of that i’ve encountered a issue that occurs once in a while…

Some times the 1st chronologically found cue point is not the cue i want to focus the grid upon…
(scratch samples f.e.)

It could be a very handy aditional feature if we could choose the marker where the grid could be focussed on… to make it perfect hehe :smiley:

Loving this feature to the fullest!