Trying to fully understand track scaling

OP-XY
1

I am somewhat confused about the idea that track scaling affords more measures than the limit of 4 would suggest.

Today, I created a simple “4 on the floor” for 1 measure using a synth sound and went through each of the track scale values, counting the total metronome ticks. This proved what I thought number of notes * scale value = number of metronome ticks.

For example, a “4 on the floor” for one measure results in 1 note per metronome tick with a scale of 1, scale of 2 results in 2 metronome ticks per note, scale of 3 results in 3 metronome ticks per note, etc.

So, over the 16 sequencer steps representing one measure with “4 on the floor”, scale = 1 you get 4 notes with 4 metronome ticks, scale = 2 you get 4 notes with 8 metronome ticks, scale = 3 you get 4 notes with 12 metronome ticks, etc.

In each case, you get the same 4 notes, but different number of metronome ticks across the same 16 sequencer step buttons.

With the sacle set to 16, you get 4 metronome ticks per sequencer step so that you get 16 metronome ticks per note and it all therefore still fits in the same 16 sequencer buttons.

Next, I will try playing two tracks together, both with 4 on the floor but each with a different synth sound. One will stay at scale of 1 and the other will be se through each sacle value from 1 through 1/2.

What I want to establish is whether we are really getting more measures or are we simply slowing everything down by increating the number of ticks per step. If we are realy getting more measures, then I should be able to have 64 measures full of notes except for that 120 note limit (?) that a pattern can hold.

Can anyone clarify these things. I figure one of two things will happen by others chiming in:

  1. My understanding is incorrect and another poster can clarify my thinking.
  2. My thinking is correct and other posters can verify my results.

By the way, when experimenting with features on the op-xy, it would be helpful to state what version of firmware we are running. I am running 1.0.29.

Tony

2

i think u aren’t actually increasing the measures of the same 1/16th note resolution when u increase track scaling.

u are simply playing the same 16 (or however many) steps at a different speed…

thats prolly why its called track scaling

u are scaling the track to a different multiplier 1x, 2x, 1/2x, etc

3

That is exactly what it looks like to me, too, and that is the source of my confusion. The confusion arises when I see videos or text claiming that we actually can have 64 measures in a pattern due to scaling. I don’t think we do, and what I posted above supports exactly what you have said.

Tony

4

Scaling is what it says. You get in fact more bars but with a lower resolution in in the UI. For example you may get four note events in a single sequencer step which makes it harder to see and manipulate.

So if you record a sequence at scale 1 and then increase the scale you are really only slowing that sequence down. But you can record Note events at the increased scale and because the resolution is high that means you get effectively more bars (with trade-offs in the step sequencer Ui)

5

Thanks! That makes sense, and it also fits with my two track experiment. Of course, then I would like to see midi event editing. Remember the “old school” hardware sequencers that could present individual midi events, and you edit these directly. That way, we could see all the events, regardless of scale.

What I am finding, in general, with the OP-XY or any peice of gear is that we can watch all the videos we want, read all the docs we want, but ultimately, we have to do this kind of digging into the actual device to learn it in the way it makes the most sense to us individually.

What I am finding is that I like to usually start with some kind of motif - just a short phrase played off the top of my head, and then build around and on it. The OP-XY does this kind of thing really well once you start getting that muscle memory going. But the, I can say the same about the Cirklon or most any other sequencer. The fact that it is all in a casing that reminds me of the slide rules we had to use in electronics school way back when, is really incredible and well worth the time spent building that muscle memory.

I am at the point at which I can get around on it pretty well, so now it is a matter of doing things and having to dig to find out how to do what I want to do. Once I am fully comfortable with how track scaling can work for me, I will dig into punch in effects, and the aux track and step stuff. Last will be making my own patches an samples.

Tony

6

“Slowing down” would suggest the tempo is changing, which it isn’t. Scaling is changing subdivision of the time-

Quarter Notes (♩) - Basic Pulse:
1 2 3 4

Eighth Notes (♪) - Dividing Each Beat in Two:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Triplets (♪♪♪) - Dividing Each Beat in Three:
1 ta ta 2 ta ta 3 ta ta 4 ta ta

Sixteenth Notes (♫) - Dividing Each Beat in Four:
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a

Sextuplets (♪♪♪♪♪♪) - Dividing Each Beat in Six:
1 ta ta ta ta ta 2 ta ta ta ta ta 3 ta ta ta ta ta 4 ta ta ta ta ta

7

That’s one of those things I really like about OP-XY (and was great on OP-Z, too). The sequencer is flexible enough to use it in a kind of standard way: 4 page for bars on 4/4 with 16th resolution where you can edit your pattern per note. However you can also increase the resolution to make it more “tapeish” (like on OP-1) because you have to manually play your melodies or drum patterns (like on OP-1) but in this case you still can quantize your recording per note with a resolution high enough to more or less follow your intention.

1 Like
8

Makes sense. What was confusing me were statements made in some other forums (not here) that claimed we could get up to 64 measures. That didn’t make sense to me, so I decided to experiment and post here for clarification.

Edit: I just saw this in a response in another thread here: To show off your playing skills you’ll want to turn off quantize. So by using the track scaling you can get to 8 bars, 16 bars or more.

That is the kind of statement that is confusing to me, especially given my experiments and the discussion in this thread so far.

Tony

9

you don’t need to turn off quantization to get those extra bars, but if you need to leave it on like me there is an unfortunate bug where the quantizer will screw up the rhythm on scaled tracks for notes that fall around the last “step” of the pattern, right as it loops.

10

Thanks. I will be experimenting with this. I either step sequence manually or just play stuff in without quantize.

Tony