Effects Speed BPM

[Tim123]

Hi Guys,

I am just inquiring about the possibility of syncing effects speed to BMP on the FLX rather than a seemingly arbitrary number between 0 and 100. This is for an upcoming event that is 80% music at least as far as my job is concerned all of which is to a backing track with known bpms. It would really make the effects engine SO MUCH more powerful and is a standard feature on other manufacturers desks such as Chamsys and Avolites. Programming chases is such a pain when the same thing can be achieved in a fraction of the time with the effects engine (and is editable on the fly). It is very tiring having to try to find the effects speed that roughly correlates to the correct bpm and never getting it quite right.

As the effects engine runs on a waveform generator presumably each speed number correlates to a specific number of Hz so the calculation from there to bpm should be pretty simple.

1. In the longer term, please can this development to prioritised for a future Zeros release as it would be so useful.

2. For the show I have coming please can I have the number of Hz that the different effect speed 'numbers' correlate to. E.g. 1, 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100. From there it is pretty easy to work out the BPM for each song.

Thanks!

[kgallen]

1 hour ago, Tim123 said:

seemingly arbitrary number between 0 and 100 <snip> effects speed that roughly correlates to the correct bpm and never getting it quite right.

Even if Z88 can give you the speed-to-BPM figure, this is going to remain an issue for you, that the resolution of 100 steps will be too coarse to match the music BPM sufficiently accurately and you will still see drift as your music track progresses (assuming it's longer than a handful of seconds).

I wonder if there is even a fixed relationship between effect speed and BPM or if it depends on the base waveform of the effect.

Maybe Edward is away asking the software team right now!

[Edward Z88]

Hi Tim & Kevin,

It is not as easy as just calculating a BPM for a given Speed value. This is because if you look at converting a waveform to BPM, you would have to factor in both the Speed and Offset - this therefore is also affected by the number of fixtures the effect is running over. For example, automatic effect 4 "Chaser 1/8", with speed of 20, offset across 8 fixtures, gives you 120 BPM. The same effect offset across 4 fixtures at the same speed would give you 60 BPM.

1 hour ago, Tim123 said:

1. In the longer term, please can this development to prioritised for a future Zeros release as it would be so useful.

The ability to give effects a BPM, and for them to calculate the required speed, is logged on our system as reference number ZOS-8694. I have raised the priority of this following your request.

1 hour ago, Tim123 said:

It is very tiring having to try to find the effects speed that roughly correlates to the correct bpm and never getting it quite right.

A possible way of dealing with this if you are recording effects into cues, is to get your speed roughly correct, record the effect into a cue, and then on playing back the cue, use a Speed Override fader to boost up or slow down the speed slightly on the fly to suit. See the link below for more information...

https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/special-playback-functions#override

If you have any questions let me know.

Edward

[Hummel]

Any news about BPM-tempo / tap tempo for effect-speed? To be honest: When buying the console I didn't even have a closer look at this, because it is such a common feature and correct synchronization between effect-speed and musical tempo is quite important to us. Maybe I've overseen something but AFAIK this has not been implemented yet (would be very glad if I'm wrong). If not, could this be implemented in one of the next updates?

As explained by @Tim123 there's a direct connection between frequency of the waveform and BPM-tempo. A selectable multiplier could then decide how the effect will react to the BPM-tempo. This kind of multiplier could also be an interesting feature for chases (when controlled by global BPM one chase could rund faster than the other).

EDIT: Just recognized, I posted in the FLX-part of the forum. I'm using a FLX-S48, but as both use ZerOS there's probably no difference regarding that.

[Edward Z88]

Hi @Hummel

Welcome to the Zero 88 Forum.

3 hours ago, Hummel said:

Any news about BPM-tempo / tap tempo for effect-speed?

It is not possible to set the speed of effects using Global BPM / Tap Tempo. Effect speed can be controlled separately using the Speed Override control.

3 hours ago, Hummel said:

If not, could this be implemented in one of the next updates?

Please check out the forum thread below...

This will allow you to vote on the features you'd like to see in a future ZerOS software update. 

Your suggestion would be covered by the "Improve effects engine" option.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

[Jon Hole]

4 hours ago, Edward Z88 said:

Your suggestion would be covered by the "Improve effects engine" option.

Where there's a specific feature within the category, like Effect Speed BPM, it's worth voting but also posting a comment, so we capture them all in a single location when reviewing the list.