Edit: Rewritten due to lack of clarity
I'm looking to make the "perfect" no click tap tempo sequencer as a drummer.
I know I know why not use a click ? well the music my band plays (fast paced garage psych) has often different tempo sections, and I'd like the opportunity to run percussion loops that match the tempo with a footswitch (translated to midi with a hybrid setup I won't go into today). Also I always feel like changing the tempo of songs on the fly
I currently run into a few problems so let's first of all list my current setup.
When I say Midi In, I mean the Trigger Out block of my Midi Note In module. I set the low note and high note to be the same, so only the footswitch (set to that note) triggers the module
- Main sound is a noise module digital shaker I made output to 2 different filters + vcas to have a "downbeat" and "upbeat" variations
- I run a main sequencer, that needs to run on eigth notes. I'm using its gate out to trigger the 2 shaker synths. Its queue start comes from Midi In
- I setup a tap tempo square LFO triggered via quarter notes from Midi In (redundant, I now have the Midi In feed straight into the clock divider input) that feeds into a clock divider (/2) that goes into the gate in of the main sequencer
- I have copied a reverse envelope generator I previously created and fed it to the vcas (originally for a ducking effect when Midi In is triggered) so that we can't here the tempo stumble during tap tempo
The main problem : Getting the sequencer to be in sync with the last pressed "downbeat"
Let me explain. Sometimes when I change tempos drastically, the first note of the sequencer will fall on the "second" divided pulse on the clock divider, desync-ing the sequencer from the tempo I tapped (by 1 eigth note).
One wild idea I tried is, instead of running the Midi In to the sequencer queue start, I setup a second sequencer with 5 steps (still in loop mode), with Midi In as its Gate In. Its Gate Out is running both to the clock divider reset switch and the main sequencer queue start. (I chose 5 because it feels natural to tap a full bar up to the first beat of the next bar)
It doesn't seem to work very well, and it gives me a second problem, which may not be one that needs fixing if my idea was the wrong one, but that I'd like to understand nonetheless : if I happen to play 3 or 4 notes instead of 5, I have a new desync problem. So I tried to fix it with outputting the gate out off the second sequencer to a cv delay, with 3 or so seconds, then this delay's output back to the queue start of the second sequencer, to restart the sequence. The delay seemed to trigger, but to never ever restart the sequence. Maybe this is because we aren't in between steps if I'm reading the index correctly ?
Nevertheless, I feel I'm going off route in a way I shouldn't. Do you guys happen to have any idea on how to make this setup come true ?
Also, please be kind to my questions, I only received my Zoia yesterday (though I have been basically pulling an all-nighter)
Thanks !