Triplets workflow?

I meant the “grid” on the pads :slight_smile:

not really either …
because you still have 16 physical pads

I proposed a long time ago the possibility to switch on a grid with 12 steps for triple meters
easy to do on the screen,
more delicate for the “physical” pads, but for example by sacrificing the 4th pad of each group of 4…
…or even a simpler implementation: systematically start each new bar on a new page
e.g. if you have a 12 steps bar, the next one would not start on the step #13
but on the next page step#1

but here we go away from the topic little by little …

in short,
now people know several methods to make triplets! :slight_smile:

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This as a menu option would be great!

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Yeah I don’t know if it is easy to implement
but it would be definitely clearer! (especially for a sequencer that encourages the use of “less conventional” time signatures …) :slight_smile:

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By gods, yes, pretty pretty please.

As it is now, try entering a 12-16 bar chord progression in 3/4 signature (or similar) in step-mode, guaranteed to make you lose your mind. And for the same reason finding the inevitable mistake is so hard it usually seems easier to just start over, just try focusing even harder.

Having recently been working on two 3/4 backing tracks for a friends wedding, this has been by far my biggest pain-point with Pyramid up to now. Pain which would just simply vanish up in the air if bars always started from a new page.

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@joosep @TheLoudest
I agree so much with you guys!

I really hope that it will be part of the v3.0 because it becomes a hell as soon as we leave the (boring) 4/4 patterns

and there’s no need to explore weird time signatures for that
as @pmatilai notes even a simple 3/4 can quickly become problematic!

yes but in fact this already exists
for example just make a 3/4 pattern with a length of only one bar
and there is a visual representation of an “incomplete” page also on the screen

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haha :smiley: you’re right
let’s hope that Squarp will can implement the same thing for longer patterns…

and personally I would love to see another visual representation for the beats
“BPM” on this screen :

actually it is the same issue here… it seems that this representation is 4/4 oriented, and it is not really ideal for a polyrhythmic/polymetric sequencer

try again a simple 3/4 pattern and this BPM meter becomes useless (or even worse: inaccurate)

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@squarpadmin

What’s your advice?

Don’t know if this is right but…

To implement a 6/8 time signature I went for 4x zoom and entered each triplet on steps 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 - the next bar starts on step 3 on the next page. This is a bit weird in terms of the notes shifting across the 16 steps per page but I find it better than messing around with per step offsets just to get a bar into a 16 step page, To get the right feel I just put the emphasis on the appropriate beats (1 and 10) and adjusted the BPM.

The odd thing is that when I did this and set the time signature to 6/8 the bar marks weren’t what I expected and for an 8 bar sequence I had to set the length 12 to fit in all the notes. This makes me think I’m not doing it “correctly” - but it seems to work.

Happy to be corrected…

Wow, this is an old thread.

For just a quick “pop on over into 6/8 and back” from a 4/4, why not just pop the Quantise Grid to 1/12…?
Tester:

  • Make a Track with 16th Notes.
  • Set up the Quantise Effect with the Grid at 1/12, but don’t Enable
  • Hit [Play]
  • [Enable] the Quantise Effect

Does this not “make” a quick 6/8? Or is it 1/8 Triplets? Or something something maths is hard
I know the original post was re: triplets but perhaps someone with theory can pipe up about how that’s not correct. It ‘feels’ about right, but I do the feelies thing instead of the knowing thing. Sorry.
That sure feels like 6/8 to me. What’s the maths here?

If that’s what it’s supposed to sound like, remember that Quantise Grid is one of the Effect Parameters that can be controlled Globally. It would seem if you use an external controller you can set up a few buttons to modulate the Quantise Grid in realtime - pop over to 6/8, back to 4/4…or even change the Grid to 1/4 and heavily Quantise everything to down beats and pop it back.

:skull:

To clarify this explanation (sorry to resurrect an old thread but I fought with that recently and thought it could be useful) this only works if you set “time signatures” in the global settings to “polyrhythm”. “Polymeter” would affect the way the notes already in the track are played, which isn’t what we want here.

So you want to start with a 4/4 track, input notes (that will be on a quaternary rhythm), then switch the track to 3:4, then input new notes (that will be on a ternary rhythm), then possibly switch back to 4/4 if you want to input more quaternary notes (but the signature won’t change the way it plays anyway).

It’s indeed pretty fast to do once you get the gist of it, but not as intuitive as a triplets grid in daws. Although it’s more versatile, as you can have triplet, quintuplets (5:4), sextuplets (7:4) etc grids as you want.

Beware! 3:4 is different from 3/4!! that’s why “polyrhythm” needs to be set in the settings.
To recap:
BOTH X/Y and X:Y mean that a note of length 1 corresponds to 1/Xth of the bar, BUT they differ in how they set the amount of beats per bar:
X/Y means you’ll have (X/Y)*4 beats per bar, and
X:Y means you’ll have Y beats per bar.
(if someone can just confirm I didn’t get that wrong, that’d be great :wink: because I only recently figured that all out)
And that’s why the result changes when you set time signatures to polymeter but not when you set it to polyrhythms [1]: with a 3:4 you still have Y=4 beats per bar. That’s not the case with a 3/4 where you have 3/4*4=3 beats per bar). I guess that’s why “polyrhythm” is the default setting on the Pyramid

So yeah, I guess having just two numbers: number of beats per bar AND default note length would make things more intuitive and cover all use cases of both polymeters and polyrhythms, but, you know, music theory…

[1] BTW I believe the correct way to put it in the settings should not be “time signature = polymeters OR polyrhythms”. It should be “track signature = time OR rhythm”.
3/4 is a time signature, 3:4 is a rhythm signature. None of them is inherently “polymetric” or “polyrhythmic”, as you need in both cases at least two tracks (or two melodies/bass/drum lines on the same track) to get a polysomething.
And technically a track should have BOTH a time signature and a rhythm signature, but when you set a rhythm signature the Pyramid forces a 4/4 time signature (I think).

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It always makes my brain hurt when I read this thread, possibly because what little music theory I do know is self-taught with loads of gaps.

But the way I’ve done things is just by changing the time signature to 3/4, which gives me bar markers every 12 pads at x4 zoom. (hold efills/esteps in step mode for bar markers)

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is just by changing the time signature to 3/4

You mean 3:4 (with time signatures = polyrhythms in the settings)? Or is it really 3/4 that’s indicated by the Pyramid (in which case it’d mean “time signatures” is on “polymeters” in the settings)? Because if it’s really 3/4 and not 3:4 then if you go back to 4/4 it’ll change the way the already existing notes are played.
(just so I know, because as I said I only recently started using the Pyramid and am still also somewhat figuring it out)

Oh yeah its going to 3:4 with my settings set to polyrhythms.
Must admit I’ve never noticed that before.

I’m pretty new to it myself and have only done a couple of things using 12 steps in 3s (that’s how i’ll explain now) I’ll go back and re-read your post as I feel I need to get my head around this again.

Like I said, it always hurts my head when I read this thread.

Stupid triplets question

Umm…so I’m embarrassingly ignorant to ask: I’ve always thought these were triplets…?
(3 measures 4/4 then one measure in triplets, lather, rinse, repeat)

I think these are yeah. They do divide the beat in three notes.

Thank you.
It was my understanding that was correct, but I was doubting myself.

This was step sequenced in 4/4 and then I just Automated the Quantizer Grid to 1/12 for the triplets bit.

Oh, and Sequenced on Pyramid and played on Rample.