First of all, swifty, clearly it was a mis=typing of the word ostinato. But in any event, what does it matter. I am simply investigating methods of syncing bass lines, melodic lines and the like to meats or tempos.
For instance, I can sync the arpeggiator to the beats, however, it does not necessarily stay exactly on. There tends to be some shift. This is on
a Waldorf Micro Q. On such an instrument, the clock automatically syncs to the tempo of the incomming midi signal. Thereafter, you can adjust the timing of the notes you want repeated by a number that looks much like a fraction. It is obviously a subdivision of time however since the tempo is an unknwon or "x".
It seems "X" equals beats per minute. The number of beats per measure is reflected by the fraction of 192/y, y being the note rythym such as an eight note or quarter note etc. There is probably some algebraic equation for determining the how many times Y occures in a minute and from there is could be further detrmined how many times "y" occurrs in a measure.
I guess this is why the arpeggiator is not the best way to make a steady eight note pattern or sixteenthnote pattern for any length of time. Slight variations become exaggerated over time and the sync goes out the window.
There is then the LFO which can be synced to the midi tempo as well, however, I have not had much luck with this method. Though it works, it seems even less precise and that is probably for similar reasons.
Therefore, I have determined that the best way to do this might simply be to use a sequencer, play the figure in, quantize and then put the tempo anywhere you like. This is probably the best way to acheive the effect which in the end, is the effect known mostly as "dance music". That is, the repetative eight note bass line with off beat high hat, four kick drum beatrs and
a back beat on snare.
The thing that probably threw me off was that the synth, in this case Micro Q, came with many factory presets that had drum beats synced up with bass beats done through the arpeggiator. This probably works becuase they are both using the same clock and the same basis for subdivision of time. Trying to syn that up with other parts in a separate seauencer of computer sequencing program seems nearly impossible.
The problem is that the arpeggiator in the Micro Q, for instance does not actually have tempo information. It is based on, I guess, a variable calculation, something like what I dicussed above. Yet I also have an Acces Viruse b that does have tempo information and still had problems locking the arpeggiator to an outside sequencer.
I am of the opinon that all I really need is some more practice with the sequencers and arpeggiators to make it work. But still, others I am sure have been working with these devices for quite some time and could offer much practical advice and, by the way, doesn't anybody else ever get tired of "what keyboard to buy" questions or, "which is the best keyboard" question. Given that, would it not be interesting to discuss the OPERATION of these instruments for a change of pace.