Couple of timing issues

[Jesse Johannesen]

I'm really liking the NDLR so far, but I have a couple of small issues...

1) The option to quantise chord changes really should have a 'bar' option. 1/4 note is too tight to always get a clean change. I notice this subject has been brought up before - I'd like to add my voice to the call for this.

2) Although I've got chord quantisation set to 1/4 note, I'm noticing that a repeating 1/8th Motif note during the last 1/4 note changes to the new chord if I've triggered a new chord during the last 1/4, but before the last 1/8th. This makes part of my chordal change jump in early before the next bar. This is using an external keyboard to trigger the chord changes.

3) When playback begins from MIDI clock, a Drone set to play only on chord changes does not trigger at all until a chord change is received, even though it shows as active on the NLDR's screen.

I'm always prepared to be told that it is me that is doing something dumb, so feel free to tell me if that's the case. I have read the manual through a couple of times, but it could always have missed something.

Hi Elf,
Jesse here with NDLR support, let's see if I can straighten any of this out.

1. I think this falls under the umbrella of changes that aren't likely to happen due to limited flash memory on the device. because the save states take almost all settings into account any changes we make that add an option take 8 times as much space in memory, and there just isn't that much left to go around. I can add a note to the feature request but I don't know if there will ve much we can do for this at the moment. we're sorry for the inconvenience.

2.The Pad quantization only applies to the Pad part, so if you change chord degrees after the last 1/4 note of a bar, the Motif will change immediately and the Pad will change at the next 1/4 note (the 1). It is possible to get more control over timing on those changes by either exploring the Chord Sequencer, or by incorporating an external sequencer like the beatstep or keystep to send changes on the NDLR Ctrl channel. You can also use the mod matrix! By changing an LFO to use a Motif Pattern as a shape, and sending the modulation to Chord Degree, you can edit the pattern to sequence your chord changes. This is absolutely the most experimental solution, but it is also the most rewarding in my experience. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes. 

3. I think I see what you mean, so if I have Chord degree 1 selected and NDLR is stopped, and I play all, the Drone doesn't sound unless I press another chord degree? It seems like it would be better if it did fire off a note when play is enabled. I'll talk to Steve and see if this is like that for any particular reason and see if he agrees it should fire of an initial note. This doesn't sound like it would be too terribly difficult to implement if he agrees.

I appreciate you bringing this kind of thing up, as it really helps us find the things that improve the user experience and without these posts we wouldn't be able to address those. Let me know if you find any other issues.

Jesse