Does tracking audio out real time avoid the tempo bug?

[mr_trick]

So I had to use Export to get stems of a song out of my Tracker Mini, but I’ve since learned (after finding this Bug report) that when using the Export function, it tracks out at slightly the wrong tempo. This means that when I’m trying to add instruments in Bitwig, everything is off-grid because the original WAVs are not dead on 130bpm.

That being the case, is tempo affected if I simply record the stems into my DAW live? Or does the same issue persist?

(I’d try this myself, but I’m also having a nightmare with getting the Mini to output to Bitwig without dropping the connection but that’s one for another post!)

thanks

[tomgrimmer77]

Hi mr_trick,

the tempo is not affected, when you press play and record the single tracks into your DAW live. It is just an flaw of the internal chip, when you render the tracks inside the tracker. This applies at least for the Tracker OG.

[mr_trick]

Fantastic - thanks for confirming. I’ll use that to track stems out to my DAW then. Appreciate the help!

[mr_trick]

Hmm - I think I have to politely disagree on this one. I’ve just tracked out the same song at 130bpm and it isn’t holding to that tempo in Bitwig. It’s totally off the grid and anything quantised is out of sync because it’s quantised to the actual 130bpm.

Sorry but this is ridiculous. All I want to do is track out some stems into Bitwig to overlay some bass and then render this stuff out for mastering. Instead I’m stuck trying to get stuff to play in sync because the whole track is NOT actually at the designated BPM.

If that’s the case - and I am sincerely hoping someone can correct me on something here - then it makes creating music on the Mini completely hopeless if you want to do anything other than just render stuff out without adding anything to it.

What am I missing here? I have recorded all the stems into Bitwig having set the tempo for the project at 130bpm. It is all recorded in, but if I then program in a bassline, then duplicate that bar for a few bars, it all drifts off-tempo.

This illustrates the point. This is just the 4/4 kicks, recorded in at 130bpm. If I manually move them to line up so that the kicks are perfectly looping (as shown here on bar 25) then by the time you get to bar 81 you can see that it’s already out of sync.

Given I had the Mini setting the tempo when recording in, and am just using the files in Raw mode in Bitwig (ie with no stretching), I think I’m right that this is just clearly not tracking out at a consistent tempo, and as a consequence it’s creating all manner of problems when you try and track in new instruments etc.

I guess I can work around it with things like the bassline by just playing it in live and not quantising, but when adding stuff like shakers etc it all goes south pretty quick if the shakers are not actually moving in tempo.

Really, really disappointed by this all - feels like basically the Mini is now a toy that’s good to use on its own, but of zero value when tracking out into a DAW to build a track from.

Quietly hoping I’ve got something fundamentally wrong here, but I’m struggling to see how. Welcoming any input from the mods as to what I might be missing. Thanks.