jonwolf

I like to mess around with polyrhythms. A lot of the time, making individual parts of a song occupy different amounts of a space in the timeline relative to a global clock is a very direct way of breathing life into a track that otherwise might be uninspiring. So the idea is to, within Song Mode, implement a per-track clock multiplication/division and call it Clock Math Mode.

Proposed implementation:

While in Song Mode, press Shift+[available_shortcut_key] to enter Clock Math Mode. If the Song is playing, the visual feedback for the playhead is disabled. The LCD screen reads "MATH". Initially, the two centermost columns (8 & 9) light up White on all tracks, indicating the track is running at the same speed as the master clock (simultaneously /1 and x1).

For each row/track, each column to the left of Column 8 is assigned a clock division for that track, increasing in value per column to the left (i.e: Column 7 is a /2, column 6 is a /3, etc - down to /8 on column 1). Same idea for Column 9-16, but as multipliers with increasing values going to the right (column 10 is x2, 11 is x3, etc - up to column 16 which is x8). Pressing the corresponding button engages the clock div/mult. The button would pulse white in time with its track's respective clock div/mult. To exit Clock Math, press [SHIFT].

Clock Math Mode would be an overlay regardless of where you've scrolled within the Song - all other buttons would retain their regular coloring so you can see where you are in the song.

This would save a lot of time in workflow, enable more compressed composition within a song, and provide an additional tool to change things up during live performance. Also, it can serve as a kind of "shake the etch-a-sketch" when hitting a creative block during composition.

Thoughts?