[1.3.0b3] Export Song Stems - Various Issues including tempo inconsistency

[clickysteve]

Following on from the issue relating to the tempo of exported stems being inaccurate, which was reportedly fixed, I have tried exporting song stems but run into the same issues, along with a few others:

Issues:

1. Rendering song stems is extremely slow, even for relatively short songs. For example, exporting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jEE1_4CKL0, which comes in at a total length of around 3 minutes and 20 seconds, took about 2 hours to complete. The track was not especially over-bearing, over-loaded, or memory intensive from what I can gather.
2. The process crashed on the first attempt without completion or warning. The first time I tried to export song stems, the process crashed at about 40% complete. There was no warning or indication that it had failed - the 'Exporting Song Stems' popup simply no longer appeared, and the export files were corrupted.
3. The song exports are named _SONG_S000*, and don't relate to the name of the project file, as they did in previous versions.
4. Most importantly, the tempo export is still not correct, and drifts over time. You can see this evident here, where the start of the stems begin before the bar marker near the beginning of the project:

yet further on in the project they have shifted substantially. This is hard to demonstrate exactly in a screenshot.

This is using the same samples, with no tempo adjustment in FX, so no changes there which would cause this.

It is further evident by the total length of the export stems, which all finish at different times (and not on a bar marker):

Listening to the stems together makes it very immediately clear that the tempo isn't accurate, as they aren't in time with each other - and are very badly out of time with the Master. Here is an MP3 bounce of the stems loaded into Logic and their start positions aligned, at the same tempo. You can hear that by the end things are badly out of time with each other, and the click.

tempoissue.mp3.zip

Thanks

[thebradclay]

I think I figured out a workaround for this.....Make a blank pattern, hit play/record in ableton, hit congfig on tracker, change clock in from usb back to internal. Just tested and that works.

[headtopmusic]

@thebradclay I haven't been using any of the Tempo FX in the Tracker so didn't come across this issue.

In that situation, I would record the stems using the internal clock and manually trim the stems.

Seems like you've got you're own work around for the tempo FX. Makes sense :)

[thebradclay]

@headtopmusic Yeah will have to check later. This export issue is a total killer for me.

[clickysteve]

Yeah, I've recorded 2 tracks using this method. It was the ASIO sample rate knocking everything out of time. There is initially latency when the recordings first start but I can live with that. … On Sat, 9 Jan 2021, 13:22 Clicky Steve, @.***> wrote: @doelman https://github.com/doelman I am using Ableton as my clock. 'Clock in' set to USB with 'Transport in' set to USB. I recorded two tracks last night successfully with no audible timing issues or jitter. It takes about an hour but has removed the blocker of being able to make music using the tracker and send it for mastering. I hope this works for you. Sometimes it's the things you least expect. It was satisfying watching everything sync up as the waveforms appeared in the arrangement view of Ableton after a week of no hope. Just to clarify: You're having success synching with a DAW as master clock, and recording each track separately, right? If so, I might do this with the track I have sitting waiting, because I'm concerned that other updates to the FX and other features will break the track by the time the export is fixed. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#512 (comment)>, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASKIGMG7L4ZPJRNYKCBUZXLSZBKCHANCNFSM4UY7DHMQ .

Thanks. Still not ideal, as it will take ages with manual work, but at least I could theoretically save the songs.

[clickysteve]

Not sure why that quote pulled in the e-mail etc. Github. shrugs

[headtopmusic]

Manually multi-tracking is not ideal but beats waiting 6 hours for an export for unusable material. Approx 45-60 mins per track. Hit record, then set a timer the length of the track and let it run. Come back after the alarm to trigger the next stem.

[thebradclay]

I still have major drift issues with incoming stems manually. I use a macbook pro, and have tried about every configuration I can think of in ableton. This is ridiculously frustrating.

[headtopmusic]

In my tests, I eliminated the Tracker as being the issue. It was my clock jittering because of a high buffer rate. Alternatively, you could record the stems using the Tracker's internal clock. That shouldn't drift.

On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, 16:33 thebradclay, notifications@github.com wrote:

I still have major drift issues with incoming stems manually. I use a macbook pro, and have tried about every configuration I can think of in ableton. This is ridiculously frustrating.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/polyend/TrackerIssues/issues/512#issuecomment-758777984, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASKIGMB7Y3FCK7GGTXF66RTSZR2W5ANCNFSM4UY7DHMQ .

[headtopmusic]

To confirm, the sample rate was tweaked outside of Ableton. It was the ASIO driver.

On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, 17:31 Sam Turner, headtopmusic@gmail.com wrote:

In my tests, I eliminated the Tracker as being the issue. It was my clock jittering because of a high buffer rate. Alternatively, you could record the stems using the Tracker's internal clock. That shouldn't drift.

On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, 16:33 thebradclay, notifications@github.com wrote:

I still have major drift issues with incoming stems manually. I use a macbook pro, and have tried about every configuration I can think of in ableton. This is ridiculously frustrating.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/polyend/TrackerIssues/issues/512#issuecomment-758777984, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASKIGMB7Y3FCK7GGTXF66RTSZR2W5ANCNFSM4UY7DHMQ .

[doelman]

In my tests, I eliminated the Tracker as being the issue. It was my clock jittering because of a high buffer rate. Alternatively, you could record the stems using the Tracker's internal clock. That shouldn't drift. … On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, 16:33 thebradclay, @.***> wrote: I still have major drift issues with incoming stems manually. I use a macbook pro, and have tried about every configuration I can think of in ableton. This is ridiculously frustrating. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#512 (comment)>, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASKIGMB7Y3FCK7GGTXF66RTSZR2W5ANCNFSM4UY7DHMQ .

Internal clock definitely drifts, I tried several times recording the separate channels but it got all messed up. Using Ableton as a clock with a low sample rate is doable to record stems for me.

[thebradclay]

I don't use asio4all as I am using a mac. I use tempo changes in the tracker in pretty much every song which makes recording stems manually a pita. I just sat for 3 hours recording stems. 51 slots 31 patterns. drift is in random places and it's really impossible to line things up. I'm using the Ableton clock with the lowest possible sample rate and it's still fucked. I'm probably going to sell this thing because I can't actually get anything usable out of it which sucks because the workflow is fantastic but this may be the last straw as I have this project due on the 15th for a charity streaming event and now pretty much have to do two weeks worth of work over.

Edit: Spelling

[shuler323]

thread moved to #697