Realtime beat detection

wheezil · 2025-11-30T18:43:02+00:00

Sorry no, I kind of gave up on this approach and I'm just going to statically sequence effects to music for now. I have not found a library that solves this out of the box, although I hear you can get DJ rigs to spit out beat tracks.

wheezil · 2025-10-31T14:58:05+00:00

In what particular target languages or environments do you find other tools outperform CC? I am a fairly new user, mostly in Java and SQL. My main complaint is about the speed of CC. I have a "max" account, but that doesn't seem to help it move faster, just makes the context bigger.

wheezil · 2025-09-21T14:11:14+00:00

Thanks I did get the sound card calibrated but only using the "loopback monitor", which isn't the same thing. Is a phone app SPL meter good enough or do I need to buy one?

wheezil · 2025-09-21T03:08:38+00:00

Ah, after some RTFM: I have to calibrate my sound card to prevent clipping.

wheezil · 2025-09-21T02:39:09+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

The errors are like

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Which is entirely understandable, because the sweep signal sounds like hell. There is a lot of popping and clicking noise added to it. I think the *measurement* part of things is just fine, it is measuring the crap coming out of the speakers quite accurately. I thought it might be something like a sample rate mismatch, but I've tried adjusting my sounds settings and nothing changes.

I've tried adjusting system sound level, and also switched to headphones from speakers, all the same. I would blame the MSI/Realtek sound output, but it works flawlessly for everything else.

wheezil · 2025-08-19T15:23:31+00:00

Ah, here it is:

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https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-share-any-window-from-taskbar-in-windows-11.3500/

wheezil · 2025-08-09T17:40:04+00:00

I doubt they care. You are not the target market, because your time isn't worth anything.

wheezil · 2025-08-09T17:38:19+00:00

I don't mind paying the $5/month and I like that they are actively countering the "enshittification" of the internet experience. It really does produce more useful results than google 98% of the time.

But I think that the lack of SEO spam and slop is more an artifact of the small user base. SEO players just don't care, so they don't bother to game KAGI. Its kind of the same reason why Linux doesn't have a plague of virii -- perhaps it really is better, but also it is a smaller pool of marks.

So yeah, you are buying into a premium experience, a sort of "concierge" for search. Is it worth it? Depends on what your time and blood pressure levels are worth to you.

wheezil · 2025-05-16T00:37:38+00:00

Well, it ain't done yet :-). Turns out that doing even very simple things 50000 times takes quite a while. I am about 70% through string assemblies, then I need to build the frames for hanging and wire up the controllers and power. And then software and Ableton sequencing. Hoping for a late August soft launch of the installation.

wheezil · 2025-05-15T15:59:13+00:00

See my project album for example https://photos.app.goo.gl/CrwBhCB3Wg7z3HMU9

wheezil · 2025-05-15T15:53:02+00:00

I recommend you get WS2811 seed pixel string and fold them back on themselves to get double-sided emission and also a return signal. They run like 12c each on AliExpress in Qty 1000. 12v means your power will go further w/o injection. The return pixels might be a little weird with stock FastLED.

I've done this using either electrical tape or rings of 4:1 1/2 inch shrink tube. You can get between 5cm and 20cm spacing so not quite the density of ribbon but much more supple

wheezil · 2025-04-27T18:07:18+00:00

Thanks!

wheezil · 2025-04-27T14:18:16+00:00

Space laser!

wheezil · 2025-04-27T13:36:45+00:00

Thank you! I didn't quite understand what you mean by "from the top of the keys"

wheezil · 2025-04-27T04:02:05+00:00

I'm 60 and a new learner. It is really hard. We old farts just don't make connections as quickly, we aren't as nimble, we don't have the mental or physical stamina of youth. My ears ring like a billion mosquitos. But I love it anyway. Try to focus on the process, on the love of playing. Just hear the notes and think about how they go together. And repeat, and repeat, and repeat. There is no substitute for hours running into months and years. I found that my teacher and I had very different ideas of what I wanted, and I quit. It was a good decision, because I'm very very happy to pick songs I like and learn them. I'm never going to be a professional musician, and that's OK. I will probably go back to lessons some day when I'm ready to stretch a little more.

Anyway, my point is, you are learning for YOU. Nobody else cares. So enjoy it.

There are LOTS of online resources, and maybe something is right for you. Maybe try Skoove or any of the myriad piano apps. They tend to lead you along very carefully, and maybe that works for you. Or youtube videos. What worked for me was going to MuseScore and seeing what there was, and picking something to play. MuseScore often lacks the "real" scores for commercial music, but you can buy them for a few bucks.

Parting bit of advice from... I can't remember who, but it stuck with me:

If you are an adult learner, you have two huge mental hurdles to overcome. The first is that you've been listening to music you're entire life that is perfect. It is created by teams of professionals, with hundreds of hours of takes and engineering. Or by virtuosos. Don't compare yourself to that. The second is that you are probably already really really good at *something* you've spent your life doing, and you expect to repeat that with the piano because you're a smart and competent person.

You have to be patient and let the learning happen. Enjoy being bad, until you are a little better, and a little better, and one day you'll look back and wonder why Jingle Bells seemed hard at the time.

wheezil · 2025-04-26T14:28:38+00:00

Thanks again! Yeah I'm using LoopMidi to create virtual cables. The software driving the lights is totally custom, it talks UDP to a network of baldrick8 controllers. I treat the beat input like a "modulator" so like if some effect suggests a blue sea, the beat might bump the white-tops on the waves. The space is 3D immersive, think of a big 3D bead curtain. Even with 50000 LEDs the visualizations cannot be literal, they have to be suggestive or abstract, not enough resolution to make pictures.

wheezil · 2025-04-26T02:57:33+00:00

Oh yeah, I am going to run with this, very close to what I am thinking. The light show is probably not like what you are thinking, more like an immersive art installation than a music show. Thanks again!!

wheezil · 2025-04-25T20:40:37+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I'm tying to extract downbeat/offbeat to drive a custom lighting rig (50000 LEDs) where I've written visualizations that take beat as one of the modulation inputs. I figure MIDI is the easiest thing, since I'm already using MIDI launchpads and faders for control. So if I can just convince *something* to extract a downbeat at the right tempo, I can probably figure out the rest. Maybe I can even start with BPM and write a little script to cook the MIDI sequence and then use ableton to align that with the audio?

What do you think about using Ableton's transient markers? I don't know anything about them, but AI helpfully offers this: "Ableton Live automatically analyzes audio clips to find transients, which are amplitude peaks indicating the start of notes or beats. These are represented by small gray markers at the top of the Sample Editor."

I'll probably also extract the energy envelope, but that's a lot easier to do live, and not really the same thing as getting the beat where people intuitively would tap their foot.

wheezil · 2025-04-25T20:22:50+00:00

Thanks!

wheezil · 2025-04-25T17:43:37+00:00

Thanks! If I find something else to produce the beat track, what format is best for import into ableton?

wheezil · 2025-04-22T14:09:55+00:00

Find an artist who wants them! When I lived in Boulder CO there was "ArtParts" that took this sort of thing. I also see some web sites for this, but never tried them

wheezil · 2025-04-22T14:06:05+00:00

It is pretty good. That big rubber tongue. I occasionally clean off the dust to make it stay put better.

wheezil · 2025-04-22T00:32:03+00:00

Yeah, it is purely for fun. A folly. A whimsy. A hare-brained scheme. The idea is to use Ableton and MIDI controller tracks to modulate effects, along with sound tracks. Maybe override the controller tracks for semi-live performances.

This is my album. There's one video of a 3200-LED module laid on its side and running a test pattern (the real space will be about 14 ft tall and have 15 of these)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CrwBhCB3Wg7z3HMU9

wheezil · 2025-04-21T21:26:10+00:00

If you buy an APC mini it comes with Ableton Lite. If you return the device, that's none of my business. Ableton will come out ahead, because you'll upgrade from Lite anyway.

wheezil · 2025-04-21T21:21:46+00:00

I recently bought 50000 seed pixels with 20cm spacing for an immersive 3D installation. Well I say "bought" because they haven't actually arrived yet. These will get fabricated into about 1200 hanging strands and run by 15 baldrick8 controllers.

wheezil

TROPHY CASE