RMX Tempo - How far can you go?

[LumenStudio]

Hi everyone. Is there a rule of thumb for how far off you can set the tempo from the original tempo of the core sounds, expanders, and user imported rex files in stylus RMX?

It seems with live loop libraries like drums on demand they say you can go 10 beats per minute in either direction without it sounding to off (reverb times, etc). This seems about right to my ears when I play around with them. I just got burning grooves and it seems that it can pushed quite a bit further than that on some loops.

What are your experiences with this? I think live kits would have less of a tolerance.

Cheers,
Lumen

[fizbin]

It is true. Nearly all, if not all RMX loops are very resistant to tempo change weirdness like stretching artifacts and loss of groove. I've heard many of them stretched to around double or half time and still sound quite good. It's quite a feat. I'm not sure why or how they are able to do this.

fizbin

[spectrum]

The key is called "Groove Control®"

This is a special process of how the grooves are sliced that is like a secret method inside Spectrasonics.

Any product that has the Groove Control logo on it (Stylus, official SAGE Xpanders, etc) will have far better sound quality when stretching downwards than other methods like time-stretching or REX libraries.

You can hear the dramatic differences in the end results here on this page if you are interested....it's a pretty huge difference:

http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/rmxfeatures/archives/2004/09/25/sage-sound-quality-comparison-tests/

The Stylus RMX Reference Guide also has an extensive chapter about why Groove Control activated libraries are so superior in sound quality and why they are different from standard loop libraries or stretching methods.

[LumenStudio]

Eric,

It's quite astounding. RMX is the most amazing software I've used in a long time. I'm a professional developer too. Now publish some more live kits already in this format!

Cheers,
Lumen

[Gabe S.]

Hi.

Ah, Mr. Spectrum beat me to it...... :)

So, I'll just add: make sure you check out the "Half" and "Double" buttons on the Browser Page. These can be pressed multiple times in both directions for DRAMATIC speed changes. With Groove Control content, there are no "rules" about how far you can stray from the source tempo. In fact, as you get more comfortable with RMX, you'll probably find yourself giving little regard to the original source tempo of a groove in relation to your song's tempo---at least with Groove Control grooves.

If you go slower and it's sounding a little staccato or choppy, go to the Envelopes section on the Edit Page and increase the H,D and R parameters. This allows the slices to play longer and smoothes the groove out.


Now publish some more live kits already in this format!

Have you seen Kit Mode? There are thousands of individual hits that can be mapped into GM compatible kits. (Not sure if I understood your request properly.)

Cheers.
-gabe

PS. (I haven't posted about RMX in awhile, so for the record, I beta-tested RMX and, uh, know a little bit about it :) )