Skip to content
Deluge Community
Based on the Deluge Manual – Amadeus Edition (draft). Being updated for community firmware up to C1.3.

18.7 Sync-scaling

For users syncing the Deluge as a follower and wanting to make use of unusual time signatures, sync-scaling is a fun and creative feature. A clip of an unusual time signature may be created by setting its length to an unusual number of beats, example; seven 8th-notes. Using sync-scaling, the Deluge, when synced as a follower, can make those seven 8th notes take up the same amount of time that the incoming MIDI beat clock says that eight 8th-notes are meant to take up.

There are a couple of applications for this:

  • The user may wish to create polyrhythms by e.g. having an external device (the syncing leader) playing a sequence in 4:4 timing, while the Deluge (the follower) squeezes 7 notes into a bar instead of 8.
  • Some loop pedals may act as a syncing leader. However, they are likely to assume that any loop created (e.g. with a guitar) is in 4:4 timing. If the user had in fact played a guitar loop in 7:8 timing, the loop pedal would still be outputting a 4:4 MIDI beat clock - dividing the entire loop into, say, fours rather than sevens. The solution is to tell the Deluge to scale the incoming 4:4 MIDI beat clock into a 7:8 one, so that a 7:8 sequence created on the Deluge would play perfectly synced to the 7:8 guitar loop, despite the incorrect 4:4 MIDI beat clock passing between the two devices. Sync-scaling is tied to the length of one clip in a song, and tells the Deluge that that clip’s length should be squeezed into 1 bar of incoming MIDI beat clock (or 2 bars, or 4 or 8 bars, depending on how long the clip is; the Deluge will use whatever magnitude of sync-scaling causes the smallest change in tempo). Even while the Deluge is playing synced as a follower, sync-scaling may be switched on or off, and the sync-scaling clip may have its length changed. Despite any such changes, the Deluge will keep the sync-scaling clip playing in time to the syncing leader. It will also attempt to keep all other clips in time; this works best if the other clips are of the same time signature as the sync-scaling clip (that is, their lengths are the same, or half our double, or 4 times shorter or longer, etc.)

Using sync scaling

  1. Clip to enter clip view on the selected clip where sync scaling will be applied.
  2. Set its length to the beats required. This is typically an unusual length to get the best effect from sync-scaling and to fit it into the incoming sync timings.
  3. Press Sync Scaling to set clip for sync scaling. Button will flash blue.
  4. Leaving the clip in this mode the sync-scaling button will remain statically illuminated - not flashing. This indicates that sync-scaling is active but not on the selected clip.
  5. Press Sync Scaling to switch it off. Button will be unlit.
Show it on the Deluge