Tempo, Transport and Modulation

[!IMPORTANT] Storage: the modules and authored tempo/modulation settings in the graph are portable .p00tch content. The host's current tempo, sample position, beat/bar phase and Playing state are runtime host information; Deepfield reads them from the DAW and does not store them as patch values.

Many Deepfield effects depend on time: delays, LFOs, loopers, triggers, ducking systems and rhythmic feedback networks. Deepfield provides both user-facing tempo controls and lower-level host timing modules.

TempoSelector

TempoSelector is the preferred front-panel control when a user should choose a musical interval rather than type a raw millisecond value.

It produces a compound tempo-aware value that compatible processors can use to derive time from the current host BPM. This allows one control to represent choices such as note divisions while still following tempo changes.

For controls that should also work manually, a patch can combine tempo-derived values with ordinary millisecond controls and switch/select between them.

TimeInfo

TimeInfo exposes host timing and transport information as control outputs. Available information includes tempo-derived values and timeline state such as sample position, PPQ/phase information, playing state and a start trigger.

Use it when a patch needs to respond to the host timeline itself rather than only convert one musical division to milliseconds.

TempoTrigger

TempoTrigger creates a one-modulation-tick trigger on absolute host-timeline interval boundaries while transport is playing. Feeding its Interval from a TempoSelector makes it a convenient rhythm trigger for tempo-synchronised control systems.

Because it is aligned to host timeline information, changing audio buffer size should not redefine the musical phase of the trigger system.

LFO choices

Deepfield provides several LFO approaches:

  • LFO — straightforward low-frequency modulation.
  • Synchronized LFO (SLFO) — master/slave phase relationship with a raw phase-sync bus.
  • MultiLFO — a dynamic bank of phase-locked voices with paired phase/window style outputs.

Choose the simplest module that matches the job. A single modulation target generally does not need a MultiLFO.

Audio rate, modulation rate and parameter rate

Deepfield does not run every control calculation for every audio sample. The graph compiler separates work by signal domain and can run modulation-only islands at the patch's configured modulation resolution.

This is a major reason complex control graphs can remain inexpensive.

Use audio-rate processing when the signal itself is audio or when modulation must be sample-accurate/high-bandwidth. Use modulation for smooth, fast control movement. Use parameter/control signals for slower values, mappings and user controls.

The setting Force audio-rate modulation from Audio In nodes exists for the special case where external audio is intentionally used as a modulation source and the normal graph optimization would otherwise be too conservative for the desired result.

Designing for different buffer sizes

Tempo-aware modules should derive timing from host/timeline information rather than incrementing one crude value once per DAW block. This keeps phase, interval and transport behaviour consistent across buffer-size changes.

When a rhythmic patch behaves differently after changing buffer size, first check whether a custom control path is block-derived instead of using TempoSelector/TimeInfo/TempoTrigger.