loops drifting again! 2.03

Question Richie - how are you setting the loops when you encounter this problem? I'm having drift issues as well but only with active loops - when I set a loop on the fly using the players they're staying in time. My workaround to this point has been to wait for the active loop to engage, then quick cut it in half and 2x it so I'm back to the originally set active loop, only it's been set by the player and stays in time.

Another strange detail - when I create the loop and set it as 'active' all within the application on my Mac, I have the drift issue on the players. IF however I set the loop on the player, then save it to a hot cue - it then updates the loop on the Mac and if I set that 'player-created' as active it doesn't drift! This leads me to believe the issue is with loops CREATED in the application, not the players. Not sure Richie if this is similar to the issue you're having but thought I'd toss it out there in case others are experiencing the same.

I don't program loops in Fox I just like to loop on the fly live. They would at one point stay perfectly in sync when I did a loop in loop out It would actually grid lock with the other track as well you would expect it to in Traktor. 

Are you manually adjusting your beat grids after you reanalyze?

No but shouldn't have to? Rekordbox analyzes each track and the beat grid should be right. If it was right on previous versions of Rekordbox why should it be out now? I would understand needing to amend it for tracks with irregular tempo as it would need manual adjustment but House music should be easy for it to work out!

Well, I'm sorry to say that you are mistaken in your assumption that Rekordbox (or any software for that matter) can perfectly detect and align beat grids automatically.  There is no program in existence which can do this.  Every software requires some manual adjustments, whether it is Rekordbox, Ableton Live, or Traktor.

I play house music exclusively, and having been a Pioneer Rekordbox user since the beginning I can tell you that nearly every single track I load into the program needs to be manually adjusted to align the beat grids.  Some tracks are better than others, but I can't remember ever seeing a single track that was perfect on first analysis.

Sorry Fuse I think you are misunderstanding me. I have used Rekordbox for a couple of years now and what I was trying to state is I use quantize and quite often use live loops on the fly whilst mixing out a track. On a previous version of Rekordbox (I think 1.6.3) you could hit 4 beats loop on an outtro and it would stay perfectly in sync with the track you were bringing in. In fact it would be so accurate that it would stay in sync for at least 2-3 minutes! I have never adjusted beat grid before. If it's something they can't put right then I will just manually adjust live. It was a nice luxury before :(

The solution for you remains the same.... adjusting the beat grids manually.

How does adjusting a beat grid solve this problem? Whether or not the beats line up on two tracks is one thing - loop drift is another. Drift implies that the grids are sliding further and further apart from one another as the loop continues to be engaged.

The beat grid's primary purpose in Rekordbox is to set the quantization for loops and FX.  By intended design it affects loops and their timing.  I can assure you that when the grid is adjusted correctly the loops will stay in time, assuming of course there is not a technical problem with the music file.  I have personally done a lot of testing for people on this forum with loops, and some other issues.  I have tested 4 beat loops that can stay locked in time with another track for 3-4 minutes without any manual corrections to the CDJ platter.

Try to adjust the beat grid on 1 track and test it out with looping afterward.  I feel confident this will be the solution for you.

did you reanalyze and export again to the stick?

ps. i don't agree about the beat grid not being able to stay consistent over a house tune.. It's house music 4x4 beat it should stay the same and locked for an eternity not just 1 min for the majority of the tunes. When you are manually adjust the grid you are actually correcting the algorithm of the program.

there is ofcourse the 1%  that they will drift either because of heavy mastering or maybe file issues, rip etc etc.

I agree with Fuse in the case where Rekordbox gets the BPM wrong (e.g., if a 128bpm track is analyzed @ 130bpm, the metronome will actually begin to drift in adjustment mode).  To Thano's point, this is rarely the case with electronic music.  If the only manual adjustment necessary is sliding the grid (vs widening or compressing), this won't solve a drift problem.  Richie, are you analyzing your tracks in 'normal' or 'dynamic' mode?  

@Fox analyzing in Normal mode and when looking at any House beats the beat grid is smack bang where it should be. Fuse as I mentioned before with an older edition of Rekordbox this did not happen? I'm not moaning for the fun of it and I didn't imagine it being perfect before!

@ Richie   -    I don't think you are moaning over nothing.  I'm honestly just trying to help.

My question to you is simple.  Have you attempted to manually adjust the beat grid on a track, and then test it with looping?