Tempo and transport

Every effect that follows a tempo follows the same one: the loop’s while there is one, otherwise a MIDI clock’s, otherwise the last tempo, tapped or left by a loop or a clock. The effects that do are the delay, the filter LFO, the freezer, the slicer, the tape stop, the phaser’s rate in its synced half and the chaos key’s grid; the clock factor can double or halve their tempo. In detail, the first that applies:

The loop, while there is one, with or without MIDI clock. Beat 1 is the loop’s start, so the slicer chops on the loop’s beat from the first pass and the delay’s echoes land on it. The effects follow the transport knob: at half speed the tempo halves and in reverse the beats run backwards. Once a loop exists, MIDI clock no longer matters: a tempo change in your DAW moves neither the loop nor the effects.
MIDI clock, when there’s no loop, from the input the clock source picks (none when it’s internal). The effects get it in whole BPM, measured over the last few seconds, so it holds still however unsteady the clock: a jump in tempo is followed at once, a change of a BPM or so within about 2 seconds.
The last tempo: tapped, from the last loop or from the clock. 120 BPM at power-on.

While the loop is paused, the beat runs on by itself at the loop’s tempo, so the effects keep working on the input; scrubbing doesn’t move it. At a standstill it does the same, at the slowest speed’s tempo (50 BPM). When the loop plays again, the beat snaps back onto it at the next 1/48 of a bar: a filter LFO or slicer can jump there.

A loop gets a whole number of beats:

Quantized: its bars from the clock it was recorded to, exactly.
Unquantized, after a tempo was set (by a clock, taps or an earlier loop): the number of beats closest to that tempo. Record at the tempo you tapped and the loop takes it on.
Unquantized, with no tempo set: a guess: 1, 2, 4, 8 … beats, whichever puts it between 80 and 160 BPM. It goes wrong on loops of 3 or 6 bars, or with a pickup, and may come out at half or double the tempo you had in mind. Tap to correct it.

With MIDI transport following on, a DAW’s Start and Stop play and pause the loop too: see Start and Stop.

Tap tempo

SHIFT + LOOP: tap at least 3 times, at the tempo you want; the last 5 taps (4 gaps) count, and a pause of over 2 s starts over. LOOP flashes on each tap: white, or dark when it’s already lit nearly white.

With a loop, the taps pick how many beats the loop holds; the loop’s length then gives the exact tempo, so the effects’ beats stay locked to it even if the taps were a little off, delay times and freezer lengths included. Tapping at double the loop’s tempo, for example, doubles the effects’ tempo.
Without a loop, the taps set the tempo, and the last tap lands on a beat.
Tap the tempo you hear: the clock factor applies on top of it.
Without a loop while MIDI clock runs, the clock is the tempo: LOOP blinks red 3 times. With the clock source on internal, no clock counts, and the taps set the tempo.

The tempo is limited to 50-300 BPM, after the clock factor: at very slow loop speeds the effects stop slowing down at 50 BPM.

Clock factor

The lower G# on the settings page sets it, each press the next: as sent (yellow, the default), double (red), half (light blue). It multiplies the effects’ tempo, whichever of the 3 above it comes from: tap the tempo of a song on AUX (SHIFT + LOOP), then put the delay, the slicer and the rest at double or half of it; or record a loop and let the effects run at half its tempo. The loop itself stays as it is: its length, its beats, and the bars a quantized recording ends on. With MIDI clock, FRIZZ follows the clock at the factor (see MIDI clock), so a loop recorded to a 120 BPM clock at double has the effects at 240.

Changed while a loop plays, the effects’ beat stays on the loop: beat 1 on its start. Without a loop, a tapped beat stays on the beats you tapped: at double with one more halfway, at half on every other one.
At half, a loop of an odd number of beats (3, say) holds a beat and a half per pass. The effects’ beats run on evenly across its start, so beat 1 lands on the loop’s start every other pass, and halfway through a beat on the others. A quantized loop always holds whole bars, so it’s never one of them.
The 50-300 BPM limit applies after the factor: 200 tapped at double is 300, at half 100.
The beat on the lower G# and PLAY and the clock MIDI out sends show the tempo with the factor.

It’s kept as clock_factor in FRIZZ/frizz_master.txt (50, 100 or 200).