How are you handling ritard with tempo track?

Cubase
1

Hey, guys.

I have a passage that ends with a one bar ritard, and then there’s an out of tempo breath while it sustains, and then back into regular tempo. This is a piano only song, and the tempo track is just there for the click as there are a couple of tempo changes in addition to the ritard and I need to keep myself on track.

I’ve experimented with drawing in ramps and stepped tempo changes in that bar, but trying to get the feel right for that breath at the end has been challenging, as I need a pickup to know when I’m coming back into tempo. I also experimented with changing from 4/4 to 5/4 for that bar then back to 4/4, but that just seemed to require additional tweaking to the one bar tempo changes.

This is such a common musical technique that I figure some of you might have more elegant ways of handling it. I’d be grateful for any thoughts you might have.

Thanks,

Chris

2

I keep the tempo low to where it’s settled after the ralll. for the breath, and then bring it to the proper tempo for the pickup leading into the next bar. That’s just me though.

3

Thanks, man. It’s good to learn how others do this sort of thing.