I have a four-beat measure. Currently, the last beat of this measure is on a triplet grid, and the instruments play according to triplets in that last beat.
I’d like to extend the last beat of the measure to accommodate four notes played, each at the same triplet timing and rhythm as the triplets currently being played. This will lengthen the amount of time it takes to play the fourth beat of the measure compared to it’s current time duration, by the amount of time it takes to play one more note “with triplet timing” .
“Graphically”:
Current last measure: 1-And | 2-And | 3-And | 4-eeh-And *
*This fourth beat is a triplet
** This fourth beat has four notes , but each note is played with the same timing as the triplet is played in the “Current last measure”.
.
Can someone help me get this done please?
What hasn’t worked well for me is to:
Break out the first beat into a measure with a time sig of 1/4
use the Time Warp/Warp Grid (Musical Events Follow) to lengthen that beat (after using it to lock the left bar line down), which of course makes that one beat at a slower tempo
Add a fourth note in that beat on a triplet grid
I thought this would work, but I keeping getting messed up results somehow, and it is so convoluted that I’m pretty sure some of the gurus here will be able to show me a much simpler wayto do this.
Side note:
I once saw a documentary on Sting and the off-speaker was clearly impressed by Sting’s complex rhythmic arrangements. Later on, she explained that Sting also used 8/9 as a time signature… interesting, I had no idea…
If someone were able to help me a bit more with the hands-on, nitty-gritty details, I’d greatly appreciate it please
Should I split the fourth beat out into its own measure, or just keep everything together?
Do I need to use TimeWarp at all (since the amount of time the measure takes to play is greater when I add the extra beat)?
My counting skills in terms of sigs isn’t good enough, I’m afraid. What time sig should I try?
I couldn’t find a youtube that shows how to add one beat at the end of a measure, that would have been sweet. I can play what I want, I just don’t know how to communicate with Cubase in terms of time sigs, etc.
Thank you, @Googly_Shakespeare ! Extending the part is a piece i was missing, makes loads of sense now that you describe it.
The only things I an still not understanding are:
In step 1, I can’t figure out how long to extend the new part for "the amount of beats you want to add" - I don’t understand how long I would extend it for “one beat of a triplet”.
In step five: what should the time sig for the new part be, when the new measure is one beat of a triplet added to a standard 4/4 bar?
Why they can’t figure out once and for all whether that universe will continue to expand or whether it will ultimately start contracting again?
Offhand - I weep, because even if Cubase can deal with the above changes (?), I’d bet even money EZDrummer and EZBass won’t be able to. I’d be happy enough to deal with the problem though a long as I can get Cubase to do it!
This depends on what is it a “triplet” of? Quarter notes? Eighth notes?
If a bar is in 4/4, then I would use 13/8, which is 4 (beats) x 3 (triplets) + 1 (the extra triplet).
In this example I’d set the quantise to 4T, zoom in on the Part, and just drag it larger.
If I have time I’ll do a short video…
edit
I took so long composing this post that you posted something before I could finish it. I’ll leave it here for a while.
First of all, sorry for my silly 8/9 comment - kind of derailed the topic…
Since this is highly unusual what you are doing here I would take a more practical approach:
Insert one bar with 1/4 as time signature at the end (or simply change the bar behind your 4/4 to 1/4). Add a tempo track and multiply the current tempo by 3 and set this as your tempo for the 1/4 bar. Afterwards, go back to your previous tempo. That should work, I haven’t tested it though.
Yes, it’s daft (daffy too? ), because it’s something so easy to play live - just hit another “triplet note” and move on!
I really appreciate your taking the time to look at this.
For anyone else who might be able to help, here’s what i think is my best attempt to describe what I’m trying to program in Cubase (and ultimately EZDrummer and EZBass, ha ha):
What would the time sig be of a 5/4 measure that ends with the last two beats being played in triplets, if it is modified by:
Truncating the last two notes of the second triplet, and then
Starting the next measure at the time the first truncated triplet note would have started?
Just to clarify, the resulting measure would take “slightly longer” time to play than a 4/4 measure.
Conlon Nancarrow had his canon ratios composed of irrational numbers like e:pi. Those canons can be only played on player pianos because computers cannot represent irrational units of time correctly.
Yeah, there are all sort of things out there!
However, in this case, 8/9 was a simple slip that nobody noticed (which made it all the more hilarious in that context).
You two guys @Reco29 and @Googly_Shakespeare are awesome, thank you! How do I give a “Solution” to each of you??
@Reco29 's 13/8 approach is ideal from the point of view that it’s relatively trivial to implement, just requiring editing the time sig of the existing 4/4 measure in the project. Working that way doesn’t require inserting silence into my Cubase project, or any of the subsequent required steps - each of them potentially introducing a problem if not done precisely (I hate to admit it, but user error is not unknown here at “alexis studios”, ha!).
On the other hand, adding a measure of 1/8 to a 4/4 measure as Mr. @Googly_Shakespeare suggested (see attachment, a preliminary sketch which is
the kind work of Mr. Progger over at Gearspace) might be the only one that works in EZDrummer and EZBass - I’m not so sure they have 13/8 time available. If those two apps can’t handle Cubase’s 13/8 time then the bar counts will not be the same in all three apps from that point on - not a death blow to the project, but a real pain in the arrears.
I’m ecstatic to get to Cubase (and those other two apps) to see what works best. Thank you so much again!
!
interesting, I had no idea…
