how to work with tempo detection on complex material ?

Cubase
1

Hi.
in some material cubase’s “tempo detection” function only finds a part of the tempo and then its out of tempo,or popup a massage that it cant detect any further.
whats the best practice to continue with tempo detection in those situations ?
can i “tempo detection” parts of the audio material?
how you guys deal with it ?
(i missed Greg ondo’s Hangout yesterday to ask this question)

2

is your audio files set to musical mode in pool ?

also go to audio / advanced > set definition to tempo

is your tempo track visible and ticked in transport ?

3

nop to all.
i have music files with no tempo definition to it.that’s the all idea

let say i have stereo track of a band recorded live with no metronome,that track(music performance) of course is not perfectly on stable BPM,and its also has some tempo and time signature changes by arrangement design.

now when i apply cubases “tempo detection” it detects some of the beginning of the track right and the rest it can’t calculate right or at all… how can i go from there and analyze and make the tempo to match all the track.
i know i can use the time wrap,or completely other method but that’s another topic

usually in steinberg(and other) tutorials the detection finds all song tempo perfectly… well it’s not the scenario on lot of material unless its kind of “very simple performance” bpm wise

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHW-7klEwLU

Edit: here i found steinbergs tutorial in portuguese (which i don’t understand :nerd: ) . but it’s clear that after bar 110 in the video, tempo detection couldn’t analyze the tempo…
well the instructor just didn’t touch this aspect(problem) unfortunately :unamused:

4

Ok… a google search found this article The Tempo Trap

i didn’t know that its possible to cut an event and analyzed it by itself… so probably the best results will be to use tempo detection in cute events(when needed) and in more complex cases also use the time wrap
cheers :slight_smile:

5

An alternative is to tap the beat and record it as a midi track. Then you can use that track to set the tempo track (OPs manual 912).

6

Thanks… I know about it… Useful when tempo detection cant detect correctly

7

…and it’s the way I always go too. I’d be surprised if there’s a better/quicker automatic way if the standard beat detection doesn’t work.

8

I’ve never really had anything usable from auto tempo detection, and so I always use Time Warp.

Using this tool I can set the whole song tempo in real time. I stretch the project window over 2 monitors, then while playing I quickly using the F key to drop in and out of Follow mode (continuous screen scrolling) and while stationary I move the barline that’s 2 bars in advance of the play cursor to the correct place. Once you get into the swing of it its possible to work in real time as the project plays through. Works best if there’s a strong visual indication obviously, e.g. a kick drum. More difficult if its a fast song or there’s just a smooth waveform like pads, so then I would have to rewind a few times.

But given that I can do this normally within the time it takes to play the song twice I’ve long since given up using auto detection or any other method because it usually takes more time to tidy up the bits it gets wrong :slight_smile:

Mike.

9

I’ve had great results from most attempts so far but I have taken a few extra steps to figure out what Cubase likes.

One of the things I’ve tried with hoplessly mushy old cassette tapes and old sketches was I imported the audio file into Cubase, created a Track and then made a copy of it. I used audio processing EQ to find some low thuds most often kick drums and some rhythmic treble noises and the rest I squeezed down to almost inaudible. Then I used the tempo detection tool on that horrible sounding track and in an overwhelming majority of cases it worked! Now I had a Tempo Track so I could delete the EQed Track and listen to the Metronome and the original sound file!

And I should note that I’ve also used Tempo Detection on just guitar sketches without problem whatsoever. Even funny time signatures are doable since the result is always in the somewhat suspicious time signature of 1/4. :astonished: Does’t matter to too much. I can adjust that afterwards. :sunglasses:

10

Yeah you see them loitering around outside the studio, claiming they can jam with anybody, begging to be given a chance. And if you relent and let them play, it’s just the same old bam, bam, bam, bam over and over. From what I can tell, none of the proper signatures will give them the time of day.

11

Yeah! Exactly … bam, bam, bam, bam ???
Bam! What is it good for! Absolutley nothing! :imp:

12

in some material cubase’s “tempo detection” function only finds a part of the tempo and then its out of tempo,or popup a massage that it cant detect any further.
whats the best practice to continue with tempo detection in those situations ?

While the Tempo Detection window is still open, you can click where the next beat should be and Cubase will try to complete the tempo track.
Just keep the Tempo Detection window open until you’re done.

13

Thank… I posted the same question on greg ondo YouTube channel(ClubCubase) and he answered the same thing… Mybe he will cover this on next Google hangout…
Good video from sonic state… Thanks

14

Great video but it starts at t=1021 and there’s a lot of good stuff in the first 17 minutes as well so whether the time offset is intentional or not is irrelevant. I’d say just restart and watch the whole thing! :sunglasses: