How would you fix this MIDI/tempo track timing problem?

Cubase
1

Hi - for some reason my tempo track had wild and crazy variations in it (i.e., wasn’t anywhere close to one tempo) when I recorded a piano intro there. One of my plugs required a flat tempo, and trying to flatten the tempo track caused me a world of hurt. As a matter of fact I gave up, and rerecorded after setting the tempo to the right value (and playing along with a drum VSTi as a guide).

But I’m sure it’s going to happen again, so I thought I’d ask for some advice please.

What I first tried to do was just erase all the tempo changes (in the MIDI editor that shows the tempo values in yellow at the top, sorry I don’t remember the name, it’s the one that turns the ruler brown). This of course didn’t work, the MIDI played back with timing all wrong.

Then (after erasing all the values, and setting an initial tempo value equal to the tempo of the music when played correctly ) I applied time warp. I felt sure this would work, but it didn’t! The music played back very out of time, I don’t know why. :frowning: .

Though I’d be interested in knowing why that didn’t work, really I just want to know how I can back out of that problem if (when) it happens again.

Thanks for any thoughts!

2

How did those tempo variations get into your Project in the first place?

3

I think I had a different intro at one point which I Time Warped, but TBH, I’m not entirely sure.

4

… and you ended up with several tempo changes? :confused:

5

Yes.

6

Hi - thought I’d bump this up for any other possible suggestions, thank you!

7

I think a way to do this might be:

  1. Open the project with weird tempo values in Cubase 8.5.20*.
  2. Apply Tempo detect. Then Close the project.
  3. Open Cubase 9, navigate to the project in Cubase 8.5.20, then open it in Cubase 9. Now it plays correctly, with normal tempo values.

I tried this on one project, and it seemed to work.

*I wrote Cubase 8.5.20 because as of the time of this typing, Cubase 9.0.10 tempo detect seems to be broken (it’s on the bug list). When it’s fixed, presumably it will all be able to be done in Cubase 9.

8

Another solution would be (I believe based on something else I do that is similar) to put the MIDI track in Linear Timebase, then flatten the tempo points or otherwise manipulate ad lib.

Then after putting the MIDI track back into Musical Timebase, it should be just fine - the weird tempo points that were left over from another project are gone, and are replaced with the desired ones.

[EDIT: Nope, this doesn’t work - all the tempo points after the manipulated ones are off with respect the music played.]