Hi folks
Just wondering if anyone has any bright ideas for conforming a free-time (no click) drum take (which was performed fairly steadily) to an average specific tempo?
Would you:
Thanks!
What is an “average specific” tempo…?
Is it average, or specific…?
You need to use the tempo detection tool for audio, not the beat calculator as that is for MIDI.
1: line up the first down beat (kick…e.tc)
2:auto tempo detection
3: possibly split segments of the audio
I think that will pretty much pick it up provided that there are enough clear transients in the recording.
maybe look at normalizing the file to around -4/-3 dB and should help raise the levels, you can always undo this once the tempo detection has been finished .
hope this helps mate.
The beat calculator is neither for MIDI nor for audio - it is a tool for general tempo determination.
Thanks i will try that but still unsure how between steps 2 and 3 it gets ‘straightened out’?
It is multitrack so i can boost just the kick transients if i need. It was a good take… just needs a bit of order to it!
oh and by “average specific” i meant ‘judge’ the average bpm from the detect tempo function and conform the whole track to that chosen bpm
Thanks for your ideas
If the track has any feel or groove to it, you’re going to destroy it by chopping it up and attempting to “correct” it.
If it’s good enough to use as the basis of the song, leave it alone. Play everything else to fit it. Construct a MIDI tempo mapto it if you must, or just forget about step-time, quantising and other un-muisical techniques!
if it isn’t steady enough, get the player to do it again, better. Preferably at the same time you record the rest of the band.
+1
I have no access to the drummer - it was 6 years ago! It was the end of a session and we had all the mics and console ready to go so we just hit record and let him play without click.
to be honest it’s not got the best groove to it anyway but all the patterns are there and i’d rather have a straight version (even without much feeling) than nothing at all. I want to replace all the sounds anyway with sequenced drums but i’d like it on the grid first, of course.
This is IMO best done manually.
Tempo map the kick, snares and toms using the timewarp tool
Once you have the grid following the drums, select all the drums and use the Set Definition From Tempo command.
Then delete the tempo track points, make sure the original tempo is set to the correct BPM and any intentional tempo changes are plotted back in.
The drum tracks will now conform to the fixed grid.
Bounce Audio for all the drum tracks (32fp set in project setup!)
Switch all tracks back to linear mode and in the pool switch musical mode off on the drum tracks.
Job done 