Keeping Marker Track Aligned when Time Stretching

I am using Cubase as a tool to learn and practice drum parts. My current process is that I import a wav audio file of the song, use Tempo Detection, set the time signature, and then use a Marker Track to mark off the various song sections (intro/verse/chorus/breakdown etc.). This makes it easy to find and loop various parts to practice with.

The problem comes when I want to slow the song down to practice at a slower speed. I use the Time Stretch function to slow down the song and then re-use Temp Detection so that my bars markers still align with the song sections (ie the song is the same number of bars long just a slower tempo now). No matter what I do I cannot get my Marker Track sections to ‘follow’ the stretched audio. I have tried all combinations of toggling Musical/Linear mode on the Marker Track at both the Time Stretch and the Tempo Detection steps.

I feel like I must be missing something very obvious here. . .

Basically what I want is for the “Verse 1” maker to always start at bar 11 no matter what temp I change the song to.

Before time stretching:

After time stretching and re-doing tempo detection:

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Hard to tell for sure since you don’t show the Marker Track’s header - but it looks like your Marker Track is set to use Linear Timebase (minutes & seconds) instead of Musical Timebase (Bars & Beats). Make sure to enable Musical Timebase on the Marker Track. If you don’t see the control you may need to make it visible.

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Also you don’t need to do the Tempo Detection multiple times. After you’ve done the initial detection and have it set how you like, make sure that the Tempo settings in both the Transport & on the Audio file in the Pool are all the same value. After doing that, in the Pool set the check mark on the Audio file to Musical Mode. Now the audio file will stretch & shrink on its own when you change the Tempo on the Transport.

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Thanks for the detailed reply! So far I’ve only attempted the second part of your answer (not having to tempo detect a second time) as I’m still stumped there and I assume my marker problem is related to my inability to make this part work.

I have Musical mode set everywhere and the tempo in the pool set to the approximate average tempo of the song (The original song was not locked to a grid so the tempo varies slightly throughout the song).

However, when I apply Time Stretch the bars still do not follow the song (ie I expect the song to be 121 bars long no matter what the tempo is).

One other thing I’ve noticed is I can’t actually get Audio → Processes → Time Stretch to select the song when it set to Musical mode in the pool. I need to trick it but turning off Musical mode, selecting the song, selecting Time Stretch and then turning musical mode back on.

I have also tried stretching by sampling dragging the clip using “Sizing Applies Time Stretch” with the same result.

Once you’re done with your initial Tempo Detection and have set the Audio File to Musical Mode don’t use Time Stretch to speed up or slow down the Audio. You just need to change the Tempo in the Project. You could either disable the Tempo Track so it uses the fixed value in the Transport. Or leave the Tempo Track enabled and Select all (or only some) of the Tempo Data Points and move them up or down to adjust the Tempo.

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Amazing. Thank you so much I think you’ve saved my future self about a billion hours! I’m able to adjust the tempo easily and both the bars and markers both stay aligned.