Tempo Mapping for screen composers? How do YOU do it?

Cubase
1

I’m hoping someone can help me with this issue I continually have with Cubase Pro 10.

It’s essential for me in my scoring work to be able to freely change the tempo of a given section in my session, in order to be able to satisfy revision requests from my clients. I can’t seem to ever be able to change the tempo of a given section without completely messing up the syncing of anything that comes after it in the session. It really does put a strain on my ability to create the music I want and within a timely manner.

For example: I’ve included these three print screens to explain the issue. The first “Normal” print screen is how my session is currently, The second is an example of me changing the tempo, and you’ll see the when it’s in musical mode, everything stays in the same place except the picture, so it forces me to to go through the painful process of trying to re-allign everything and resetting a new tempo for every cue after.

The third photo is an example of when it’s in time based mode, where now all of my midi data seems to stay in the same place, but my audio and the attached video moves out of sync, again forcing me to try to re-sync everything.

Is there a solution for this? Surely Cubase gives composers the ability to freely change tempos and I’m just missing a step here?

Thanks so much!

Time Based .png
Time Based .png804×682 64.2 KB

Musical Mode .png
Musical Mode .png798×672 70 KB

Normal .png
Normal .png842×684 64.7 KB

2

Here’s a clue…


Time Warp/Warp Grid, (musical events follow)

3

What exactly are you saying?

My solution is use track versions for individual cues,with each cue having it’s own track version(s). I keep the Tempo track and audio/midi tracks in sync using the commands ‘Assign Common Version ID’, and ‘Select Tracks with same Version ID’. Pretty nifty, though probably not the intended use.

This allows me to have many cues on the same timeline, though only one is visible at a given time. When I consider the cue done, I render to to a track I name “Rendered Cues” :wink: with the same time settings as the video track.

Nuendo has a reconform feature for when edits come back to you from the director, by the way.

4

Steve: I didnt even look to see he was using multiple video clips! Ignore previous post.

Track versions ID selection is very useful. But if you have separate video clips the following clip will not and cannot be locked to a bar line (or fixed point) if you make tempo changes before it.

5

Did you understand my ‘method’?

6

Hi Steve, yes i understand the use of track versions and IDs.

I am overthinking this though? Maybe my brain has had enough today!

7

ckon, could you explain in more detail regarding this? I’m also quite frustrated and am having the same problem as the OP.
Any further help on this would be much greatly appreciated!

8

Ok I think I know what ckon meant with the Time Warp/Warp Grid (musical events follow). But there still has to be quite alot of fiddling with the tempo in between 2 cues in order to maintain the rest of the cues in sync with the video.

In other words, let’s say with have 10 cues to a video.

cue no. 5 needs to change tempo, hence screwing up sync with the video from cue 6 onwards all the way to 10.

Even with Time Warp (musical events follow), I still have to adjust the tempo IN BETWEEN cue 5 and cue 6, just in order to get cues 6 to 10 synced up to the video.

This is really quite troublesome. Is there anyway Steinberg could make situations like this easier?

9

After some research and testing, I think I’ve found the closest way to be able to solve the re-syncing issue.

You’ll need a marker track. However, by default in Cubase, markers are set to musical mode. You need to set the marker track to time linear mode. This is very important.

The time-toggle switch for the marker track is also hidden by default in Cubase (Steinberg, WTF!). You will need to right click on the marker track, and go to “Track Control Settings”. In there, enable “Toggle Time Base”. You should now be able to see the switch toggle on your marker track now.

According to your movie, place markers where you deem necessary, be it a start or a change in scene, or any dramatic moment where a hit-sync is absolutely vital. The usual spotting session kinda thing. The markers should be set at exactly the starting bar of your cues at the points in the movie you deem necessary. Ideally. Again, make sure your marker track is in time linear mode, NOT musical mode.

So now, whenever you make changes in tempo to any particular cue, you will see the marker on the next cue (the one that follows the current cue which tempo changes you’re making) slide left or right, along with the movie itself, depending on what tempo changes you’ve made to the current cue - throwing every cue thereafter, off sync with the video. Which is what sucks.

Now, using Time Warp (musical events follow), drag the starting bar of your next cue to where its marker has slid. In the Snap function, choose “Events”.
Now, you will be able to drag the starting bar of your next cue to SNAP to it’s marker, where it has slid off previously, due to your tempo changes in your current cue.

And there you are, your next cue (and all the entire rest of the cues thereafter) should start in sync as intended, after you have made tempo changes to your current cue.

11

I’m not sure all that work is necessary.

12

Hi Steve,

Are you suggesting having multiple cues in one Cubase session?

13

yes
.