MIDI beat mapping

[foorere]

Hi.
I have recording of a free MIDI improvisation.
Because I recorded an improvisation (very rubato) without the tempo click, I want to keep my existing music (in the term of aural speed, and time) but I want to map tempo and beats to some notes so that the music becomes quantizated.

Important: I don't want to quantize notes to the existing beats, but the opposite.

Is there any tool so that I can pick a MIDI note and choose "move beat here"? Or: "drag this beat to this note"?

The tempo would change constantly of course, but the MIDI export to Finale (notation) would be much better.

If there is any tutorial already, or give me a hint, or point to the manual. Or - how would you do?

thanks.

[bayswater]

DP can develop very detailed tempo maps from freely recorded audio or MIDI. There is a lot in the manual covering this. E.g., in the Region menu there is a command "Set Sequence Tempo From MIDI". Looks simple, but read up on it from the manual carefully first. Remember to lock the MIDI track so it remains fixed in real time. I have sometimes found this to do unpredictable things, and in that case, I've recorded a simple audio track by sending the MIDI to a drum VI, and then using the audio to general a tempo track. Adjust Beats would the manual section to look at to learn about this. Also look up "Beat Detection Engine".

[Shooshie]

DP has always done this extremely well. I don't know how all DAWs do this, but I've used Logic's, which people raved about, and I was utterly unimpressed. DP's is far better. There are techniques that make it easier and more accurate if you take the time to use them.

I think the first video I ever posted about DP was a tutorial on moving beats. It really needs to be redone, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. The audio may drift when streaming, making it a little challenging to follow exactly what's going on, but you may also be able to download it and make it work correctly. It always worked fine until streaming online.

Using Adjust Beats in Digital Performer (16 minute video)

This is an old, old copy of DP. The techniques are basically the same, but some things may be in slightly different places. I may move slowly in the video, as I'm trying to be clear about what I'm doing, but in reality I move very quickly. It's just hard to do that and be clear for a video, so I kept the pace very slow to give you time to follow the cursor and figure out what's happening.

The most important "trick" I use when adjusting beats is to line up the edit window in which I'm working with the tempo track, so that the tempo changes are readily visible when you move a beat. There's no precise rule for how to go about this. It's a bit of an art. You can imagine the finished product, with an orchestral arrangement which you are going to add later, and then you have a better idea of what to do. You'll see what I'm talking about in the video.

Shooshie

[bayswater]

DP has always done this extremely well. I don't know how all DAWs do this, but I've used Logic's, which people raved about, and I was utterly unimpressed. DP's is far better.

I would have agreed a year ago. Logic has improved in this area with the recent updates. It's beat detection is pretty much the same, the interface is easy to work with, and beat mapping flexible. You can expect to get the same results with the same effort. The Logic documentation is not that helpful.

The MOTU video on audio tempo is very good, and shows all you need to know. It has five parts starting here: https://vimeo.com/81413661. The later videos deal with using beats to establish a tempo map.

[Shooshie]

DP has always done this extremely well. I don't know how all DAWs do this, but I've used Logic's, which people raved about, and I was utterly unimpressed. DP's is far better.

I would have agreed a year ago. Logic has improved in this area with the recent updates. It's beat detection is pretty much the same, the interface is easy to work with, and beat mapping flexible. You can expect to get the same results with the same effort.

That's good news for Logic users. It was really not very good before.

[foorere]

Using Adjust Beats in Digital Performer (16 minute video)

This is an old, old copy of DP. The techniques are basically the same, but some things may be in slightly different places.

Thanks!
It worked well, but...
First I didn't manage to get this "snapping" editor. Thank I played around to see how to activate and - I got it.
I opened another document for testing. Now I cannot get it again. I can't get the snapping cursor. Do I need any shortcut/command to press, or to activate a tool?

[foorere]

I got it back!
I need to keep open the little window (Adjust beats) in order to activate that function.
Great!!

[bayswater]

I got it back!
I need to keep open the little window (Adjust beats) in order to activate that function.
Great!!

Yes, you need to keep it open. It says that right in the instructions. It's important to read and follow these carefully -- it's not particularly intuitive the first few times through.

[bkshepard]

I'm working with a pre-recorded track that not only has rubato, but several fermatas. I've tried recording a click track that exactly follows the beats in the recording and using the "Set Sequence Tempo from MIDI" command, but DP doesn't seem to like the long gap between MIDI notes when there is a fermata, and keeps filling in the gap with tempo points. I've also tried recording the click track and using the "set sequence to soundbite tempo" command, but have the same problem. If I try to just adjust the beats in the conductor track, there are often 4 or 5 beats shown in the fermatas and that screws everything up when I try to move the beat line to the proper location. Any suggestions for getting DP to understand that those long gaps really are only one beat? Thanks!

[bayswater]

I'm working with a pre-recorded track that not only has rubato, but several fermatas. I've tried recording a click track that exactly follows the beats in the recording and using the "Set Sequence Tempo from MIDI" command, but DP doesn't seem to like the long gap between MIDI notes when there is a fermata, and keeps filling in the gap with tempo points. I've also tried recording the click track and using the "set sequence to soundbite tempo" command, but have the same problem. If I try to just adjust the beats in the conductor track, there are often 4 or 5 beats shown in the fermatas and that screws everything up when I try to move the beat line to the proper location. Any suggestions for getting DP to understand that those long gaps really are only one beat? Thanks!

I have a similar situation. I have a series of short phrases played freely, but not entirely randomly, with a pause at the end of each, and then the rest of the sequence has a specific tempo. To deal with it, I've put each phrase in a separate track and define the tempo for each section to approximate the pace of the notes in that section. I've then dragged the notes for each phrase to a position that makes the end of the pause line up with the first beat of the next phrase where the tempo changes. This works, but gets complicated when I have to add or remove bars to get the length of the pauses where I want them. I've only used the above tempo mapping approach for the last part of the song because the earlier phrases are not going to fit any specific tempo anyway.

Hope someone can suggest something better.

[terrybritton]

Just in case you hadn't seen these videos, they might clear up some things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocp4ftA ... ic-K0z6bEz



and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-nZguL ... ic-K0z6bEz



Terry

[bkshepard]

Yeah, I've seen these videos. What I'm trying to do, though, is the opposite. I don't want to quantize my pre-recorded audio. I want to maintain the free nature of the tempo and have my sequence line up with it. I can get it to work if there isn't too much deviation in the tempo, but DP seems to not like the rubato and fermatas in this recording. Oh well, thanks anyway. I ended up just adjusting every beat in the conductor track. A lot of extra work, but now it's perfectly in sync.

[terrybritton]

Brian,

Ah - good to hear. I would have done the exact same thing as you did - meticulously going through and wiggling each spot! (I know this, because it is what I always do - a little obsessive compulsive sometimes, but in a good way, I think!)

I THOUGHT one of those videos showed the same kind of method, but that might have been a different one.

Terry

[terrybritton]

Indeed, I was thinking of a different series of MOTU TV videos. It is a series of 5 videos, actually, and were really terrific! Here they are:











I know you've solved your problem already, Brian, but there you go for posterity's sake!

Terry

[bkshepard]

Thanks, Terry. I'm familiar with those videos as well and they are really useful. Unfortunately, in my situation, just analyzing the tempo was a problem for DP due to all the rubato and the fermatas in the pre-recorded track.