Recording Without Tempo

[Rick Cornish]

Hey folks........
I'm recording some guitar music and a lot of it is rubato/free rhythm. When I have a tune where part is in tempo and part is not, is there a way to record the rubato parts *without* tempo reference?

When editing, things can get mucked-up in a hurry when rubato passages run over tempo changes on the conductor track.

After the fact, I know I can go to Audio->Soundbite Tempo->Clear Soundbite Tempo, but I'm not sure that will even have the effect I'm looking for (haven't had a chance to try it). I'm wondering if there's a way to turn off tempo into when recording.

Thoughts?

[bayswater]

I posted a similar question a few months back. The only thing it appears we can do is measure the time (in seconds, etc) taken by the rubato passage and set an arbitrary tempo that results in taking a specific number of beats. So for example, if it is 10 seconds long, and you’re in 4/4 time, put in a tempo that makes it last 10 bars, or maybe 5 bars. Insert that tempo at the start of the rubato passage, and the insert the proper tempo at the the end of it.

The other thing that came up was to have separate sequences for the rubato passages, but that seemed to complicated.

[Rick Cornish]

The other thing that came up was to have separate sequences for the rubato passages, but that seemed to complicated.

Thanks, bayswater… I ended up doing just that. Otherwise, I just set tempo at 120 for the rubato sections, so at least it's an even division of time.

[HCMarkus]

You could record the rubato sections on separate tracks and lock those tracks... might get you at least part of the way there. I've done this when working to picture, where I needed to insert a section at tempo within an existing rubato piece and wanted to retain the timings of the rubato intro and outtro. I locked the intro/outtro tracks, then was free to mess with tempo between these segments without affecting them.

[bayswater]

You could record the rubato sections on separate tracks and lock those tracks... might get you at least part of the way there. I've done this when working to picture, where I needed to insert a section at tempo within an existing rubato piece and wanted to retain the timings of the rubato intro and outtro. I locked the intro/outtro tracks, then was free to mess with tempo between these segments without affecting them.

A more elegant solution. If I do this again, it's what I'll do, instead of my quick ugly workaround.