Averaging Conductor track tempo over range

[yoonchul]

Hello - I was just wondering if there was an easy (or any) way to average out conductor track changes over a range of measures to a single tempo for that range. In my particular situation it is easier for me to work with a constant tempo.

I do sample based compositions and I usually lay the foundation of the song in the form of a loop consisting of one or more samples. This usually lasts for 4 - 8 - 16 bars or so and is the basis for the song's tempo. What I do is I chop up samples and manually play them until I get one loop where the samples are triggered where I want, not playing to a click or input quantizing. I select just those MIDI notes and delete the rest and throw them to the beginning of the composition. What I do next is lock the track then either adjust beats or record beats then adjust beats so that it loops cleanly after a set number of bars. This leaves me with a bunch of changes in the conductor track, jumping around a couple of bpm here and there. What I would like to do is select the time range of the loop and somehow average out those tempos to just one single tempo. I know that when I have an audio loop and I set the sequence tempo to the soundfile tempo DP gives me the option of either setting a tempo map on the conductor track or using the average tempo with the tempo slider. I'd rather not have to bounce my MIDI down to audio to get this tempo but that is what I am doing now. Can anyone tell me if DP has this functionality and point me in the right direction in the manual? I'm on DP5.13 but ordered the upgrade yesterday.

[carrythebanner]

After doing this:

I do sample based compositions and I usually lay the foundation of the song in the form of a loop consisting of one or more samples. This usually lasts for 4 - 8 - 16 bars or so and is the basis for the song's tempo. What I do is I chop up samples and manually play them until I get one loop where the samples are triggered where I want, not playing to a click or input quantizing. I select just those MIDI notes and delete the rest and throw them to the beginning of the composition.

... try this:

- Lock the track(s)
- Select from the beginning of the beat until the end
- Look at the end time of the selection in measures; enter that value in the Control Panel counter. Set the second counter to frames.
- Open Project > Modify Conductor Track > Change Tempo.
- Choose a flat curve, and set the End Time in measures to 5|1|000 (or 9|1|000, 17|1|000, ... whatever you want the downbeat to be directly following your selection)
- Hit the Options button until the End Time in frames is the editable field
- Enter the value from the second counter here.
- Press OK.

Maybe this isn't exactly how you want to approach it, but I'd encourage you to check out the Change Tempo chapter in the manual to get an idea of the kinds of things you can do with that dialog.

[Dwetmaster]

A nice thing to do with DP6 is that you can use the event information window for that:
You enter an approximated tempo.
You zoom in on your last beat
Select the tempo event and it should appear in the event information window.
Using your scroll wheel you can scroll over the tempo value and see everything updated in real time.

Handy for fine tuning. You can find steady tempo pop song within seconds using this method.


P.S.
I know you're still on DP5 but that will give you something to look forward to in DP6.

[Shooshie]

Hello - I was just wondering if there was an easy (or any) way to average out conductor track changes over a range of measures to a single tempo for that range. In my particular situation it is easier for me to work with a constant tempo.

I do sample based compositions and I usually lay the foundation of the song in the form of a loop consisting of one or more samples. This usually lasts for 4 - 8 - 16 bars or so and is the basis for the song's tempo. What I do is I chop up samples and manually play them until I get one loop where the samples are triggered where I want, not playing to a click or input quantizing. I select just those MIDI notes and delete the rest and throw them to the beginning of the composition. What I do next is lock the track then either adjust beats or record beats then adjust beats so that it loops cleanly after a set number of bars. This leaves me with a bunch of changes in the conductor track, jumping around a couple of bpm here and there. What I would like to do is select the time range of the loop and somehow average out those tempos to just one single tempo. I know that when I have an audio loop and I set the sequence tempo to the soundfile tempo DP gives me the option of either setting a tempo map on the conductor track or using the average tempo with the tempo slider. I'd rather not have to bounce my MIDI down to audio to get this tempo but that is what I am doing now. Can anyone tell me if DP has this functionality and point me in the right direction in the manual? I'm on DP5.13 but ordered the upgrade yesterday.

In the Conductor Track:
• The quickest and easiest way to flatten the tempo is simply to select all but the first tempo marker and delete.

• If you want to retain some of the character of the tempo changes, but much less pronounced, you can double click a marker to select them all, then CONTROL-DRAG them downward to proportionately reduce the tempos. They will converge on 0. When you think you've compressed the curves out of them quite enough, release, then drag back up to the desired tempo without the control key. The Shift Key will be needed in both cases to prevent lateral movement and constrain the drags to simple up and down. When you release the markers at the desired tempo, you'll find that they still change slightly with the tempo changes originally present, but that you've compressed the curves so that the change is a fraction of the original changes. That's more a true "average" than simply a flat tempo. The whole operation takes less time than opening the Change Tempo dialog. I'm talking about 3 or 4 seconds to do it all.

Shooshie

[yoonchul]

Thank you carrythebanner! That was exactly what I needed. I have to admit I dismissed the change tempo dialog because when I looked at the chapter it looked like it was more for steady tempo changes, and plus I didn't know it would generate the tempo info for me. I didn't see "The Constant Curve" paragraph either which to me sounds like an oxymoron...

Thanks dwetmaster for your advice as well. From what I can gather from other posts on other topics as well, the event information window might be the biggest thing for me from the DP6 upgrade which I didn't even know about before upgrading. I gather it isn't the flashiest thing for motu to promote I look forward to seeing how it improves my workflow. I was hoping for a tracking number by now but maybe they are taking this week off.