Creating a tempo map

Discussion in 'alt.steinberg.cubase' started by Cyberserf, Feb 12, 2010.

  1. Cyberserf Guest

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    Problem:
    OK so you have a bunch of stems and you want to find the tempo of the
    recording (without tapping your keyboard).

    Pro Tools lets you do this by cutting a bar (usually drums) and
    placing it at the zero point on a new track. It then has a tempo
    marker which you place at the end of the clip. Presto magic, the tempo
    of the song is displayed on the transport and you can set your grid to
    match..

    How do I do this in Cubase? Do I have to tap tempo the whole song to
    make a tempo map? Is there no way for me to assess it's relative tempo
    and then force the beats to match or drift as I see fit?

    Thanks, CS
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  2. Phil W Guest

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    Cyberserf:

    > Problem:
    > OK so you have a bunch of stems and you want to find the tempo of the
    > recording (without tapping your keyboard).
    >
    > Pro Tools lets you do this by cutting a bar (usually drums) and
    > placing it at the zero point on a new track. It then has a tempo
    > marker which you place at the end of the clip. Presto magic, the tempo
    > of the song is displayed on the transport and you can set your grid to
    > match..
    >
    > How do I do this in Cubase? Do I have to tap tempo the whole song to
    > make a tempo map? Is there no way for me to assess it's relative tempo
    > and then force the beats to match or drift as I see fit?


    I think, what you´re looking for is called "Hit points" in Cubase, not
    "tempo map". Look it up in the manual for further info, how it works...
    I have tried to use it a few times, but didn´t really get to the point,
    where I wanted to - probably cause I´m not a real MIDI guy.
    Anyway, a friend saw a studio guy use hit points to detect a noticeably
    unprecisely drum kit played live and then the MIDI timing (for various VSTi)
    was adapted to the timing of the real drum kit.
    How this is done exactly, I don´t know! But it was obviously possible in SX3
    already!

    If you can "slice" audio to stretch/trim it timewise, is also beyond my
    experience. It is possible with C5, but I´m not sure about previous
    versions.


    Hope that helps at least a litte,

    Phil
  3. Jos Geluk Guest

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    Op 12-2-2010 13:55, Cyberserf schreef:
    >
    > Problem:
    > OK so you have a bunch of stems and you want to find the tempo of the
    > recording (without tapping your keyboard).
    >
    > Pro Tools lets you do this by cutting a bar (usually drums) and
    > placing it at the zero point on a new track. It then has a tempo
    > marker which you place at the end of the clip. Presto magic, the tempo
    > of the song is displayed on the transport and you can set your grid to
    > match..
    >
    > How do I do this in Cubase? Do I have to tap tempo the whole song to
    > make a tempo map? Is there no way for me to assess it's relative tempo
    > and then force the beats to match or drift as I see fit?


    You want to use the Time Warp function.
    Open the audio clip in the audio editor. Place the "S" line on the left
    at the point where the clip starts. (If you can't see the S-line you
    need to toggle "Show audio event").
    Now go back to the project and drag the clip a little bit so that it
    "snaps" to a bar line, let's say Bar 2. (supposing "snap" is on, "snap
    type" is grid, and "grid type" is bar).

    Go back to the audio editor. You will notice that the S-line now falls
    on bar line 2. Now turn on Time Warp. Shift-click on the S-line. Drag
    the appropriate bar line to the end of the clip, i.e. if the clip is 4
    bars long, drag bar line 6 there (2 + 4 = 6).
    If in doubt, turn on the click and check.
    Now press CTRL-T to view the tempo map. You will notice that a tempo
    event with the correct tempo has been inserted at the start of bar 2.
    Map out the rest of the clip if necessary.

    Does this help?

    Jos.

    --
    Ardis Park Music
    www.ardispark.nl
  4. Cyberserf Guest

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    0
    On Feb 12, 8:17 am, "Phil W" <> wrote:
    > Cyberserf:
    >
    > > Problem:
    > > OK so you have a bunch of stems and you want to find the tempo of the
    > > recording (without tapping your keyboard).

    >
    > > Pro Tools lets you do this by cutting a bar (usually drums) and
    > > placing it at the zero point on a new track. It then has a tempo
    > > marker which you place at the end of the clip. Presto magic, the tempo
    > > of the song is displayed on the transport and you can set your grid to
    > > match..

    >
    > > How do I do this in Cubase? Do I have to tap tempo the whole song to
    > > make a tempo map? Is there no way for me to assess it's relative tempo
    > > and then force the beats to match or drift as I see fit?

    >
    > I think, what you´re looking for is called "Hit points" in Cubase, not
    > "tempo map". Look it up in the manual for further info, how it works...
    > I have tried to use it a few times, but didn´t really get to the point,
    > where I wanted to - probably cause I´m not a real MIDI guy.
    > Anyway, a friend saw a studio guy use hit points to detect a noticeably
    > unprecisely drum kit played live and then the MIDI timing (for various VSTi)
    > was adapted to the timing of the real drum kit.
    > How this is done exactly, I don´t know! But it was obviously possible in SX3
    > already!
    >
    > If you can "slice" audio to stretch/trim it timewise, is also beyond my
    > experience. It is possible with C5, but I´m not sure about previous
    > versions.
    >
    > Hope that helps at least a litte,
    >
    > Phil


    Thanks Phil...I'm not sure hit points will work for me here...I use
    them all the time in Ableton Live to stretch timing and such but I'm
    just trying to discover the tempo of an existing recording wihout
    having to tap it on the mouse or keyboard (through the tempo detective
    feature) and thus create the tempo map (grid lines on the quarter beat
    of my particular tempo (e.g. 118.0034Bpm) to help me line up drum and
    bass hits). I'll look up hit points in Cubase again, but I'm pretty
    sure they don't identify the existing tempo of a track, they only
    allow you to stretch to a different tempo (in loop creation mode). It
    is a little frustrating because it is such a basic starting step and
    Pro Tools makes it a no brainer...I'm surprise by it's absence. Thanks
    for your help.

    Cheers, CS
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