determine tempo of a track

_butch_ · 11-28-2006, 06:19 AM

Hi,

My problem is the following:
When i wrote a song and i recorded the first rhythm guitar track i do not know, what tempo my song have.
What is the easiest way within reaper to find out what bpm my song has? I need it to program drums for the song.

I saw an easy way within cubase, where you can set the start of the beat and then you can drag the end of the beat as overlay on the waveform.

Whats the best way in reaper to do that?

kind regards,
butch

rforssell · 11-28-2006, 07:11 AM

Hi! In reaper you can tap the tempo with the mouse - use the left button and click on the tempo shown. At this moment there exists no other integrated way of doing this. I would recommend to download some app that could analyze the tempo for you... like BPM Detector PRO or something... maybe there's a VST somewhere but I didnt find one.

BTW... did you just record all of it without metronome of some sort??

_butch_ · 11-28-2006, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rforssell

BTW... did you just record all of it without metronome of some sort??

When i created a song and play it solo i do it without metronom.
and when i start to record i play it 1st without drums /metronome.

when i know my tempo i record it with a simple drum loop

rforssell · 11-28-2006, 11:58 AM

Ok. But then maybe it's enough just to use the tap tempo feature?

TerryW · 11-28-2006, 12:30 PM

A external free program that analyze your song is Mixmeister BPM Analyzer.
http://www.mixmeister.com/download_freestuff.html
Taptempo is very unpredictable.

Alistair S · 11-28-2006, 12:48 PM

The Mixmeister BPM Analyzer linked by Terry W works well.

Just remember to cut out just the part of your .wav file that you want to measure the BPM for (i.e. trim it at either end, or take a representative sample).

One thing I find is that I am not disciplined enough to play at the same tempo throughout a song without a click/metronome, though your are probably better at this than I am.

If you have the same issue as me, choose the bit that feels right

RedStone · 11-28-2006, 12:53 PM

wow... that thing gets it pretty much exact .. awesome!
too bad it's not made as a VST so you can insert it on the master bus

Mixmeister itself is also a very cool program for changing the tempo of a track without producing big artifacts. I haven't used it in a long long time though ...

malcolmj · 11-28-2006, 01:00 PM

There is a feature in REAPER called "Time Signature Meausure (from Loop Selection)", but it's not particularly accurate.

If you want to try it, create a Loop Selection of your guitar track that is one bar long, then select Insert > Time Signature Measure (from Loop Selection), or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+C. It will insert two new Time Signature Markers in the Timeline that are meant to show the tempo of the Loop Selection.

I've found it only works well on simple Drum Tracks, but your mileage may vary.

Cheers,

Malcolm.

RokkD · 11-28-2006, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malcolmj

There is a feature in REAPER called "Time Signature Meausure (from Loop Selection)", but it's not particularly accurate.

If you want to try it, create a Loop Selection of your guitar track that is one bar long, then select Insert > Time Signature Measure (from Loop Selection), or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+C. It will insert two new Time Signature Markers in the Timeline that are meant to show the tempo of the Loop Selection.

I've found it only works well on simple Drum Tracks, but your mileage may vary.

Cheers,

Malcolm.

GASP!!!!!...holy moly...How long's that been in there? Just worked perfectly for me. Strummed my guitar for a few measures, turned off snap, and carefully made a loop selection (doesn't have to be 1 bar btw, but what ever sounds right) ...107.2bpm, insert midi drum loop, done...perfect...woohoo!

--

malcolmj · 11-28-2006, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RokkD

GASP!!!!!...holy moly...How long's that been in there? Just worked perfectly for me. Strummed my guitar for a few measures, turned off snap, and carefully made a loop selection (doesn't have to be 1 bar btw, but what ever sounds right) ...107.2bpm, insert midi drum loop, done...perfect...woohoo!

Well there you go. I've tested it on Piano tracks and it never managed to work out what the Tempo was. I guess it needs defined transients to calculate the tempo correctly. Glad to hear it works well for you.

Cheers,

Malcolm.

rforssell · 11-29-2006, 12:07 AM

Ahhh... didn't know about this thing. Good that there exists a Malcolm

randygo · 11-29-2006, 12:43 AM

>I guess it needs defined transients to calculate the
>tempo correctly.

There is no transient detection. The function simply considers the selection region as a FOUR BEAT measure and calculates the tempo accordingly. Crude, but very useful. As Justin suggested, if you want more than four beats at a shot, you can select a region of two bars, say, perform the function, and then edit the tempo value to double it.

Cheers,

Randy

akoustic · 11-29-2006, 01:59 AM

a question regarding tempo map

- the scenario is i have live studio recording of a 5 piece group left to play freely after an initial click intro which the drummer was following.

What i would like to do is be able to play in a reference 1/4 note track in realtime with the song, either in midi or wave (or use a kick track as ref).

Next, have reaper smooth & average out this tempo map based on a selectable smoothing percentage... after that time stretch the song to that tempo map, targeting a specified tempo - almost like a pecentage quantize but per bar or 1/4 note.

Maybe its similar to beat detective but cutting each track into 1 bar segements and time stretching them to the new tempo map.

- would appreciate any ideas, thanks