Stretching an ENTIRE Project

[Jerry Pettit]

User since the early 90s and for the first time i'm realizing one of my song "just drags" and I'd like to speed it up from 100 BPM to 120.  Might have to rerecord the vocals afterwards, but that's okay.

Just spent the last hour GOOGLING about tempo-changing a whole project  AND reading posts on the topic here on the Forum, but...not working for me.

I Ctrl-A'd everything so I would have all the tracks selected, went to "Clip Properties" where everything was pre-set to "Multi", then to Audiosnap settings, clicked "Enable", "Follow tempo", etc.  Took a long time for CW to "think", so I would have access again, and then I changed the Project Tempo, but not sure I got it right.  Original tempo was 100--this process seemed to come up with a beginning average tempo of 133 pre-modification.  When I changed Project Tempo to 120 it sounded like the music sped up to 160 (as an indicator in "Clip Properties" was showing).

Point is:  I think I'm doing this wrong.  It would be SO NICE to be able to change a whole project to a new faster tempo.  Any pointers?  

[John Vere]

There are a lot of options so here is what I have done. 
Export all audio you think will survive the tempo change without noticeable artifacts. You won’t get away with that much of a change in tempo with important tracks like bass and vocals. Even 5BPM change can trash audio. But what you can do is plan on redoing everything but at least give it a try first.
The big trick is that all the audio has to be a complete clean track from start to finish.  No edits etc  so that’s why we create the stems.  

  Export as stems using Tracks. You can include what you want at this point like processing and automation. I use.  48/32 no dithering. 
Delete all audio from the tracks but leave the track itself. 
This leaves you with only midi which you can safely change the tempo. 
So now bring the stems back to the project and drop them in the original tracks. 
Now apply Audio snap to them audio follows tempo.

Now change the project tempo and assess the damage.  
Carry on from there.
 

[mark skinner]

Jerry , A quick and dirty way to check out a "major" bpm change should be tried first before changing everything.

(1) I'd mute the vox tracks and export everything else. 

(2) Open a new temporary project at 100 bpm.

(3) Import your mix without the vox and put a marker at the Very end of the song.

(4) change your bpm to whatever you want to try. Now your track end will be well                   away from your marker.

(5) Now right click "edit" and choose the stretch tool . L/click/hold  and drag the end of your clip back to the marker. 

        When it makes you cringe , repeat with smaller bpm changes until you're happy. I've done this a few times before committing myself and really making a mess of a project. You may find that only a few bpm can work wonders..

Good Luck ..    mark

Edited June 6, 2023 by mark skinner

[Jim Stamper]

It's been awhile so I can't tell you the exact settings, but I've done this successfully with a project that had acoustic guitar audio tracks - which I could not re-record, and midi tracks.  I increased the tempo significantly from 130bpm to 160bpm. This change was requested by a  publisher. The midi tracks of course were mostly easy enough to re-bounce to audio at the new tempo.  All of the above posts are good tips.

Plus ... it's important how the Clip Properties are set for stretching, and which algorithm is used for off-line bouncing. I also think it works better if you have strong levels in a track before bouncing. Back-up your original project and create new copies you can use to test different methods until you get good results. For me, once I got the best results possible (radius mix advanced algorithm), I still had to edit the acoustic guitar tracks to fix notes or measures that didn't bounce very well. Sometimes I could do it by splicing in identical notes from elsewhere in the track, or from a different take of the guitar track (I always keep all the takes), or even from the original slow version if the tempo of the note (a held note) wasn't important. 

I finally got a good final mix, and I was pretty impressed that Cakewalk did this well with acoustic guitar. Of course it works better speeding up vs slowing down. The track did get published, it sounds fine, and it gets placements in TV shows and ads.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Jim Stamper
additional details

[57Gregy]

On 6/6/2023 at 10:53 AM, Jerry Pettit said:

User since the early 90s and for the first time i'm realizing one of my song "just drags" and I'd like to speed it up from 100 BPM to 120.  Might have to rerecord the vocals afterwards, but that's okay.

Just spent the last hour GOOGLING about tempo-changing a whole project  AND reading posts on the topic here on the Forum, but...not working for me.

I Ctrl-A'd everything so I would have all the tracks selected, went to "Clip Properties" where everything was pre-set to "Multi", then to Audiosnap settings, clicked "Enable", "Follow tempo", etc.  Took a long time for CW to "think", so I would have access again, and then I changed the Project Tempo, but not sure I got it right.  Original tempo was 100--this process seemed to come up with a beginning average tempo of 133 pre-modification.  When I changed Project Tempo to 120 it sounded like the music sped up to 160 (as an indicator in "Clip Properties" was showing).

Point is:  I think I'm doing this wrong.  It would be SO NICE to be able to change a whole project to a new faster tempo.  Any pointers?  

Are you finished recording and mixing?
Try Process>Length on your completed master audio. 
Simple, fast, undoable.

[sjoens]

Easiest way I know:

1. Save project as a new one so old one is preserved.
2. Bounce clips in each track so there's only one clip per track.
3. Extend all tracks/clips to same length as longest track/clip. Do not bounce.
4. Set Now Time Marker to -0-.
5. Click on Transport BPM and change to desired value.
   You'll see audio clips extend past the end of the MIDI tracks when increasing BPM.
6. Slip-Shrink the Audio clips to line up with the MIDI clips.
7. Bounce the audio clips.

Slip-Stretching/Shrinking MIDI clips is virtually harmless.

Slip-Stretching/Shrinking Audio clips can range from harmless to disastrous, depending on how vast the BPM change is and how complex the audio is.

I just changed an entire mix from 120 to 135 BPM without too much issue - audio was shrunk?... shrinked?... 88.89%, but I wouldn't recommend doing it for a polished master. If tempo change is significant it's probably best to re-record audio parts... or spend a lot of time in Melodyne. 

[John Vere]

Talking to the wind. Almost a month.  The OP has revisited the forum but has not responded.  
@Jerry Pettit  did you forget you asked a question?  

[sjoens]

If I catch the wind in a bag, I have a captive audience. 

Others will benefit tho...