Value of a beat

[Apeirofobia]

Hi guys.

I just started a Project where the time signature is 6/8, so I wanted to listen to an old recording of a song and tap the Tempo.

It never matched the recording tempo, so I realized that every "tap" I was making was a quarter note, not and eight as I would think if I'm working with this time signature.

Then, my question is if there's a way to make Cakewalk match the time signature I'm using with the Tap Tempo function automatically.

I mean, if I use, lets say an 4/8 I would want to tap 4 eight notes and Cakewalk to recognize that every 4 beats theres an accented click.

Or if there's a project where the tempo is 3/4, I want Cakewalk to recognize that when I'm taping, there are 3 beats per measure and one is accented. 

Finally, if there's no way to achieve this automatically. Is there a manual way to do this?

 

Greetings and Thanks in advance!

[David Baay]

In Cakewalk, a 'beat' is always a quarter note. A 6/8 measure is only 3 beats long. The metrome will click on 8ths, but the tempo is quarters/minute, and you can't tap a tempo in 8ths.

Three simple ways to match the tempo are:

1. Import the audio, and use Set Measure/Beat at Now (Shift+M) to tell CbB where the bar lines fall.

Or

2a. Disable Stop at Project End so that the transport can run with no content in the project. 

2b. Hit spacebar, and count out 4 measures as you listen to the recording.

2c. Hit spacebar again to stop the transposrt on 5:01, and set that measure and beat with Shift+M.

Or

3. Import the audio and drag-drop the clip on the timeline, and let Melodyne extract the tempo.

This last option may not work well with a 6/8 tempo. Melodyne may read it as 3/4, and sometimes it will set a double-time tempo even when it gets the beat value right. Higher versions of Melodyne can be tweaked to address this, but the Essentials demo that can be installed from Bandlab Assitant doesn't have those features.

If you're just looking for an approximate match to re-record everything from scratch, option 2 is the easiestl (easier to do than to describe). This is what I often use to match a new project to something I've been improvising, and am ready to record. Or, since I record mostly MIDI, I'll record without a click, and set the project to the MIDI with Set Measure/Beat at Now, and then flatten any tempo variation that I don't want to keep - also easier to do than to describe in detail.

I can point you to a previous post if you're interested in that approach.

 

 

 

You can make the metronome click on 8th notes, 

[Apeirofobia]

8 hours ago, David Baay said:

In Cakewalk, a 'beat' is always a quarter note. A 6/8 measure is only 3 beats long. The metrome will click on 8ths, but the tempo is quarters/minute, and you can't tap a tempo in 8ths.

Three simple ways to match the tempo are:

1. Import the audio, and use Set Measure/Beat at Now (Shift+M) to tell CbB where the bar lines fall.

Or

2a. Disable Stop at Project End so that the transport can run with no content in the project. 

2b. Hit spacebar, and count out 4 measures as you listen to the recording.

2c. Hit spacebar again to stop the transposrt on 5:01, and set that measure and beat with Shift+M.

Or

3. Import the audio and drag-drop the clip on the timeline, and let Melodyne extract the tempo.

This last option may not work well with a 6/8 tempo. Melodyne may read it as 3/4, and sometimes it will set a double-time tempo even when it gets the beat value right. Higher versions of Melodyne can be tweaked to address this, but the Essentials demo that can be installed from Bandlab Assitant doesn't have those features.

If you're just looking for an approximate match to re-record everything from scratch, option 2 is the easiestl (easier to do than to describe). This is what I often use to match a new project to something I've been improvising, and am ready to record. Or, since I record mostly MIDI, I'll record without a click, and set the project to the MIDI with Set Measure/Beat at Now, and then flatten any tempo variation that I don't want to keep - also easier to do than to describe in detail.

I can point you to a previous post if you're interested in that approach.

 

 

 

You can make the metronome click on 8th notes, 

Thank you for your answer!

I would like to know more, so if you could show me that previous post, would be great!

[David Baay]

Some of this post is specific to the OP's case (like the starting tempo), but the steps are generally applicable to aligning a timeline to existing audio or MIDI. In your case, you can stop at "When it sounds good throughout":

 

[Apeirofobia]

11 hours ago, David Baay said:

Some of this post is specific to the OP's case (like the starting tempo), but the steps are generally applicable to aligning a timeline to existing audio or MIDI. In your case, you can stop at "When it sounds good throughout":

 

Thank you! I will check it out!