Sync midi notes to time/measure change

[micv]

when you change the time/measure from , say, 4/4 to 3/4, is there a way to automatically move the midi notes so they would lined up?  Given that the notes in the last beat would have to be deleted to fit.

[David Baay]

No, changing the time signature is just going to divide the total number of quarter-note beats in the track into smaller or larger groups without affecting the absolute timing of playback or removing any material.  To squeeze four beats of notes into three beats without removing any material you would need ot change the relationship between tempo and absolute time in a separate step.

With audio, you can simply change the tempo of the project directly, but with MIDI, you would need to either drag-stretch (actually compress) the MIDI clip to fit the smaller number of beats without changing project tempo, or use Set Measure/Beat at Now to have Cakewalk re-calulate the start times and durations of note events to make them fit with a  lower tempo.

For example, to go from 4/4 to 3/4, after changing the time signature, snap the Now time to the note that used to be at 5:01 (Now at 6:02), hit Shift+M to open the Set Measure/Beat at Now dialog, and enter Measure 5, Beat 1. This will make what was previously 4 measures of 4/4 (16 beats) play back in the space of 4 measures of 3/4  (12 beats) with a project tempo that's 3/4 of what it was to start (e.g. 90bpm instead of 120bpm).

If you actually want to throw away the notes in the last beat of every measure, you'll need to manually select and delete that material, with Ripple Editing enabled to close up the 'holes'.

 

 

[LarsF]

I've done similar things in other daws - fitting tempo to free running recording, kind of.

If you set timebase to absolute on midi track, and then change time signature, you should be able to then adjust tempo to get measure boundaries over the same without the midi clip is moving or sounding different.

But this is if you actually recording as 3/4 to start with, but were just free wheeling a recording.

 

But have not done this in Cakewalk yet, just thought I spread the idea - to let clip remain as is without changing how it sound, just getting tempo and time signature to fit. As David said, but making rest of clip not changing as you suddenly moved a boundary.

Once they fit, you can change back to Musical timbase and adjust tempo and have this in the new time signature.

 

If I at all understand the questions what you want...

[micv]

thanks. I'll play around with this a bit more.

[David Baay]

23 hours ago, LarsF said:

If you set timebase to absolute on midi track, and then change time signature, you should be able to then adjust tempo to get measure boundaries over the same without the midi clip is moving or sounding different.

Timebase=Absolute only affects the start time of a MIDI clip, not the length, timing or duration of events within the clip.

The only way to change tempo and have MIDI maintain its absolute timing in Cakewalk is to use Set Measure/Beat at Now.

I've requested the ability to lock the absolute timing of a MIDI clip several times over the years, but never got it.

[LarsF]

I revert what I said - after experimenting what is predictable result is doing what you said.

Keep musical timebase, no lock at all - and do even repeated "Insert measure at.." is working.

So you count what seems like one measure on what you recorded - and insert desired measure there.

And you can continue through out a clip recorded and adjust like that repeatedly.

 

One alternative though - hold Ctrl Shift and drag either left or right end of midi clip to be the length that makes it fit.

Described p682 pdf manual.

 

I made to many assumptions how Cubase and StudioOne do it by having tempo track as rubberband just drag nodes. Since they have tempo map as a track syncronized with grid above you can do this.

Edited February 13, 2020 by LarsF