Massive Rework/Consolidation of time stretch/snap features [Audiosnap, Groove Clip snap to tempo, Tempo detection]

[Arjen Fortuin]

I can not see the woods for so many trees anymore.

1. It's an enormous pain to have Cakewalk successfully analyze an audio source for its Tempo, and apply this Tempo to the (it may be said.. awesomely improved Tempo Map view!) Tempo Map, by ways of dragging the audio clip into the tempo/measure bar (what is the right term to use here?). Ableton Live among others can do this almost without failure.

2. Audiosnap offers a feature to check the timing values of a clip (fourths or eights for example) and place those resolutions over audio transients (Edit Clip Map). It's EXTREMELY headstrong, however; when I try to move the first beat on top of the first real musical audio transient, it often refuses. When it does snap, the other values often do not follow. I then move the second, third, fourth, or even the 1 of a next measure.. expecting the algorithm to then have enough hand-holding to figure the rest of the audio transients out and place them within the tempo parameters of the audio. But nope.

Why can't I input the average tempo myself, to give the struggling algorithm a hand? Why doesn't it change dynamically based on me dragging the temporal anchors (is that the name...? Clip Map Flags? I don't know) on the top of the edit clip map UI?

3. Audiosnap menu is rather wizardy in general. So many buttons.. while Live, or even Logic does it so enormously simply. I think we can do better and clearer in 2021. Although I am one of those customers that asks better and yet does not know how... sorry.

4. What is Groove clip? I can make an audio clip follow the tempo of the project by checking a box in the track/clip inspector view. Does it use the same system as Audiosnap? I've used them both, however these features seem to bite one another... and I have not gotten it to work well once.
I probably need to read more documentation/watch tutorials.. but I also really think everything can and should be under the same feature set.. clearly named, with the same iconography, the same or similar UI elements, under the same overarching name, such as AudioSnap.
 

5. Graphical & UI/UX issues with Audio Clips that span over more than 1 tempo and/or time signature. I've had them display over more or less time than they should be displayed, and when I drag them around, it shows double or half the drag than actually executed when I release the mouse. There's some shady stuff going on there..

Of course you've inherited SONAR and Roland's code.. along with some of their talented programmers, and I'm really hoping that all that code shows promise and can be improved upon, with all these tempo detection/warp/follow features consolidating under one more modern, better functioning algorithm, and more intuitive to use UI.
All in all I love Bandlab for rescuing this wonderful DAW. I'd pay a subscription if it were available
Keep on rocking and improving this community and software please! ❤️

Edited June 26, 2021 by Arjen Fortuin
Clarity

[Glenn Stanton]

are you dragging the clip to the measures bar? Melodyne does a pretty good job of finding the tempo, notes, and depending on version, chords.

[Arjen Fortuin]

19 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

are you dragging the clip to the measures bar? Melodyne does a pretty good job of finding the tempo, notes, and depending on version, chords.

It pretty much consistently has it wrong for me

[Glenn Stanton]

one trick is to take the "tempo source" track (say a guitar or bass track), make a copy, remove a bunch of high end via a destructive EQ on the track, then drag that. sometimes the high(er) frequencies (e.g. pick noises, finger thumps on the body of an acoustic, etc) in a track can confuse the algorithms even in Melodyne.  cutting the HF causes the overall tempo being exposed by the audio to smooth out bit.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

This is why I never use any of it