"Out there" suggestion: seperatable tempo maps

[Moving Air Productions]

So I've been working on a movie, and I know I'm new to it and maybe there's a better way to do it, but I've been bouncing around, scoring it a scene at a time, out of order. And my biggest issue is that I would like to be able to set the tempo for one song and have everything I do "lock" in place. So if I work on something ahead of it, changing the tempo map won't affect what I've already done. Right now, if I change the tempo somewhere, it pushes or pulls everything I've done behind it.

So my thinking is: would it be possible to set it up almost like the Arranger view: once I'm done with a scene, I can lock that in place. So if I do scene five, for example, then I go back and do scene three, and decide to jack the tempo for scene by 50 BPM, it will not do anything to any of the scenes following it. So it's almost like the measure numbers wouldn't be counted. They would all be just downbeat indicators. I can see it in my head, but I'm having a difficult time putting it into words. It's like locking sections of audio to the time code instead of to measures. So if sequence three starts at the 15-minute mark, then it doesn't matter what you change ahead of it,  the audio for sequence three will start at the 15-minute mark. Does that make sense?

Also, the ability to set starting measures arbitrarily would be fantastic. Because trying to take someone's pre-edited film and have the 1 land exactly at the start of a scene cut... Well, it's an ugly proposition. To be able to set the start of a measure the way you can currently set a marker would be AMAZING.

For people working in a non-linear fashion like this, that would actually be really handy. Right now I would either have to do everything from the beginning, in a linear fashion, in order to avoid problems changing the tempo map, or else I just cannot use any time-based effects or samples.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Moving Air Productions

[msmcleod]

MIDI clips can be locked to absolute time as well as audio clips.

To do this:
1. Select all the clips you want to stay at a specific time
2. Set their time base to "Absolute" :



So in the above example, the MIDI clip starts at exactly 2 seconds in.  When set to absolute Time Base, regardless of tempo changes, it will always start at 2 seconds in.

You can also lock the Position and/or Event Data of the clip so that you can't accidentally alter it during edit operations:




 

[David Baay]

6 hours ago, msmcleod said:

MIDI clips can be locked to absolute time as well as audio clips.

To do this:
1. Select all the clips you want to stay at a specific time
2. Set their time base to "Absolute" :

A major shortcoming of this is that only the start time is locked. The content of a MIDI clip will always follow tempo changes unless they are made using 'Set measure/Beat At Now' which may or may not be feasible, depending on the situation.

I have long wished to be able to lock the Absolute duration of a MIDI clip as well as the Absolute start time.

[Moving Air Productions]

That's really really helpful, msmcleod! I had no idea that lock was in there. Between that and finding the way to lock the markers to absolute time as well, this has been EXTREMELY helpful.

However, I do still wish I could arbetrarily set measure starts. If a hard transition happens at timecode 01:08:33:00 (the one I happen to be looking at), it would be amazing to set that as beat one of however many measures. Set the tempo for that section, and record.

[Base 57]

1 hour ago, Moving Air Productions said:

However, I do still wish I could arbetrarily set measure starts. If a hard transition happens at timecode 01:08:33:00 (the one I happen to be looking at), it would be amazing to set that as beat one of however many measures. Set the tempo for that section, and record

When Bandlab first acquired Cakewalk, they started a thread on the old forum asking everyone for their top five feature requests. The only one I could come up with was "Song Markers" - the ability to put multiple songs into the same project, each with its' own downbeat. No one else seemed to like the idea.

@msmcleod's suggestion above is the only way to do what you want and keep all of the compositions in the same project. But it is inelegant at best.

Your use case is a perfect example of why I think the Bakers should consider changing the way projects relate to the timeline e.g., negative measures and/or song markers. Anyone who composes music for film or games would probably be very happy with this feature.

For my own purposes, I just want to treat a project as I treated a roll of tape in my analog days.

[Moving Air Productions]

I agree, Base 57. Two major areas where I think Cakewalk could accellerate and make a dent is:

1. Create a more flexible workflow for movie people that would involve being able to treat a timeline like, as you say, a roll of tape. So you can add/modify any part as an individual section, rather than as part of a singular whole. That, and improving video sync, would give them a foot in the door for audio-for-film people. And,

2. Improving the Cakewalk "Jukebox" feature, which almost no one remembers anymore, for live performances. It was a brilliant process that gave them the ability to compete with other popular live tracks software, like Ableton. Back in my live production days, I set up an entire show using Jukebox. Every song contained the backing tracks, video, and MIDI for lighting. And the best part is the drummer could fire off every song using a basic MIDI trigger. But they stopped developing this powerful feature for whatever reason. But if they worked on this, that would put them in a strong position for touring acts who travel with their own backing tracks.

I'd love to see either one of those areas improved, and I think Cakewalk could expand it's fan base.