Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Hi everyone.

I'm hoping you can help me. My goal is to create a 10-song mix (a DJ mix) in pro tools by utilizing tempo match or beat detective. I will have 10 tracks, 1 song per track, with edits/crossfades from one song to the next. Problem is, one song may be 130BPM, the next 132BPM, etc... I'm trying to make tempo match work, but when I create a tempo map (gradual increase from 130-132bpm) the track is not responding, and I feel like beat detective is not much help either for determining the song's BPM, even though I know what the songs bpm is.

If anyone can point in the right direction of useful tools and resources? I've checked out Youtube tutorials and Lynda.com tutorials. :(

Thanks

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Have you tried Elastic Audio?

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

I'd prefer not to use elastic audio, I find it may distort or lessen the sound quality in this case.

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Sometimes with Beat Detective you need to go In manually and shift things around.

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Sounds like you want a smooth crossfade across several bars of music, to create a gradual transition between the songs, rather than a hard cut on the beat, where one song slams in to the next with an uninterrupted groove - correct?

The latter is the simplest, as you can get away without maintaining a steady tempo, so long as the cuts are on the beat (this method is often augmented with a 4 on the floor beat mixed in as a bed - simple in a DAW, but a more complex affair with turntables).

The former is traditionally achieved by the DJ manually adjusting the pitch control of the turntable, over time, to achieve a beat matched crossfade (which may well necessitate the song that is now playing, having it's pitch gradually changed over time.

This does of course mean, that if poorly executed, it's very noticeable that the tempo, and naturally the pitch of the song are being manipulated.

You can very easily work that way in Pro Tools, without artefacts in the audio.

What you'd need to do, is put the track in Varispeed mode, from the Elastic Audio options.

I know you are concerned about Elastic Audio creating artefacts, but this is not the case with Varispeed mode, as it is simply changing the speed at which it plays back the existing samples (rather than creating new ones, or trying to stretch existing ones).

It' the same as clocking Pro Tools to an external source, at the wrong sample rate, or changing the file header to fool Pro Tools in to thinking an 88.2kHz sample is a 44.1kHz sample (try importing a file with a different sample rate in to your session, making sure to un-check the "convert sample rate" option).

With the tracks in varispeed mode, place some warp markers, to lock the audio at that point, and then place new warp markers (you could get away with just one at the end, if you wanted a linear transition) where you want the tempo/pitch change to occur - you may find it's quicker to eyeball it, freehand, than to map out all the tempo transitions...

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Carl, thank you for your help!

I found it useful to place the tracks in Varispeed using Elastic Audio, from there I turned off the conductor and "Conformed to Session Tempo". And I see how I can use warp to adjust the tempo of a given track.

If I understood you right, it sounds like I can use two warp markers to adjust the tempo in whatever cut of the song I choose and that will give me a hard cut (130bpm to 131 for example).

But, for doing a gradual increase (130.1, 130.2, 130.3 etc.) sounds almost impossible, no?

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Nope - Go to Event-Tempo Operations-Linear. It will do exactly that. :D

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

You almost stumbled over the answer yourself :

Just think of each of those tempos as a warp maker, so you could build your gradual increase from 130BPM to 131BPM by placing incremental warp markers.

If you only have 2 warp markers, one at the beginning of the song & one at the end of the song, you're just setting a new overall tempo for the song.

If however you have 3 markers (or your first marker is placed toward the end of the track, at the point you want the tempo ramp to start), you can manipulate the tempo differently at the end.

The more markers you have, the more smoothly you can transition.

So if you let Pro Tools automatically generate warp markers :

You said you know the original tempo for each song, so you could lay them out on the timeline, drop tempo markers at the head of each song, and make a selection within each song covering the area you want to transition the tempo.

With the track in Varispeed Elastic audio mode, hit quantise, and that will generate the warp markers for that part of the song, but wont actually move any of them, if you've got the original tempo correct, and they were tight in the first place.

From there you can basically draw the tempo changes in to the tempo ruler, and essentially - job done.

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

That's the quick, easy way.

Man I over explained the process :D

Re: Using tempo match or beat detective for DJ song mix
 

Maybe, my approach to both of the techniques you guys suggested is off. I'm still having trouble...

Yesterday, conform to tempo was working great, to transition a selection of a song from 130 to 131bpm (hard cut). Today, working in a different PT session, conforming to a tempo is all off. It speeds up the selected clip almost as if its playing it back at 170bpm, even though I type in 130bpm. I've tried to conform at 50, 80, 100, 130bpm etc, and PT tempo is not recognizing actual beats per minute. :(

Also, when going to tempo operations>linear, a window prompts me, do my settings look alright?

Track 1: 128bpm
Track 2: 130bpm

Goal: Selected tracks to start at 128bpm and increase to 130bpm.

http://i41.tinypic.com/15eka6q.png