Help alligning a session to bars/beats grid

[Fuzzyc]

I've been racking my brain to try and remember how to do this. I've done it many times before but it's been a while and I must be missing something. All tracks are tick based, conductor is highlighted, I count out 4 measures of the song and select that region. Then via "Add Bar/ Beat Markers" I set the start measure at 1 and the end measure at 5. (time signature is already correct at 4/4). I've watched several people do this exact same thing on YouTube, and when they do it it changes the bars/beats ruler as expected and leaves the track tempo unaltered. However, when I do it it doesn't change the bar/beats ruler but rather compresses that region and changes the tempo from 83 (what I set the tempo at) to 129.8375. It puts a tempo change in at the start of that region so the entire song is now at 129 rather than 83.

I think I've watched every YouTube video out there and can't seem to see what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be VERY much appreciated.

FYI - I'm using PT 12.7.1

Thanks!!

[lesbrunn]

Hi Fuzzyc,

Your description doesn't seem very clear to me. What exactly are you trying to do?

[Dizzi45Z]

I'm also trying to wrap my head around what you are asking. It sounds like you are trying to get the tempo map to match up with your 4 measures, but to do that, wouldn't you need the tempo to change? Or are you trying to get the speed of the 4 measures to change to match the tempo you are currently at?

[treason]

It likely has to do w/an achored tempo at the start of the session. Delete that and (in my experience)Bob's your uncle!

[Fuzzyc]

Thanks for the suggestion, treason, but the only tempo setting in the tempo ruler is the one at the beginning of the session. It's set at 83 bpm.

[Fuzzyc]

Sorry guys that my description wasn't very clear. But thanks for chiming in. Let me try to clarify...

I have a session that was done a few years ago that started out with tracks recorded to a cheap drum machine (as a click track). I want to replace those drum tracks but I'm finding out that the clock on the drum machine wasn't very accurate. When I import midi drum tracks (i.e. from Superior Drummer) they drift apart as the song progresses. So I need to lock the session to the Bars/Beats grid in order for them to sync with the rest of the tracks throughout the song. For instance I need bar 1 of the song to line up with bar 1 in the bars/beats ruler and for bar 2 of the song to line up with bar 2 on the Bars/Beats ruler, and so on. What I described in my previous session is kind of the "text-book" way to do this. But it's just not working for me. For some reason it wants to change the tempo of my song from 83 (manually set by me for that session) to around 129.

So my process would be to (using the transient of the kick as a guide) tab to the first measure of the song and, using Identify Beat, I would set that as the 1st measure of the song. Then I would tab to the start of the 2nd measure and, using Identify Beat, I would set that as the 2nd measure of the song. I do this for the duration of the song and now the song is locked to the bars/beats grid. Once I get to this stage I should have no problems importing midi drum tracks.

I used to do this a lot several years ago, and to be honest the way I'm trying to do it now doesn't really seem like the way I used to do it. But what I'm trying now is how all the YouTube videos tell you how to do it. Maybe I just have a few more grey hair's now than I did back then and my memory just ain't what it used to be. Any help would really be appreciated!

I hope this explanation helps you understand better what I'm trying to do.

Thanks again!

[txm]

So are you saying that you're just experiencing drift as you go futhur in the song and down the time line in PT?

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[EdwardG]

when aligning tracks don't put them tick based but sample based, tick based tracks will change when the tempo changes if they are elastic audio enabled tracks or midi/instrument tracks.

after aligning what you want to align to the grid put them tick based again so any change in the tempo map ruler will affect the tracks.

[Extreme Mixing]

You could also try Mixmeister. Search Google... It will analyze your song and maybe find a more accurate tempo. Even a cheap drum machine should be pretty accurate. Maybe instead of being exactly 83 bpm, it's a steady 82.935, or something. Once you get the tempo right, it shouldn't drift much.

[treason]

Originally Posted by Fuzzyc

Sorry guys that my description wasn't very clear. But thanks for chiming in. Let me try to clarify...

So my process would be to (using the transient of the kick as a guide) tab to the first measure of the song and, using Identify Beat, I would set that as the 1st measure of the song. Then I would tab to the start of the 2nd measure and, using Identify Beat, I would set that as the 2nd measure of the song. I do this for the duration of the song and now the song is locked to the bars/beats grid. Once I get to this stage I should have no problems importing midi drum tracks.

What you've described makes complete sense. As mentioned above, when I do this my session is sample based (all tracks/lanes sample based).

What is generated each time you identify a beat (as seen in the TEMPO TRACK ruler) should be a new tempo event every (in the method you outlined) measure.

If you're creating your MIDI drum tracks within PT, you should be done, assuming you've completed the tempo map before the drums. If in reverse order (drums first), you may need to quantize the MIDI tracks to the new tempo map.

If you're using an external sequencer to create the drum tracks, I'd suggest you import the newly created PT Tempo Map into your sequencer and perform step 2 above in the sequence before you export your tracks in PT.

However you work, it appears to me that your drift is caused by the MIDI not locked to your newly created PT Tempo Map.

Hope this helps.