Beat Detective and Odd Time Sigs..?

[Jon_Atkinson]

Hey all,

I'm a pretty heavy Beat Detective user, and feel pretty confident about using it, but I've been trying to correct a track which is in 7/4, and BD seems to not know what's going on..!

I'm only trying to tighten slightly (about 20%, as the track is pretty close already), but BD is moving things all over the place (as if it sees the grid in a different place from where it is!).

It's multitrack drums, but I get the same behaviour when I just try to tighten one of the files in isolation (for test purposes).

Any thoughts on this..? Never come across it before and I use BD all the time (albeit not usually on anything other than 4/4).

Interestingly, when I use Elastic Time to correct other parts (like perc parts etc which are not multitracked) that behaves exactly as you'd expect.

Is there an issue with BD and odd times..?

[Jon_Atkinson]

Ok...

So, fixed... But it is still a bit odd.

There was a 4/4 bar 2 bars before the section I was trying to Beat Detective.

If I set "Capture Selection" at the beginning of the 7/4 section (so on the boundary between the 4/4 and 7/4 bars) then I get nonsense.

If I capture from within the 7/4 section it behaves as normal.

I can understand this if I was going from 2 unrelated meters.... But these both have exactly the same value quarter note, just a different number in each bar... Why would BD have a problem with that..?

And... Does this mean that trying to use BD on anything with changing meters is a non-starter..?

[aidyhall]

If you set the time signature within the Beat Detective Selection window to be the same as your session time signature, then all the Bar numbers should line up. To be sure, I always have the "Show Trigger Time" box ticked, so that you know exactly where Beat Detective thinks that hit should be moved to.

It does make dealing with shifting time signatures a pain. When I'm doing tracks that have varying time signatures, I just do a separate Beat Detective for each time signature change. Usually, it's only the occasional bar of 6/4, or an extra 2/4 bar, so it's not too difficult to do. If you're doing prog rock and there's constantly shifting times going on, then I can imagine it would be a total PITA. Perhaps there is a way of capturing the data in the ProTools "Meter" timeline into Beat Detective, but I don't know if that's possible.

[thin ice]

Originally Posted by Jon_Atkinson

Ok...

So, fixed... But it is still a bit odd.

There was a 4/4 bar 2 bars before the section I was trying to Beat Detective.

If I set "Capture Selection" at the beginning of the 7/4 section (so on the boundary between the 4/4 and 7/4 bars) then I get nonsense.

If I capture from within the 7/4 section it behaves as normal.

I can understand this if I was going from 2 unrelated meters.... But these both have exactly the same value quarter note, just a different number in each bar... Why would BD have a problem with that..?

And... Does this mean that trying to use BD on anything with changing meters is a non-starter..?

This is something I've found too when using multiple time signatures in a song. If I get caught out, the first thing to look for in the BD window is the time signature.

I also temporarily cut a small gap after the section I'm working on. Occasionally the rest of the song will move slightly and you end up having to go back over things.

Always duplicating the tracks for backup within the session sometimes pays off!

[Jon_Atkinson]

Originally Posted by aidyhall

If you set the time signature within the Beat Detective Selection window to be the same as your session time signature, then all the Bar numbers should line up. To be sure, I always have the "Show Trigger Time" box ticked, so that you know exactly where Beat Detective thinks that hit should be moved to.

It does make dealing with shifting time signatures a pain. When I'm doing tracks that have varying time signatures, I just do a separate Beat Detective for each time signature change. Usually, it's only the occasional bar of 6/4, or an extra 2/4 bar, so it's not too difficult to do. If you're doing prog rock and there's constantly shifting times going on, then I can imagine it would be a total PITA. Perhaps there is a way of capturing the data in the ProTools "Meter" timeline into Beat Detective, but I don't know if that's possible.

Really helpful thoughts here.... Thanks so much..!