Interlude in a song

[northstar]

Hi all, this is probably obvious but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it simply and I have searched in all my books and on the internet.

Say for the sake of argument there's two halves to the song which follow the tempo (conductor mode), and an interlude in between the two halves with various sounds. I want to keep the length of the interlude constant, and keep the beginning of the second half at the same place as it is now; this beginning does not happen to fall on the beginning of a bar. I would like this second half to be aligned to the tempo without moving it in time. Is there a simple way to do this?

In effect it would be like putting a gap in the tempo timeline.


Thanks for any help you can give...

[daeron80]

You can't have gaps, but you can change the tempo by trial and error until it works out. It's logically impossible to have the tempo end up in a different place without changing - as Fred Astaire sang, "Somethin's gotta give, somethin's gotta give, somethin's gotta give."

Let's call the "first half" A, the interlude B, and the "second half" C. That way you don't have the confusing situation of a song with three halves.

First, all tracks that have material in C must be sample-based. If any are tick-based, their material will move when you enter a tempo change. Have Bars and Beats as the main ruler. Decide where in A or B to place the tempo change and how long it will stay at the new tempo. Take your best guess at what the tempo change needs to be to make a bar line up with the head of C. Check to see how close you are, and adjust accordingly. Etc. It can help to place an Absolute marker at the tempo change and another at the head of C so you can zoom in close and pop back and forth quickly as you narrow in on it. It's possible to figure these things out by doing the math, but honestly, it's usually quicker to just guess and refine.