Changing tempo map without affecting the rest of the timeline...

[PD-John]

Hi all,

I'm currently scoring a film in PT11 using lots of instrument tracks and audio tracks too. Obviously there are lots of tempo changes in the session as each scene requires. My question is, is there a way to change the tempo for just a section of the film, without it throwing everything after that out of line?

All the tracks are sample based, so they don't move around, which is fine. But say I decide I want the tempo of scene 5 down from 98bpm to 95bpm, it shifts the tempo map out beyond just the scene itself, which then affects the tempo of the MIDI instruments in scene 6 and so on... This is because it maintains the same number of bars until the next tempo change.

Sorry if that's hard to understand. Another way of putting it is that I want the tempo change points to be dictated by timecode, not bars/beats count.

[JFreak]

Is it still messed up if you change the tempo at time A and change it back at time B or did I completely fail to understand what you're trying to do?

[DC-Choppah]

For sample-based tracks, you use Bar/Beat markers to change tempo. The tempo changes are then linked to a sample position.

(For tick-based tracks you use tempo changes which link the temp change to the bar/beat position instead)

So mark the location in the sample-based audio with the bar/beat you want. (Tab to transients - Ctrl-I Identify beat).

To make sure that the changes you make don't affect anything downstream, make sure you have bar/beat markers set in the downstream section FIRST. That will lock the time to a specific bar/beat for the downstream section and keep it isolated from the changes you make in front.

The tricky part is that you can't use bar numbers in the front section that go past the one used in the downstream section. So you have to make sure you get the right bar/beat marker first for the downstream section, THEN adjust the section in front of it.

[SomeOtherGuy]

Generally speaking, it's a better idea to score each cue in a separate Pro Tools session.