Conform to tempo/elastic audio?

[donbenjy]

Hey, so I have an assignment to do, which involves recreating a song from the original multitracks (Peter Gabriel's Shock the Monkey, if anyone cares). The tempo starts at a very precise 148.6 bpm, but fluctuates by a few beats, which makes it hard to align say a 1 bar drum loop with the entire vocal track (as this doesn't stay at the exact tempo). I really want to conform the original stereo mix to exactly 148.6, and just work in grid mode using elastic audio and beat detective to make everything fit properly...

Is there a "quick" way to conform the 3 minute track to a fixed tempo so I can work with a click? I tried "conform to tempo" but that doesn't seem to really do anything other than move my sync point a little bit, and it seems like it's even more out of time by the end of the track. Can anyone suggest the best way to do this?

Cheers
Ben

[Dorian Green]

It really depends what you expect!Do you want to "remap" your song?This way EA is the best way but you'll have to trim some warp markers to fit the set tempo which involve losing a bit of quality.
Or you just want to have a click on the original track?Then use Beat Detective who will set different tempi just depending on the time between two beats (it's a beat by beat process!).
It's up to you now!

[donbenjy]

Thanks for the reply...I can't really decide which way to do it...Most of the tracks vary in tempo very slightly, so will it sound too clinical if I strap it to a fix tempo? I was thinking of just working to the fixed tempo, and using either EA or BD depending on the track (so using BD for the drums, and EA a bit on the vocals.

The thing is, it's a really sample based piece, so pretty much everything except the vocals and bass are meant to be looped...

[peppertree]

I recommend Kenny Gioia's videos.

http://www.grooveboxmusic.com/str/pro-tools-training/

[youngas75]

I had something similar with a track I've just finished, what I ended up doing was cutting it up into 4 bar sections and EA across those using the TCE tool, took about 45 minutes to get the track done. It messed up the vocals a bit so I re did those separately and comped together the takes again so all in all a 4min 34sec track took about 1hr 30mins to 'fix'