advice on how to create a tempo that follows drum track

[NJ Soul]

Hi, first off thanks to all that regularly post and make time to help out the rest of us.

I have a question for all...

Basically i need help with my tracks. We recorded our songs with no click track. We did this for two reasons. 1, our drummer is fookin awesome. 2, we wanted the natural feel and dynamics of the song to really come accross. That being said, i know how all the drums recorded, but i really am having an incredibly hard time creating an accurate tempo map. Beat detective never seems to work for me and it baffles me to be quite honest. (if anyone has some great resources and tip for beat detective, beginner to advanced, i'm all ears. I read the manual and it just don't compute) The real question for me is how to generate the tempo for gradual tempo changes. Is there an easy way to do this smoothly? Is there a way to calculate the curve by which it accelerates? Any and all tempo tips are welcome. I am very hardworking. I'll read whatever you throw at me.

Thanks sincerely,

Christian

My band
My solo stuff

[ondruspat]

Use "tab to transients" and "identify beats". Start at your first click, give it a bar/beat designation, tab a bar, give that position a bar/beat designation, etc., etc. It might seem like a lot of work but will give you a tempo map that accurately follows the music. I've used this technique when adding midi sequencing to live performances.

[NJ Soul]

you actually just nailed the reason why i would like to tempo map the existing drums. I'll try that tonight!

Any other methods people have had success with out there? Holla!

[sunburst79]

Kenny G covers this with his free videos that where floating around a few months ago, The specific video would be titled " Conforming a Click to a Drummer" I believe. Same basic concept.

[NJ Soul]

am i looking on youtube? would you mind giving me a link please? Thanks in advance!

[NJ Soul]

actually i found a really sweet step by step guide to using tempo and beat detective here... it elaborates on what was mentioned in the first reply. Really informative, and extremely helpful.

http://www.audiomidi.com/classroom/p...tcorner_09.cfm

http://www.audiomidi.com/classroom/p...tcorner_23.cfm

http://www.audiomidi.com/classroom/p...tcorner_24.cfm

http://www.audiomidi.com/classroom/p...tcorner_26.cfm

i tried googling kenny g and it was a pay service.

Thanks again for all the help.

[Naagzh]

i tried googling kenny g and it was a pay service.

Well, yeah, but it IS a bargain. He's been a member here for a long time, and his tutorials are great. Support him!

[dave2005]

check out grooveboxmusic dot com for good free vids on this

[Kris75]

CNTRL + 8 (on the numeric keypad)
Choose Bars and Beats
Select one bar, set up the meter
Choose Analyze
Process

Complete for the entire song. That will get you close enough, but if a few are off, you can also drag the meter and tempo sliders to get them bang on (do this before moving on to the next bar).
If your drummer is good (you lucky guy) the first method should be all you need.

It is time consuming though. 1 bar at a time.

But if you did not record to a click, why do you need one now? Are you adding midi with the pencil tool? Are you using sequences? If it is for editing reasons, why not just use the kick and snare as your guide and cut at the Transient and use the scrubber to find the others? That has also never failed me, especially when doing blues recordings.