tempo auto detect

[Phyl]

A lot of times I compose by creating a midi track, arming it and then just noodling on the keyboard. I then play the track back and cut and paste to get a very rough song lay out.

I wish there was an easy way for SONAR to look at a section of midi data and make a guess as to what the tempo is, raher than me fiddling with the tempo window afterwards until I get the quarter note beat just right.

Is there a simple way to do what I'm describing? How do you guys go about figuring out the tempo of something you created "on the fly"?

[Toki987]

good question. I just noodle and whatever the default tempo is in the display, I make any other tracks to come to come fit it, cause the noodling is in that tempo.

[Teacher]

i just bop my head and tap my feet to what i'm playing and do a count down in sonar to see if it matches or at least close. Lay it down and if its not exactly on tempo fiddle with the tempo till it is

[Barometer]

Isn't there a feature in Sonar under process:audio called extract timing to do this to a midi track?

[Toki987]

Thanks Barometer, its there, and will be next chore. This is direct from the manual.


"The Extract Timing command creates MIDI notes and (optionally) tempo changes based on rhythmic peaks in audio.

The Extract Timing command first analyzes the audio for pulses-sudden percussive changes in volume. Then, from each pulse's position and intensity, Extract Timing synthesizes new timing information, in the form of note events or tempo changes"

[Steve T]

Well, I'm also a noodler. Don't like metronomes.

What I usually do is scale the length of everything so it sits on the grid (bit of guesswork) then multiply the tempo by the same ratio. So long as you scale both to the same ratio, it should sound exactly the same, except now it fits on the grid.

There's also a command called "fit improvisation" where you record a new midi track after on a new track, while listening to your noodling, tapping out a 4:4 (or whatever) beat. Then run "fit improvisation" where you have options either to take the average tempo, or make a tempo map which accounts for tempo fluctuations.

Steve T

[Phyl]

Thanks Barometer and Steve.

I'll try those ideas tonight.