Remixing: tools for tempo/beat matching

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3des

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I'm looking for a good article (or 1st hand knowledge) about how people approach remixing and to begin with identifying the tempo/beat: I heard that there are tools out there that allow you to tap along with the beat so you can identify the right tempo?, e.g. say you want to take a a four bar segment from an old track and you want to mix and match it up with some Acid loops or something.. how do you calculate the tempo, are there tap type tools for PC?

Any other articles or web site you can point me too would be greatly appreciated (obviously I'm talking about remixes where you don't have the source tracks available in an unmixed format).

Thanks,

~3des
 
Well..............................

If, in Acid, you (goto) VIEW>(check mark) EXPLORER> (goto) EXPLORER TAB>(find the sound sample that you want)>HIGHLIGHT the sample.

That should give you the necessary info that you need. ;)

Peace....

spin
 
SPINSTERWUN said:
Well..............................

If, in Acid, you (goto) VIEW>(check mark) EXPLORER> (goto) EXPLORER TAB>(find the sound sample that you want)>HIGHLIGHT the sample.

That should give you the necessary info that you need. ;)

Peace....

spin
Click to expand...


I'm assuming you're describing the standard approach in Acid for working with a sample that is already Acidized, hence it already has tempo/beat information... I've worked with both Acid and Sonar for creating loops, however, integrating a section of song doesn't always necessarily work well if you try to let Acid or Sonar determine the tempo, particularly if it the sample (song segment)doesn't have clearly rhythmic characteristics, does that make sense?


Also, Thank you for all of the links!! I haven't yet had a chance to check them all out, but I'm curious to see if they answer my questions, thanks.
 
3des said:
I'm assuming you're describing the standard approach in Acid for working with a sample that is already Acidized, hence it already has tempo/beat information... I've worked with both Acid and Sonar for creating loops, however, integrating a section of song doesn't always necessarily work well if you try to let Acid or Sonar determine the tempo, particularly if it the sample (song segment)doesn't have clearly rhythmic characteristics, does that make sense?....
Click to expand...

Of course, you can't just load an entire song, then highlight it, and voila instant tempo, key, etc.... (I not ever said that it would be simple). :eek:

You will have to do some work also.

You'll need to HIGHLIGHT, COPY, TRUNCATE, and SAVE a 4 to 8 beat section of the song, in an EDITOR, such as Sound Forge, Wavelab, CoolEdit, etc, then use the EXPLORER technique I described previously.

Sometimes you'll need to make the sample a LOOP, sometimes it will need to be DISK-BASED, sometimes it might need to be a ONE-SHOT.

You might even need to change the KEY or PITCH of the material.
 
3des said:
....particularly if it the sample (song segment)doesn't have clearly rhythmic characteristics, does that make sense?.....
Click to expand...

Yes, that makes sense. :cool:

There are ways around everything, you must not limit yourself. ;)

spin
 
SPINSTERWUN said:
Of course, you can't just load an entire song, then highlight it, and voila instant tempo, key, etc.... (I not ever said that it would be simple). :eek:

You will have to do some work also.

You'll need to HIGHLIGHT, COPY, TRUNCATE, and SAVE a 4 to 8 beat section of the song, in an EDITOR, such as Sound Forge, Wavelab, CoolEdit, etc, then use the EXPLORER technique I described previously.

Sometimes you'll need to make the sample a LOOP, sometimes it will need to be DISK-BASED, sometimes it might need to be a ONE-SHOT.

You might even need to change the KEY or PITCH of the material.
Click to expand...

Perhaps we're misunderstanding each other:

1. As you say, "of course" I'm not talking about loading an entire song.

2. I know how to edit.

3. I'm looking for a tool that will calculate tempo (see my original post), I said:

"I heard that there are tools out there that allow you to tap along with the beat so you can identify the right tempo?"

"how do you calculate the tempo, are there tap type tools for PC?"

Thanks again, but perhaps language is causing the difficulty. No problem, I'll keep looking around and post on a few other boards.
 
They have a Tap To Tempo feature in Sonar.....

But.......

I'll try to find you an alternative device.

I'm sure you will be able to find a solution at one of the links I posted.

Ciao.

spin
 
3des said:
....... but perhaps language is causing the difficulty.....
Click to expand...

And what language is that, my friend? :confused:

I am quite sure that that isn't the problem. :rolleyes:

:DI know how to extract beat tempos from my material.:D
 
SPINSTERWUN said:
And what language is that, my friend? :confused:

I am quite sure that that isn't the problem. :rolleyes:

:DI know how to extract beat tempos from my material.:D
Click to expand...

perhaps now we're speaking the same "language" (the language of tap tempo!) ;-)

I'll look into the Sonar feature you mention, though I don't have a legitimate copy so I'd prefer to use Acid or another tool

Thanks again, and I'm enjoying the links.
 
Although I haven't found the magic elixir I'm hoping for, I do need to apologize for not doing more research first (bad, bad!) ;-)

Anyhow, I did find reference to Sonar's Tap Tempo functionality, (oddly enough I couldn't find it using there 'help' index, I had to use Google) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov02/articles/tempoworkshop1102.asp

Yes, in Sonar it's located under 'Insert' > 'Tempo Change' > 'Click here to tap tempo'

..though my first go at it seems kinda weird as each time I tap while listening to the track, the tempo display changes all over the place.. 78,82,73, etc., it would seem that it would calculate the tempo over a period of time (assuming the user taps consistently). Anyhow, it looks like I might have to do the old fashioned math and count it out over a period of a minute, or guesstimate based on a 15 sec segment x 4 = bpm (maybe it's safe to assume that if I came up with 19/20 beats in 15 seconds that I'm working with something that was recorded at 80 BPM), and I suppose that as long as the segment doesn't run the entire course of the track that any stray won't be noticeable??
 
3des said:
.....I'd prefer to use Acid or another tool.....
Click to expand...

Use the BEATMAPPER in Acid 4.0

By default, ACID will start the Beatmapper Wizard for files longer than 30 seconds. Use the Open files as loops if between (seconds) setting on the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog to determine the file length.


If your material is shorter that 30 seconds, then....

OPTIONS>PREFERENCES>AUDIO TAB>change the time limits of OPEN FILES AS LOOPS IF BETWEEN (SECONDS)

That should do the trick. :cool:

spin
 
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