158 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
158 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
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<p>Tempo and meter belong together. without both, there is no way to know where a beat lies in time.</p>
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<p>Tempo provides a musical pulse, which is divided into beats and bars by a meter.
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When you change tempo or move an audio-locked meter, all objects on the timeline that are glued to bars and beats (locations, regions) will move in sympathy.
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</p>
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<p class="note">When performing meter or tempo operations, it is advised that you show the BBT ruler (available by right-clicking an existing marker or ruler name),
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and ensure that the constraint modifier is set (in Preferences->User Interaction) so that no other modifiers share its key combination.<br>
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The constraint modifier is the "Constrain drags using : " setting under the "When Beginning a Drag" heading. One viable setting is <kbd class="mod1"></kbd><kbd class="mod3"></kbd>.
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</p>
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<h3>Tempo</h3>
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<p>Tempo can be adjusted in several ways:
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<ul><li>by double clicking on a tempo marker.
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This opens the tempo dialog which will allow you to enter the tempo directly into an entry box.
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</li>
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<li> by using the constraint modifier (which is set in Preferences->User Interaction) to drag the beat/bars in the BBT ruler or the tempo/meter lines.
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This is the preferred way to match the tempo to previously recorded material.</li>
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<p class ="note">
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NOTE - When dragging the BBT ruler, musical snap has no effect, however be warned that non-musical snap is in effect if enabled.
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Snapping to a minute while dragging a beat may result in some verly slow tempos.
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Snapping a beat to a video frame however is an incredibly useful way to ensure your soundtrack is punchy and synchronised to the sample.
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</p>
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<li>by holding down the constaint modifier while dragging a tempo vertically.
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This is used for more complex tempo solving, as it allows you to change the position and tempo of a tempo marker in the same drag,
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it is, however, a useful way to adjust the first tempo for a quick result.
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</li></ul>
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</p>
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<p>A tempo may be locked to audio or musical time. You may change this by right-clicking on a tempo.
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If a tempo is locked to music, an entry will be available to lock it to audio.
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Similarly an audio-locked tempo may be locked to music by right clicking it an selecting the "Lock to Music" entry.
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</p>
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<p>Audio locked tempo marks stay in their frame position as their neigbours positions are altered. Their pulse (musical) position will change as their neighbours move.
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Music locked tempo marks move their frame position as their neighbours are moved, but keep their pulse position (they will move as the music is moved).
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</p>
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<br>
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<p>A tempo may be remped or constant.
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<ul>
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<li>A constant tempo will keep the sesion tempo constant until the next tempo section, at which time it will jump instantly to the next tempo.
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These are mostly useful abrupt changes, and is the way in which traditional DAWs deal with tempo changes (abrupt jumps in tempo).
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<br>
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</li>
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<li>A ramped tempo increases its tempo over time so that when the next tempo section has arrived, the sesion tempo is the same as the second one.
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This is useful for matching the session tempo to music which has been recorded without a metronome.
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Ramps may also be used as a compositional tool, but more on this later.
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Note that a ramp requires two points - a start and an end tempo. The first tempo in a new session is ramped, but appears to be constant as it has no tempo to ramp to. It is only when you add a new tempo and adjust one of them that you will hear a ramp.
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The same applies to the last tempo in the session - it will always appear to be constant until a new last tempo is added and changed.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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<br>
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<p>
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<img src="/images/constant-tempo.png" alt="A constant tempo displaying the tempo at the playhead in the audio clock">
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<br>
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A series of constant tempo markers. The tempo at the playhead position is the same as the previous tempo.
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</p>
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<br>
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<p>
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<img src="/images/ramped-tempo.png" alt="A ramped tempo displaying the tempo at the playhead in the audio clock">
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<br>
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A ramped tempo marker. The tempo at the playhead position is approaching the second tempo. Because the playhead is equidistant (in beats) between the
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two markers, the tempo at the playhead is the average of the two.
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</p>
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<br>
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<p>To add a new tempo, use the primary modifier and click on the tempo line at the desired position.
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The new tempo will be the same as the tempo at the position of the mouse click (it will not change the shape of the ramp).
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</p>
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<p>To copy a tempo, hold down the primary modifier and drag the tempo you wish to copy.</p>
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<h3>Meter</h3>
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<p>Meter positions beats using the musical pulse of a tempo, and groups them into bars using its number of divisions per bar.
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</p>
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<p>The first meter in a new session may be moved freely. It has an associated tempo which cannot be dragged by itself (although all others can).
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It can be moved freely and is locked to audio.
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</p>
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<p>New meters are locked to music.
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They may only occur on a bar line if music locked.
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</p>
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<p>
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An audio locked meter provides a way to cope with musical passages which have no meter (rubato, pause), or to allow a film composer to insert
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a break in music which cannot be counted in beats.
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</p>
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<p>If a meter is audio-locked, its bar number is fixed from the point at which it left the main score.
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That bar number cannot be changed, nor can tempo motion allow the previous bar to overlap.
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If you need another bar, lock the meter to music again (right click->"Lock to Music"), drag the meter to the desired bar and re-lock to audio.
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You may now drag your new bar freely again.
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</p>
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<br>
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<li>To change a meter, double click it. A dialog will appear.</li>
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<br>
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<li>To copy a meter, hold down <kbd class="mod1"></kbd> and drag it.</li>
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<h3>Techniques </h3>
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<p>As a general approach, the best way to control tempo ramps is to use them in pairs.
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</p>
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<p>Lets imagine we want to match the click to a drum performance recorded in 'free time'.<br>
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The first thing we need to do is determine where the first beat is. Drag the first meter to that position.
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</p>
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<p>Now the first click will be in time with the first beat. To get all the other beats to align, we listen to the drums
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and visually locate the position of bar 4. You may wish to place the playhead here.
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</p>
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<p>We then locate bar 4 in the bbt ruler and while holding the constraint modifier, drag it to bar 4 in the drum performance.
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</p>
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<p>We notice that the click now matches the first 4 bars, but after that it wanders off.
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You will see this reflected in the tempo lines.. they won't quite match the drum hits.
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We now locate the earliest position where the click doesn't match, and place a new tempo just before this.
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Two bars later, place another new tempo.
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</p>
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<p>Now while dragging any beat <strong>after</strong> the second new tempo, watch the drum audio and tempo lines until they align.
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</p>
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<p class="note">Notice what is happeneing here: the tempo previous to your mouse pointer is being changed so that the beat you grabbed
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aligns with the pointer.
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Notice that the tempo lines previous to the changed one also move. This is because the previous tempo is ramping <strong>to</strong> the tempo you are changing.
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Look further to the left. The tempo lines in the first four bars do not move.
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</p>
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<p>Again, some time later the click will not align. I didn't say this was easy.
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</p>
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<p>Repeat the same technique : add two new tempos and drag the BBT ruler <strong>after</strong> the newest tempo so that the beats align with the audio again.
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</p>
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<p>In a general sense, adding tempo markers in pairs allows you to 'pin' your previous work while you move further to the right.
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</p>
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<h3>Another use case : matching accelerando</h3>
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<p>Imagine you have some video and have located where your music cue begins. Move the first meter to that frame
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(you may snap to TC frames, but not music with an audio locked meter).
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</p>
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<p>
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Find a starting tempo by listening to the click while you drag the meter's tempo vertically using teh constraint modifier.
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</p>
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<p>You have the playhead at point where the dude slams the phone down, and your idea was that 4|1|0
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would be good for this, but you want an accelerando to that point.
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</p>
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<p>
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Add a tempo ar bar 4.
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</p>
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<p>Holding down the constraint modifier, and with snap set to 'TC Frames', grab the BBT ruler just <strong>after</strong> 4|1|0.
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Drag the ruler so that 4|1|0 snaps to the 'phone' frame.
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</p>
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<p class="note">Notice what happened : The second tempo was changed.<br>
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You had set a musical position for the second tempo marker. It was not aligned with the frame you wanted, so
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you dragged the BBT ruler, making the second tempo provide enough pulses over the ramp for 4|1|0 to align with the desired frame.
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</p>
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<p>If your ramp doesn't feel correct, you may add more points within it and keep adjusting beat positions in a similar manner.
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</p>
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<h3>General</h3>
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<p>Audio locked meters can be useful when composing, as they allow a continuous piece of music to be worked on in
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isolated segments, preventing the listening fatigue of a fixed form.
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Reassembly is left as an excercise for the reader.
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</p>
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