For beat mapping, BPM counter giving me multiple bpm's, which do I use?

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Level 1

21 points

For beat mapping, BPM counter giving me multiple bpm's, which do I use?

Hi,

I recorded an acoustic guitar track rubato and want Logic's grid to conform to the bars and beats, so I can add drum loops later. The one, long region is locked to SMPTE position. I engage the BPM counter so I can get an average BPM to set the project tempo at. The problem is the bpm reads 89, then 110, then 117. That seems like a large swing to me. My recording doesn't sound like it varied that much.

When I click ONLY "Beats from region" (without clicking "detect") I get this mesage

For beat mapping, should I be using the "detect" button? I have read conflicting ways to do this. I'm thoroughly confused. fyi, I did try creating a MIDI track that roughly followed the rubato acoustic guitar track, but it sounded jerky and not natural.

Mac Pro 3.2 GHz Quad Core, Mac OS X (10.6.5), Logic 9.1.3, Firestudio Tube BFD2 AutotuneEvo Subaru Forester

Posted on Dec 29, 2010 10:57 AM

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Answer 1

ae9eayi4qe Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 29, 2010 11:21 AM in response to ae9eayi4qe

For the record, I've discovered that the tempo of my playing was, in fact, highly irregular. (I didn't realize there was that much variation, but this is exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to preserve in my performance by beat mapping).

I set the bpm for an average value, which was 110. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, as you are going to go through the entire performance and link each beat to a transient anyway.

Is this what most people do in the case of a rubato performance that has a large-ish bpm range...namely, going through one bar at a time and lining up the beat markers with audio?

It seems to be working well on my test track. My test track is a lot easier than what I was trying to do at first. My test track has me playing obvious 4/4 rhythm guitar. I am going to tackle the next level of beat mapping, which is capturing a more expressive, and less beat-map friendly, picking performance on guitar.

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