Musical Pause - Fermata

[Stoker]

When programming a midi track using the midi editor with the grid what's the best way to code a pause (fermata)? I'd like the finished result to still be on the grid.

The way I've been doing it is to put a temporary tempo reduction on the note effected, however a couple of things that I've noticed when doing it this way is that:
1) It's difficult (impossible?) to put points on the tempo envelope anywhere except on the beat. This makes it difficult if the paused note is, for example, a dotted quarter note.
2) I can't seem to drag a section of the temo envolope lower than 40bpm, which can sometimes be not low enough.

Both of the above issues can be got around by editing the Time Signature Marker manually.

I've tried adding a Fermata in the music notation editor but this seems to have no effect on the way the note is played back, it only effects the appearance of the notation.

I was just wondering what others do to program fermata pauses.

Cheers
--Ian

[bFooz]

For everything to look as expected and to play as expected, tempo mapping is probably the only option.

You can change tempo map limits in preferences->envelope display.

[Stoker]

Thanks bFooz

Looks like what I'm currently doing is about right. It never occured to me that there might be an option for setting tempo map limits!

[jrk]

It may be helpful to create a new measure covering the fermata - it's the way I've done it, anyway.

[Starpainter]

Originally Posted by jrk

It may be helpful to create a new measure covering the fermata - it's the way I've done it, anyway.

Indeed, what I do, is add a measure at a certain tempo, and even change from 4/4 to 2/4 or 7/8 or whatever is needed that makes it 'feel good'

[bFooz]

Originally Posted by jrk

It may be helpful to create a new measure covering the fermata - it's the way I've done it, anyway.

The downside is you loose measure number consistency if you want to have it notation-accurate.

[Starpainter]

Originally Posted by bFooz

The downside is you loose measure number consistency if you want to have it notation-accurate.

Very true, but I always do 2 projects, one for the sound, the other one optimized for score, and that score (midi) I import in musescore and go on from there
Might be double work, or a waste of time, but I do like this workflow.