Tempo Map Generator

zappazapper · 11-08-2017, 03:11 PM

OK, first off I'll just put it out there that I have no idea how scripts work. I'm willing to put the work in to figure it out but first I wanted to run this idea by the forum and see if it's even possible and maybe get some advice on how to get started.

Here's my idea -

Generally I don't like tracking to click because:
1) at least for some music, I find the ebb and flow of the tempo is an integral part of the music, and,
2) unless the drummer/band has made it a point to rehearse to a click, it can be distracting to have to pay attention to it when they normally wouldn't be.

Having said that, once the take has been recorded, having a tempo track that follows the music can be useful for a number of things, obviously.

For a long time I have been using Tempo/Time Signature Markers to build myself a tempo track that follows music that wasn't recorded to a click. My process is as follows:

1) Using Transient Detection, I place Stretch Markers on all the kick, snare, and tom hits, at this point just for a reference. This involves me hitting TAB, Shift-W hundreds of times repeatedly for a normal length song. I'm not so worried about shortening this part of the process because it really only takes a couple of minutes and the Transient Detection occasionally picks up on unwanted transients and this part of the process has to be accurately completed or it's a pain in the ass to fix.

2) I move all the tracks so that the first Stretch Marker lines up with the appropriate Measures:Beats location.

3) I place a Tempo/Time Signature Marker ("Gradually transition tempo to next marker" is OFF) at the first Stretch Marker, and using the next Stretch Marker as a guide, I use the mouse wheel to adjust the tempo until the appropriate Measures:Beats location lines up with the Stretch Marker.

4) I move to the next Stretch Marker and repeat step 3 for the rest of the song.

As you can imagine, this process can be very time consuming. I'm talking hours per normal length song. Depending on how accurate I want to be, it involves me zooming in and out for every 8th or 16th note and using the Shift, CTRL, and Shift+CTRL mouse wheel modifiers to get the Measures:Beats grid line to line up with the Stretch Marker. But once it's done, the click track follows the song no matter what the drummer does, and it allows me to make any subtle (or not-so-subtle, if desired) adjustments to the tempo and makes editing that much easier.

So for a long time I've been thinking about a way to automate at least part of the process. I don't know anything about scripting but I have a conceptual idea on how to approach the problem. This is my idea on how the script would work:

1) and 2) are the same.

3) is the same for the first Stretch Marker. Manually lining up the Measure:Beat grid line with the next Stretch Marker establishes a tempo that the script can use for its first calculation.

4) The script places a Tempo/Time Signature Marker at the next Stretch Marker, which we will now consider the current Stretch Marker. It measures the distance in time between the current and next Stretch Markers, and using the tempo we've established, makes a prediction of the distance in Measures:Beats to the next Stretch Marker. So, for example, if the tempo is 120 bpm, and the distance in time from the current to next Stretch Marker is, say, .3 seconds, it would (maybe?) predict that the distance in Measures:Beats to the next Stretch Marker is supposed to be an eighth note, since 120 bpm means .5 seconds per beat, .25 seconds per eighth, .125 seconds per sixteenth, etc., and .3 seconds is closest to .25 seconds. It would then calculate what the Tempo/Time Signature tempo needs to be in order for the appropriate Measure:Beat to line up with the Stretch Marker.

5) It would then move to the next Stretch Marker and repeat the process using the new tempo as a base for calculation.

Anyway, that's my crazy idea and if anybody has some idea how to get started or is aware of an already existing solution, let me know.

Thanks in advance!!

foxAsteria · 11-09-2017, 02:26 AM

Man. I feel bad for you that you apparently never heard about breeder's amazing grid actions...There are a couple that will just allow you to hold a key and "grab" the nearest grid or measure line and move it while the key is held. Makes tempo mapping to varied tempo recordings a snap. Search "br grid" in the actions list.

You can speed the process up even more by assigning right-drag to hand scroll in mouse modifiers so you don't have to do much zooming or grabbing scrollbars etc. to move along the project.

If you really need to use the transient detection to help you, there are also actions to move the edit cursor to the next transient, which you could then use in conjunction with the 'move nearest grid line to edit cursor' actions.

When I do tempo mapping, I just zoom in to a comfortable level, point my mouse at a transient and hit 'w' to move the grid line to the transient, and repeat til the end. Goes quite fast.

zappazapper · 11-09-2017, 01:08 PM

ah, ya, i see how that works... is there a way to disable adding stretch markers, or is that a necessary part of the process? Because it's putting them in weird places, like not on the detected transient itself...

foxAsteria · 11-09-2017, 04:34 PM

You don't have to add the stretch markers. The transient detection will just work in the background based on the settings you've made there. At least that's how I assume it works; I personally just eyeball the transients and sometimes even increase peaks view gain to visually exaggerate them. It could also be that the transient sensitivity in the dynamic split window is separate from the one I use. There is a separate action for opening only the detection window without going through the dynamic split window (search actions list for "trans sens").