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Topic: What Tempo Is This?

I know this is really basic but I am struggling a little bit with selecting correct tempo for a drum beat to start recording to.

So what tempo is this?

[mp3]/uploads/bb919e9055b74f3b33c631167d469504.mp3[/mp3]

Re: What Tempo Is This?

Does cubase have that tempo detector?

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

http://s8.postimage.org/47ocppizl/confused.gif     



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4 (edited by polyal 04-12-11 23:08:58)

Re: What Tempo Is This?

77bpm precisely    btw nice sounding drum kit is it ez?

set cubase to a fixed tempo of 77 then align the first bass drum hit to start at the first beat of the bar
say 5:1:1:0 then from then on everythig can be cut and paste ( if necessary ) with no timing issues

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

work for olley
re add mp3: "The file you are trying to upload does not contain expected data. Are you sure that the file is an MP3?"..... it is definitely an mp3...?????????? cant upload relevant info

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

polyal wrote:

77bpm precisely    btw nice sounding drum kit is it ez?

Yes this is EZ Drummer. And 77bpm is exactly what I had it set to.

There is a couple of things that confused me about this.

Firstly I am unsure what to count as the main beat - to me, if I were tapping the tempo I would be tapping the high hat beat, the bass drum falling on beat one and the snare on beat three. However this would make the tempo 154bpm.

I was trying to find the tempo of a song that had a similar drum beat to this, so I aligned it all up and came up with cubase saying 77bpm however looking online, most of this bands tempos are >120 bpm and picking another couple of their tracks, I find the same issue with cubase reporting them at 1/2 the speed suggested.

So I got very confused and I still am!

How did you find the bpm?

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

polyal wrote:

work for olley
re add mp3: "The file you are trying to upload does not contain expected data. Are you sure that the file is an MP3?"..... it is definitely an mp3...?????????? cant upload relevant info

Mail it to me, I will check it out - it could be due to the filesize maybe,

Re: What Tempo Is This?

Olly wrote:
polyal wrote:

77bpm precisely    btw nice sounding drum kit is it ez?

Yes this is EZ Drummer. And 77bpm is exactly what I had it set to.

There is a couple of things that confused me about this.

Firstly I am unsure what to count as the main beat - to me, if I were tapping the tempo I would be tapping the high hat beat, the bass drum falling on beat one and the snare on beat three. However this would make the tempo 154bpm.

I was trying to find the tempo of a song that had a similar drum beat to this, so I aligned it all up and came up with cubase saying 77bpm however looking online, most of this bands tempos are >120 bpm and picking another couple of their tracks, I find the same issue with cubase reporting them at 1/2 the speed suggested.

So I got very confused and I still am!

How did you find the bpm?

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9 (edited by polyal 05-12-11 09:36:22)

Re: What Tempo Is This?

the tempo is bpm.. beats per minute
so with the track you posted just count the bass drum and snare in sequence
ie bd =1 sn =2 bd =3 sn =4    =77bpm

the count in can be a variety of things  ie  1..2..1234..................1&2&3&4    etc
but the tempo should always be 77 (bpm)

you could use a tempo of 154 but then all the notes would be half the duration
i find it always better to use a tempo that 's even ..in this case 78 or 76 then its easier to ' halve '
if you have to 

usually whatever speed you're tapping your foot to is the tempo ( usually )
so if you tap your foot to your drums your tapping @ 77bmp

http://www.metronomeonline.com/

in rock/pop music the bass drum is nearly always on the 1st /3rd beat and the snare on the 2nd /4th beat
in dance the bass drum is nearly always on the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th  and f*** the snare

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

Thanks for the explanation - I think I am getting confused with the high  hats as this is what I am counting (an tapping to) in this instance though I guess these are only half beats.

If I took out the snare and the bass drum, leaving only the high hats - would the bpm still be the same?

Re: What Tempo Is This?

if there are 16 hihat hits  that means there are 4 to every beat in the bar ( 1/4 )
if there was 20 then it would be 5 for every 1/4 bar...the tempo will still be 77bpm
( assuming the time signature is 4/4 )...i would google this... i bet there is a much better
way of explaining it than i am doing

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

Thanks for helping but you have lost me!  default/yikes  default/yikes  default/yikes 

I can definitely understand why, in the opening post example, you would count the bass and snare though I still don't get why you would do this over counting the high hats. Both are consistently laying down a beat - just which one counts for the BPM.

If there were no bass or snare then I can only surmise that the bpm must be that of the high hat - 154bpm.

For example, if you just took that high hat sound and put it into a metronome, it would be at 154bpm.

default/mad  default/hmm

Re: What Tempo Is This?

if the time signature was n/8 then it would be 154bpm...were assuming
the time signature is n/4 ie4/4

Simple time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other:
the lower numeral indicates the note value which represents one beat (the "beat unit");
the upper numeral indicates how many such beats there are in a bar.
For instance, 2/4 means two quarter-note (crotchet) beats; 3/8 means three eighth-note (quaver) beats.
The most common simple time signatures are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

The time sig is 4/4 - though I have never really fully grasped time sigs completely.

I still don't get where the n/8 comes from - if there is just the high hat could it not be counted as:

1234 1234 1234 1234  = 4/4 @154bpm


Confused!

15 (edited by polyal 06-12-11 15:08:32)

Re: What Tempo Is This?

that would be 16/16 =308bpm  if you change it to crotchets it becomes 77bpm....there are still
16 hihats but the time sig would be 4/4....4 crotchets in every bar

so if you set the tempo to 308 ( but each beat being a semi quav ) you would have 308 semi quav bpm
but still only 77 crotchet bpm....so the speed would still be the same but 4 times the resolution??

so the actual named tempo depends on the time sig..if its 16/16 it would be 308bpm
                                                                                     if its  4/4          "           77bpm

for an identical piece of music the ' speed ' would be the same

the 'n ' is just any number of  measures per bar   ie 2/4  3/4  4/4  n/4  etc

like a waltz is 123..123  123

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

I guess my brain is just not capable of grasping this.

Where or how is it the high hat being defined as not a crotchet in the first place? Assuming you just had the high hat there, how can anyone say that each sound does not represent 1 beat ie 1 crotchett?

I know I blocked it in 16 notes in my example above but in reality there is no end to the loop. It is just a solid tick tick ticking of the high hat?

Re: What Tempo Is This?

if you classed each note of the hihat as a crotchet how would you define gaps of say ..a slow bass line
its all a convention at the end of the day...+youd finish up with tempos in the several hundred bpm??

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

Ok well thanks for your help. I will have to keep pondering on this until it becomes clearer.

Re: What Tempo Is This?

just remember.....when you count a song in...... 1..2..3..4       thats the tempo ( the speed at which
you say 1..2..3..4 )  if the bpm is 60 then    theres 1 sec between each count

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

I have been counting the beats each time I listen to music. It is starting make sense a bit more now!

Re: What Tempo Is This?

I have read all the threads and wow poly you have great deal of knowladge

Imagine if the words of Imagine ever came true.....

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

jamesd74 wrote:

I have read all the threads and wow poly you have great deal of knowladge

Yes I'll second that.   default/cool


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I didn't get where I am today,
by being somewhere else.

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Re: What Tempo Is This?

I certainly agree!

24 (edited by polyal 11-12-11 22:05:18)

Re: What Tempo Is This?

thanks for the compliments...much appreciated
i think with playing in bands for over a 100 years the count in was the first most important part of the song
it dictated  the tempo....so the speed of the count in was the speed of the song
if the drummer counted in to fast the song would be to fast and visa versa

so viva good drummers ( and drum machines etc )......if say your song in cubase starts at bar 7
put 4 bass drum hits ( or snare ) starting at bar 6...ie 1..2..3..4 on the quarter beat ...this will give you the feel
of the song ( basically )....before the drums kick in

a pro drummer will usually tap his sticks and do a verbal count at the song tempo

count ins can vary but they will always give the tempo of the song

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