Any Beat Mapping guru's able to offer tips/help?

Hi guys,

 

I don't seem to be getting the best results with automatic beat mapping and wonder if y'all have any tips?

 

Basically I'm working on an album that was done half to click and half "free form" so to speak in Pro Tools and after re-importing back into Logic X am now messing around with beat mapping so I can use some of the midi work that has been done on the early demos also done within Logic.

 

The thing is I can beat map no problem but the results seem to not be very accurate. Is that just one of the drawbacks of automatic beat mapping or are there some things I can try to refine the results.

 

First I tried beat mapping a "free form" track but that wasn't working as well as I had hoped and then decided to try a track that I had actually already run through Beat Detective and imported into Logic Pro X and this is the result (see screengrab).

 

I think I've tried everything: adjusting the transient sensitivity after analyzing, changing note values, switching between the two algorithms in the "Set Beats by Guide" dialogue...

 

But as you can see it seems to be having a problem especially considering this is bang on 94 BPM (Beat Detective) and should map quite steadily without any problems, right?

 

Any suggestions?

 

Cheers,

 

R.

If you have any sort of decent musical timing, I'd advise you to create a Software Instrument track, load it up with any EXS drumkit or any other simple but clear percussive instrument, hit record, and tap along the "free form" passages with quarter or half notes (decide which before recording). When done, correct any timing errors or doubled notes in the fresh MIDI region, and then use (=select) that MIDI region for beatmapping ("from region"). Any timing inconsistencies will only originate from this MIDI region, so tightening that up is the only thing to focus on to get things in sync. Which, luckily, is easier done than said.

Hi Erik,

 

Thanks!

 

Hmmm... Well. Decent musical timing? Arguable

 

But aside from that, in the example above, are you saying that although I've imported audio that is already very tightly locked to the grid it would still be better to just tap along? Why is that do you think?

 

I am 100% certain that my playing won't be any tighter than what I've already imported and as these audio files are what I'd like to lock the midi to I'd ideally like to use those to generate the map as well.

 

Is this a shortfall you've found in Logic's audio-to-midi or beat mapping algorithm?

 

R.

If you really want it tight you will have to do it manually. There are no shortcuts in this case. I would skip the MIDI idea as it will only generate a rough estimate. Work with your kick and snare directly.

It doesn't really take that much time once you get the hang of it. About 10 minutes for a regular song.

Thanks Eric (with a C!)

 

Yeah that seems like the most accurate way.

 

Just thinking aloud loud here...

 

As I think the transient detection in Logic Pro X is actually really pretty great is there a way (I'm sure there must be but I'm just not so up-to-speed with Logic) to use the audio-to-midi function (I think it's now done in Flex Time, right?) to create midi notes for both the Kick/Snare and then build the tempo map from that? Essentially splitting the process into two parts?

 

If it is possible, how would that been done?

 

R.