Beat mapping/ Double time MIDI

I did a midi mockup a while ago for a client - a well known piece of modern orchestral music (that always uses a backing/click track when its played live for the synth and drum elements). Its original tempo dances between fractions of 120-122 bpm throughout.

However, When I created my version from scratch we settled on a steady 120bpm for ease. (Though technically and musically its in 2 (at 60bpm) and this is the tempo I programmed in Sibelius and dropped into Logic etc. to correspond with the score.

Im now revisiting this piece as Ive been asked to put just the orchestra onto another existing version of the backing track, but this 3rd party version EXACTLY corresponds to the original piece tempo (121.6433 BPM...ect etc in crotchets). Should be easy as i can just use the same orchestral tracks I did for my previous job, just snapped to a new tempo map. So I easily created a new tempo by beat mapping the click track I was given and dropped this tempo into the orchestral session i did for the other version years ago.

...Of course, now all my orchestral elements are playing at double speed, as the original programming was done to the score at 60bpm!

Now, Im sure Im NOT thinking logically about this but i thought simply halving all tempo events in the list when I beat mapped this track would fix this issue and simply give me a half time click from Logic and mean my MIDI orchestra plays back in sync. But I cant seem to get the track aligned at all doing it this way. It always drifts even when the track is aligned perfectly at my starting bar 5.

Equally I cant seem to get logic to beat map this backing track (Which is a clear crotchet click at the 120-122 varied tempo) as quavers in 2/2 or any other way which could get around the issue. It will always snap to the 120s tempo even if i have the half bar option selected or other alternatives.

I am aware of the SMPTE lock for midi regions but I don't think thats a solution in this case as I actually do want the midi in the old session to snap to a new tempo, albeit an only fractionally different one.

I appreciate all that's about as clear as mud - but any help for my frazzled brain would be much appreciated

...Logic 9 BTW

hmm... can't really remember how beat mapping differed in Logic 9 from 10 unfortunately.

what about if you locked your regions in your original MIDI / session and then set that tempo to 120, and then unlocked them, and then did the beat mapping to the click audio file that you've analyzed (or added correct beat markers in the Audio File Editor to)? If you already have the correct tempo mapped out that is in the 120 range, it seems to me if you copied and pasted this tempo map to your existing MIDI once you fixed the 60 - 120 ratio I detailed above, that it would then play at the correct tempo.

if you still need to beat map it, In Logic 10, you need to set the beat mapping global track to "Protect MIDI" before you start dragging beat markers to the match spot in the click track, or your MIDI will start to get out of whack (just learned this the hard way). Don't know how logic 9 works in this regard though...

It sounds like you have your tempo map though and you're just looking for how to get your MIDI at the proper beat ratio / subdivision of tempo.

I have been using Beat Mapping for more than a couple of decades old style - you play in literarily a midi drum click on the lowest common denominator of the beat that you need so for example if the beat is in 4/4 with 2/4 bars then you need midi click drum sound every two beats and when the map is done change the time signature where it needs to change. I use Beat Mapping primarily to transcribe and create scores/parts from any kind of music from rock, to jazz to latin to orchestral classical pieces where tempos change, follow conductors, rals etc

Have also found that importing and changing Tempo maps does not work well and you get the kind of time drift you are experiencing no matter how painstakingly you transfer one map from one to another project.

I would respectfully suggest that you just create a new fresh project with a single Beat Map played in by hand with a drum sound on a keyboard - and it is down to your ear and sense of rhythm and understanding the music, and making corrections afterwards until you have a usable reliable beat map that accurately reflects the beats and tempo of the music.

Hope this helps!

Maybe this is missing something, but I'll suggest it anyway just in case. If you go to your session where everything is mapped out in double time make sure your midi region is an exact number of bars, and then in the main window hold down option and drag it from the right side to the left till it's half that number of bars (an 8 bar region becomes 4, etc.). All the midi will now be at half speed.

Does that solve your problem?