Beat mapping is difficult

I have such a hard time with beat mapping. I made a version with midi and audio of bass and scratch vocal to the beat. I decided to do another scratch track of guitar and vocal to get the real feel of the song. I muted the other tracks, made it so my first beat was the same and recorded. Perhaps the volume was too low because I didn’t get enough beats. Around bar 7 there was no beat marker to drag the ruler downbeat to and I double clicking where it was supposed to happen did not insert one. Clicking on the plus button in Beat mapping in Global tracks didn’t seem to add any more peaks either, so I started moving the tempo events and completed the whole song moving tempo events until the bars started where they did in the scratch guitar/vocal track. But then all the midi and previous audio was off. Why don't the midi tracks maintain their relationship to bar lines? Same question about the audio, though I could understand it would be off if the speed of the audio is kept as the original.

Hi edurbrow,

Beat mapping can be incredibly frustrating but I am sure you know how important it is when creating an authentic song without the sterile clinical metronomic beat.

When I beat map, I only do it on one track. That track also needs to be around -12db for transients to be picked up by the software. My first track is normally an acoustic guitar so I have to run the signal very hot and end up having to turn my monitoring down.

Another way to beat map effectively is to finger tap the beat onto it’s own track and beat map that. Once everything is aligned that track can always be turned down or muted.

There are also a few features in beatmapping such as auto align to bars, beats, 1/8s etc. This can come in handy sometimes. However, most of the time I beatmap manually, especially when there is a time signature change.

Good luck

Rodney