tempo changes

[Strings818]

First time posting here.

 

I'm working with a piano player. He records his tracks, then I add background strings, woodwinds, etc.. His piano is real, I'm using VI's.

 

We did one test track to make sure we were both happy with the result. The problem I had when adding background tracks, his piano playing is a very expressive, emotional, rubato style. He records without a click track. The tempo is changing constantly. With ritards, accelerando, pauses...

 

On our first track, I just added the backgrounds by ear. But when I went in to do midi editing, I couldn't visually see where each beat started and stopped, it definitely made the editing process much slower.

 

Is there a way to define beats in a situation like this, where the tempo flucuates in an audio track throughout?

 

Thanks

[Jordi Torres]

Hello and welcome to Logic Pro Help.

 

Logic's Beat Mapping feature us what you are looking for.

 

J.

[simon.a.billington]

When I come to doing this I generally take it phrase by phrase.

 

I'll use the BPM plugin to try and gauge the average tempo, set that, then fine tune it phrase by phrase. Generally I will use a curve transitioning to each phrase, avoiding sudden changes.

 

You can go through and do micro changes beat by beat, but I find not having anything land directly on a beat helps with that humanised feel.

 

Trouble with beat mapping, I've only known it to to sudden changes in tempo, so I generally avoid that.

 

If the BPM meter is having issues detecting th tempo, you could record a simple percussion track, playing in time to the piano, fine tune it and use that to detect the tempo.