Determining tempo of a song for remix [SOLVED]

[Monkeymonkey35]

Hey All,

 

I'm remixing "harder to breath" by Maroon 5 and it doesn't appear to have a reliable tempo for any period of time.

 

The average BPM is about 74, though logic spits out something like 90 (via beat detection). (The song has a half-time feel, so when the BPM Counter in meter tools says 149, it's actually accurate)

 

So, the problem is, I have been beat mapping so that every click is on the beat and half way through (and too many hours wasted), I have 61 tempo changes (!)

 

The only thing I can think is that the audio file I am detecting the beat from is compressed and the transients aren't clear enough. (I matched up an acapella file with the full audio mp3 for beat detection purposes)

 

Any ideas?

[David Nahmani]

Any ideas?

First make sure that if you turn on the Logic metronome it sounds in sync with the song's beat. If it does, then you haven't wasted your time, you're doing a good job of beat mapping it manually. Continue until you've finished the song.

 

You can then decide to continue working keeping those tempo changes so you keep the loose tempo of the original, or you can decide to slice the original audio and any audio stems you have and make them have a straight tempo (which is often typical of dance remixes).

[Eriksimon]

I just tried it using a converted youtube version of the song

and I get a consistent 74.9450 as the tempo. No tempo changes. This song is clearly recorded to a click - in short, there's no need to beatmap it. You just need to align it carefully.

 

Here's how to: set the tempo to 75, as a starting point. then, align the first beat with 1 1 1 1 - or a beat real close to it. In this song, I used the first unfiltered snare hit (also because the filtered drum intro is a bit out of whack with all the rest of the song):

 

 

Then I perform a SMPTE-lock. This means that the audio will start at the same time, no matter how you alter the tempo.

Now use the > key to skip 1 bar at a time through the whole song (zoomed in) so you can check the alignment of the transients (best: snare hits). If they start drifting behind you need to lower the tempo, if they start creeping in front you need to increase the tempo. Chances are you're version is not exactly 74.9450, but perhaps 74.9640, or 75.050. the snare hits on beat 2 and 4 are visually the best to use for this.

[David Nahmani]

No tempo changes. This song is clearly recorded to a click

Thanks for the sleuthing Erik.

[Monkeymonkey35]

@David and Erik: Thank you so much for your help!!!!

[Eriksimon]

You're welcome!