tempo tricks

wrightboy

Formally Finnigan
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 7
i just calculate the bpm of the original song, and then use that as the basis for my new song. just had an instance where the calculated bpm was 89.4. i rounded my new track down to 89, and just like you're saying, the sample sounded a bit off. once i adjusted my tempo to 89.4, it was dead on.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
.Just say my tempo is 84
.I will multiply 84 x 4 (the 4 represents the 4 count...you know 1, 2, 3, 4...)
.this gives me 336...so my tempo will be 84.336 for the beat
.I take 84.336 and divide it by 4 and come up with 21.084
.21.084 divided by 4 is 5.271
.from this point on I set all my levels by the numbers pitch, tone, etc

does anyone do this besides me?

No I don't do this but I understand what you're doing... but anyway, I can eliminate one step in your equation for you...

Just say my tempo is 84
.I will multiply 84 x 4 (the 4 represents the 4 count...you know 1, 2, 3, 4...)
this gives me 336...so my tempo will be 84.336 for the beat.
I take 84.336 and divide it by 16 which is 5.271
from this point on I set all my levels by the numbers pitch, tone, etc

(if your count is a 3 count...you know 1, 2, 3...) then you divide by 9 instead of 3 and then 3 again to get your answer.

if you really want to get technical, here you go... http://werner.yellowcouch.org/Papers/bpm04/index.html its written for DJ's but just mentally change DJ to Producer...lol. enjoy!

peace
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
thats awesome dog! I just wish that I could understand it...prolly could if I just took time out to focus on it, but this is like building an A-bomb...lol

right, I just OD'd on equations smh
 
ill o.g.
this sounds interesting, but I don't get this part:

"from this point on I set all my levels by the numbers pitch, tone, etc "

could anybody rephrase that or explain it? please keep in mind I'm dumb... lol
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220
this sounds interesting, but I don't get this part:

"from this point on I set all my levels by the numbers pitch, tone, etc "

could anybody rephrase that or explain it? please keep in mind I'm dumb... lol
when I refer to pitch and tones...I was talking about drums frequencies (pitch, tone, and velocity)...but really once you get to this part...one should use more of a feel as opposed to using a formula....but if you did apply the formula at this step, your drums would be close to the frequency that you need them to be in.
 
ill o.g.
when I refer to pitch and tones...I was talking about drums frequencies (pitch, tone, and velocity)...but really once you get to this part...one should use more of a feel as opposed to using a formula....but if you did apply the formula at this step, your drums would be close to the frequency that you need them to be in.

ok thanks, but I'm not sure what you mean by drum's pitch tones and velocity... what programs do you use? Are those parameters in FL Studio? I mean, I know there are pitch knobs, so you mean in this example, you would set the pitch to +5 cents? and what about the velocity and tones? I don't understand how you can set velocities and tones to "5".... again, sorry if I'm just dumb lol, I just want to understand
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220
ok thanks, but I'm not sure what you mean by drum's pitch tones and velocity... what programs do you use? Are those parameters in FL Studio? I mean, I know there are pitch knobs, so you mean in this example, you would set the pitch to +5 cents? and what about the velocity and tones? I don't understand how you can set velocities and tones to "5".... again, sorry if I'm just dumb lol, I just want to understand
I use Reason 4, and yes a percent split in half is .5 percent...and thats the number you round things off at also....like if your tempo is 84


I would multiply 84x4 (the 4 represents the 4 count) so my new tempo would be 84.336

next...I will divide 84.336 into 4 and get the #21.584

21.584 is divided into 4 also...I get 5.396

the numbers 5.396 can be rounded off to just 5

so between the #'s 5 thru 21.584 or 22....I can apply these numbers to pitch, tones and velocities

for example I might set my drum pitch at 5, or maybe 10, or maybe 11, 15 or 22...you just got to play with the #'s within this range, because the #'s are compatible with the tempo...which in this example is 84.336


I hope this helps a little
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
ok thanks, but I'm not sure what you mean by drum's pitch tones and velocity... what programs do you use? Are those parameters in FL Studio? I mean, I know there are pitch knobs, so you mean in this example, you would set the pitch to +5 cents? and what about the velocity and tones? I don't understand how you can set velocities and tones to "5".... again, sorry if I'm just dumb lol, I just want to understand

Changing your pitch will change your tone and yes you can do that in FL, you can also change velocity in FL which is something that I do on every song that I make. Changing your velocity on certain instruments like drums really brings them to life, it takes away that DIGITAL feel and gives it a more REALISTIC feel. Velocity is pretty much the power or strength of a hit...for example, on a drum machine, each individual snare hit will sound exactly the same as the one before making the entire snare line sound like its digitally reproduced whereas, by changing the velocity on each snare hit will add the human error factor to it making it sound more realistic. A human drummer cant reproduce the exact same hit each time on a snare drum, kick drum, cymbal or hithat either.

Most producers use a kick that just sounds good to them but some producers use a tuned bass kick, one that actually matches the pitch of the song. That is what skid is refering to. His fomula will work on any instrument but the formula isn't 100% accurate because of the way sharps and flats work, which means you have to make adjustments to compensate. You gotta remember, this is just a tool to get you close, it's not the perfect answer. Just think of it as another option to using your ears to tell you what is sonically correct.

Its not about changing your pitch to .5 he's saying .5 = 50% or half...in other words if you come out with an answer of 84.4, 84.3, 84.2, 84.1 then you round off to 84. If your answer is 84.5, 84.6, 84.7, 84.8, 84.9 then your answer is 85.
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220
Changing your pitch will change your tone and yes you can do that in FL, you can also change velocity in FL which is something that I do on every song that I make. Changing your velocity on certain instruments like drums really brings them to life, it takes away that DIGITAL feel and gives it a more REALISTIC feel. Velocity is pretty much the power or strength of a hit...for example, on a drum machine, each individual snare hit will sound exactly the same as the one before making the entire snare line sound like its digitally reproduced whereas, by changing the velocity on each snare hit will add the human error factor to it making it sound more realistic. A human drummer cant reproduce the exact same hit each time on a snare drum, kick drum, cymbal or hithat either.

Most producers use a kick that just sounds good to them but some producers use a tuned bass kick, one that actually matches the pitch of the song. That is what skid is refering to. His fomula will work on any instrument but the formula isn't 100% accurate because of the way sharps and flats work, which means you have to make adjustments to compensate. You gotta remember, this is just a tool to get you close, it's not the perfect answer. Just think of it as another option to using your ears to tell you what is sonically correct.

Its not about changing your pitch to .5 he's saying .5 = 50% or half...in other words if you come out with an answer of 84.4, 84.3, 84.2, 84.1 then you round off to 84. If your answer is 84.5, 84.6, 84.7, 84.8, 84.9 then your answer is 85.
exactly what I always wanted to say on this matter...but you summed it up fam...thankx bro!
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
yeah I've been with you from the start on this, we studied this briefly in music theology but very few applied it. Damn good thread tho!
 
ill o.g.
ok thanks guys, now I think I get it... I think I didn't word it right the first time, what I didn't understand was how you can set your velocity to "5" and your tone to "5" for example... I was like: "5 velocities? what's that" lol... but now I get what you mean

but what I don't get now is: why does that work? I mean, if you tune your kick, why is it related to the tempo? it would probably take a long time to explain, and it's not that important for me to know so you dont have to answer lol, but I'm still intrigued by this
 

Step Soprano

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
i have no idea what ya'll are talking about, but my guess(somewhat educated, mostly guessing) is that this works because the frequencies of all sounds have wave cycles that last a certain amount of time depending on how high or low(pitch wise) the sound is and maybe by doing this and all the dividing decimals and shit you are more closely aligning the wave cycles so they sync a bit better? no idea really
 
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