Instruction Manual

383
Aligning Project Tempo to a Clip
AudioSnap
3. Next to the Extract Timing button is the Expected Pulse Duration menu.
If your selected clip has a constant rhythm that conforms to a certain
note duration, select that duration in the menu. If the clip has a steady
rhythm whose transients don’t all conform to a certain note duration,
select the note duration that describes the basic pattern, but also
enable the Find a Steady Rhythm check box. For example, if your clip is
a bass drum playing on every beat, but containing a short pickup note
before certain beats, this option can distinguish between the sounds
that are on the beat, and those that are pickups.
4. Click the Extract Timing button.
Your project tempo changes to align with the selected clip. If the downbeats
aren’t aligned properly for the meter your project uses, you can use the
following procedure to set your meter (time signature) and downbeats
correctly. Or you can use the following procedure by itself, to extract timing
and set the downbeats and meter.
To Set Downbeats and Meter with the Set Measure/
Beat At Now Command
1. If the project already contains many tempo changes (as a result of first
trying Extract Timing), first smooth out the tempo changes in the Tempo
view before using Set Measure/Beat at Now. Otherwise you may
experience “Invalid Measure and Beat” error messages.
2. Place the Now time marker at some point just before the first beat of the
song.
3. Click the Go To Next (Transient) button in the palette to move the
Now Time to the next beat that you know is the start of a measure.
4. With the cursor placed on that beat, click the Set Measure/Beat at Now
button in the palette to open the Measure/Beat Meter dialog.
5. Type in the bar/beat number (and optionally Meter/Key), and click OK.
This establishes the position for that measure in the Time Ruler.
6. Repeat steps 2-4, and identify as many downbeats (beat 1's) as
necessary throughout the song. Programmed music may not require
many points since the tempo won't drift, but live recordings of music will
require that many beats be identified. Once you've identified all of the
downbeats, the tempo SONAR follows will be determined by the actual
performance. You may also choose to identify beats within each
measure as well, depending on your needs.