Reference Guide

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Changing the timing of a recording
Editing MIDI events and continuous controllers (CC)
SONAR lets you record music from a MIDI controller without requiring that you use a fixed tempo. In
fact, if you record without using a metronome, you are very likely to end up with a recording that
does not fit onto a fixed tempo grid.
The Process > Fit Improvisation command lets you take a recording and create a tempo map (with
measure and beat boundaries) that fits what you played. Your performance is not changed in any
way, even though the note start times and durations are adjusted to fit the new tempo map. This is
important if you later want to use any of SONAR’s editing features that depend on a proper tempo
map for best results.
To use this command, you must record a reference track containing a single clip that matches your
original track or tracks but has only a single note on each beat boundary. You should make sure that
the reference track has one event for every single beat, with no extra beats or missing beats. The
first beat of the reference track should be at 1:01:000. You can use any editing command to adjust
the reference track.
If you want, you can use other types of events as markers on the reference track, such as a sustain
pedal. Remember, however, that MIDI sustain pedals generate one event when the pedal is pressed
and another when it is released. So if you want to use the sustain pedal for the reference track, keep
this in mind. Click down, up, down, up, for one, two, three, four.
Remember that the better the quality of your reference track, the better job the Fit Improvisation
command can do. You want each of your reference track events to be as close as possible to the
beat of the music. Note that some keyboards transmit aftertouch events when you record your
reference track. These extra events will prevent Process > Fit Improvisation from working
properly. Therefore, you should delete these events before using this command, or filter them out
when recording the reference track (using Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Playback and Recording).
To fit tempos to an improvisation
1. Record the reference track.
2. Select the reference track.
3. If necessary, combine all clips in the reference track into a single clip using the Track view
Clips > Bounce to Clip(s) command.
4. Choose Process > Fit Improvisation.
SONAR adds tempo changes as necessary to fit the tempo grid to the reference track. When you’re
done, you should mute the reference track, since the reference track events are not rescaled.
You can also use the Set/Measure Beat At Now command to align a freely played MIDI
performance with the Time Ruler.
Note: If the resulting tempo grid exceeds 250 beats per minute, you will see an error message.
If this happens, you can shorten the start times of each event using the Process > Length
command, decrease the tempo to compensate for the change, and then try again.