how do you find the right BPM?

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versuviusx
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how do you find the right BPM?

Post by versuviusx » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:24 pm

so is there a plugin i can buy to find the right BPM of a song or a file?
would love to find something that automatically finds the accurate BPM of a sound clip or a song

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Re: how do you find the right BPM?

Post by trodden » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:51 pm

versuviusx wrote:so is there a plugin i can buy to find the right BPM of a song or a file?
would love to find something that automatically finds the accurate BPM of a sound clip or a song
your foot, a watch, and some math?

that usually works, but when I'M lazy, i just tap the BPM deal on the boss Dr Sample and get its reading.

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Post by sparky » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:45 pm

or you can loop it and then check the length of the loop and the number of beats in the loop. some software will even do this for you if you put in the loop points and the number of beats.

also you can sanity check it, like if the song was obviously made with a sequencer, and your bpm from tapping it or looping it comes out to 106.003 BPM, probably safe to round that to an even 106.

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: how do you find the right BPM?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:06 pm

versuviusx wrote:so is there a plugin i can buy to find the right BPM of a song or a file?
would love to find something that automatically finds the accurate BPM of a sound clip or a song
also take into consideration some sound clips/songs are continuously non consistent in their tempo..

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Post by BeepBeep » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:14 pm

I have trouble with this too. When I working on a new song, I'll have a guitar part and will want to record it to a click or drum part. Finding the BPN always sucks the creative juices out of me.

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RodC
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Post by RodC » Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:44 pm

There are a lot of BPM calculaters out there you can download. Search google BPM tap.

Cakewalk use to have one built in....
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Post by C_R_J » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:11 pm

im curious what you will be doing with the bpms. whats the info for? you gonna dj? samples? what?

i used to use traktor alot. it did it, but thats quite a boat of a program to use for just that feature.
time is money and im wasting both...

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Re: how do you find the right BPM?

Post by fossiltooth » Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:20 pm

BeepBeep wrote:I have trouble with this too. When I working on a new song, I'll have a guitar part and will want to record it to a click or drum part. Finding the BPN always sucks the creative juices out of me.
This is actually a slightly different question.

If you have written a part and you want to try to find a temp for setting the click, get a little pocket metronome with a tap tempo function. I think the boss MA-20 is like 20 bucks.
versuviusx wrote:so is there a plugin i can buy to find the right BPM of a song or a file?
would love to find something that automatically finds the accurate BPM of a sound clip or a song
If you have ProTools, you can create a loop and use the "Identify Beat" function. Alternately, a $20 metronome should help do the trick for you as well, but if you slice the beat well, Identify Beat can be more accurate. Although it can go by different names, just about all DAW's have a similar function.

Most delay plug-ins have a tap tempo feature as well.
Last edited by fossiltooth on Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

rwc
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Post by rwc » Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:09 pm

Logic has a BPM counter built in.

Makes hip hop sessions where people bring their own beat track a breeze.
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Post by iC » Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:48 am

if on mac,i believe there is a widget for Dashboard called "The Tapper".

I do recall in my assisting days, that one could take a stopwatch and count the number of beats (foot tapping) in 11 (??!!) seconds. Somehow this was then interpolated into a tempo in milliseconds, which then could be divided into 1/4, 1/8/, 1/16, etc. notes for delay times? I wish i could remember that technique....
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Post by mrufino1 » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:13 am

analogx has a bpm calculator that is free, only for PC I think. Also, a lot of delays have tap tempos built in (waves supertap for instance).

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JohnDavisNYC
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Post by JohnDavisNYC » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:39 am

any shitty metronome will do.

and everyone who is involved in playing or recording music should own a metronome... helpful little tools they be...

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Post by drumsound » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:59 am

toaster3000 wrote:any shitty metronome will do.

and everyone who is involved in playing or recording music should own a metronome... helpful little tools they be...

john
Oh so true!

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Post by rwc » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:21 am

I have one that's over three times as old as me, but it doesn't keep the beat right. :(
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Post by fossiltooth » Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:29 am

RWC wrote:I have one that's over three times as old as me, but it doesn't keep the beat right. :(
What was that?

A conductor joke?

You ever hear this one: What's the difference between a Bull and an Orchestra?

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