Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - M. Wagener’s and other’s opinions about “varispeed” or “multitempo” tracks
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Old 1st March 2006   #28
Killahurts
Lives for gear
 
Joined: Jun 2002
Location: USA
Posts: 1,751

Quote:
Originally Posted by blueman
Assuming we're going to use a click:

A constant tempo one (although it reduces some emotional dynamics)

vs.

A multitempo map (smoothed) for fitting in the emotional development of the song.

Hey Blueman I've got another option. As a composer myself, I have also found that some songs do not benefit from a constant tempo. But most of my attempts at creating tempo maps resulted in just another form of unnaturalness, and again, loss of the emotive dynamic.

Here's my method, I use Digital Performer:

I play and record the naked song, usually on a guitar or keyboard with no click (you could, of coarse, record a scratch of the entire band). When the recording reflects the envisioned tempo dynamic, I go to a "record beats" function in DP, and while listening to the take, I literally play the click track to the entire song, using the spacebar or a midi keyboard. I don't have to be perfect with it, because I can always go in after the fact and edit the placement of the beats, just like you would edit midi.

I get the natural feel of a free performance, but also a (somewhat loose) grid so I can do my composer thingies, like midi. And I get a click track that is a slave to the song, and not the other way around.

I have successfully used this method to record a singer/songwriter, and then Overdub the entire band/orchestration around that performance.

I've got to think most of the DAW's out there have this function, DP's had it for many years.

And concerning vari-speed, man do I miss it. As I was reading what Michael wrote about all the things you could do - the stacking tricks, the tightening, the color variations, etc. - I found myself wishing I had a nice slutty hard disk recorder that has that feature.
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