Remixing A Song But Dont Know The Tempo

[rallycapmusic]

Hey guys!

A friend of mine wants me to remix a song he did at another studio. The problem is, the song is at the 120bpm default tempo. What am I to do to find the tempo of the song so I can start build a beat for it.

It has all the vocal and music tracks but am I to use Beat Detective for this and if so, how? Im not to familiar with Beat Detective because I never really had a reason to use it until now.

Thanks!

[Synthy08]

Originally Posted by rallycapmusic

Hey guys!

A friend of mine wants me to remix a song he did at another studio. The problem is, the song is at the 120bpm default tempo. What am I to do to find the tempo of the song so I can start build a beat for it.

It has all the vocal and music tracks but am I to use Beat Detective for this and if so, how? Im not to familiar with Beat Detective because I never really had a reason to use it until now.

Thanks!

Remixing is SOOOOO hard!......i get like 30 seconds perfect then it goes ALL over the place.

[voicegenius]

This is the best piece of free software you'll ever need... Are you on a Mac?

MixMeister Free Stuff :: BPM Analyzer

[alleyeseeing]

In Protools I usually use Identify Beat. I zoom into the selection I want which most of the time would start on a down beat and use Tab to Transient while holding down shift till say 4 or 8 bars are selected (highlighted) and make sure you have Loop Playback on. Once it sounds like it is looping tight and no glitches, hit Identify Beat and enter in 1/1/00 till 5/1/00, that is if it is 4 bars and press apply or enter. Pro Tools 8 for some reason gives me the Tempo in double time (ex. 180.23), so I usually just divide it by 2 but if you make your tracks in double time you should be good to go. Try the above steps in different parts of the original track sent because some producers including myself tend to change tempos for different sequences, like maybe the bridge or break before or after the chorus.

Peace,
Shakim

[rallycapmusic]

Originally Posted by voicegenius

This is the best piece of free software you'll ever need... Are you on a Mac?

MixMeister Free Stuff :: BPM Analyzer

Yeah Im on a Mac..I just tried that software, thanks! It gives the results in double time but Its works great and pretty darn close. Just to test it, I bounced out a beat i had in Protools and took note of the tempo (81bpm). Drug that file into Mixmiester and it gives me a temp of 162.XX. Its great!

Thanks Again.

[chris carter]

Why don't you just zoom in, find a downbeat (or any other beat) and then go a few measures ahead (like 4 or 8) and find the same beat. Then measure the time (point_B - point_A = elapsed_time). Then just cross multiply and divide to get the beats per minute. I do this all the time and it takes me like 30 seconds and it's damn accurate.

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

[rallycapmusic]

Originally Posted by chris carter

Why don't you just zoom in, find a downbeat (or any other beat) and then go a few measures ahead (like 4 or 8) and find the same beat. Then measure the time (point_B - point_A = elapsed_time). Then just cross multiply and divide to get the beats per minute. I do this all the time and it takes me like 30 seconds and it's damn accurate.

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

School? Well YOU must not be to bright yourself if you have to do ALL THAT just to get a bpm! It would make more since to just use the MixMiester. To fastes route from point A to B is a straight line, not ZIG ZAGGING.

[tlennon]

Originally Posted by chris carter

It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

That's cold Chris tutt!

[voicegenius]

Damn, did everyone have some asshole juice today? What's the deal? What difference does it make HOW you got the bpm??
...

[anguswoodhead]

Originally Posted by voicegenius

This is the best piece of free software you'll ever need... Are you on a Mac?

MixMeister Free Stuff :: BPM Analyzer

Thanks dude.

[tonymission]

Originally Posted by chris carter

Why don't you just zoom in, find a downbeat (or any other beat) and then go a few measures ahead (like 4 or 8) and find the same beat. .

Do this.

Select the region.

Hit CMD-I

Set the start of the region to (say) 5:0:0

Set the end of the region to (say) 9:0:0

Voila.

If you're finding it sliding off later, find the downbeat on (say) 45 and do the same thing.

Gotta have this down for every day engineering. Can't fly hooks without it (properly).

[Chris Lago]

I use virtual Dj for remixes, gets it right all the time. I'm actually releasing a new beatport remix in July!

[rallycapmusic]

Originally Posted by Makinithappen

And oh the irony that that person calls themself "Tha Scientist"

Yea and part of being a "Scientsit" is finding the BEST WAY POSSIBLE to do things, NOT wasting my creative time messing around with tricky mathmetics and fiddling with numbers. If I wanted a MATH class I would go enroll at Cal Berkeley.

[rallycapmusic]

[QUOTE=Makinithappen;4312869]your little program..it's wrong a lot?[QUOTE]

LOL! Thats YOUR opinion! Oakland, Ca is the BEST place to visit, EVER! Thats MY OPINION, get it?

[gorillainthemix]

Originally Posted by chris carter

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

rofl! Nice one.
@rallycap
coming back calling him "not too bright" with a bunch of spelling errors and caps is....well....not too bright. +1 for Chris and Makinithappen, obviously two people with more experience and knowledge than yourself. Embrace their information and advice instead of getting all defensive.


Finding the BPM and checking it takes about 30 seconds. If you're a good musician you shouldn't even need a friggin program to do so. But anyway, good luck on your remix, and by the way...I used to lived in Richmond/Alameda and I disagree with your opinion. But Makinithappen wasn't expressing an opinion, but a statement based on a fact. Namely, the program is not 100% accurate.

[sardi]

As mentioned already, Identify Beat in Pro Tools. Select a 4/8 bar measure, identify beat - done.

It literally is a 30 sec task. I do this task many times a day when doing radio production.

Best of luck.

[T. Gundersen]

I might be pretty stoneage with this, but I always find the correct tempo within a few minutes by importing the instrumental to Logic, matching up tempo by ear, finetuning it so it starts on the 1st beat, and then align transients to grid while adjusting tempo. Doesn't work on material with no clear beat though.

[Stitch333]

You know if Apple is making a widget for it (bpmWidget) it is a very simple thing to do...

[ryst]

I use Ableton Live for all my remixing duties. in my opinion, there isn't a better tool for remixing than Live.

[vanpet]

i use a tap tempo function on my guitar-tuner.

it's not very accurate, but you can quickly tweak it more precisely in your DAW.

[dhiltonlittle]

there are tons of ways to find tempo's. a lot of good ones have already been mentioned. try this, in PT, turn the conductor off on the transport bar. now highlight the bpm, play the track and hit the T key on your keyboard along with the beat. this will get you in the general ball park. most tracks (pop, hip hop, rnb) i've seen have no decimals but i've found that a lot of songs that were done on an mpc will be like 92.364. i guess from quickly setting the tempo with the wheel? who knows. anyway, tap, get tempo, tab to transient on a kick and line up. just another one of the millions of ways to do it.

[doctah]

Originally Posted by rallycapmusic

Yea and part of being a "Scientsit" is finding the BEST WAY POSSIBLE to do things

best /= quickest or easiest

I'm not the one to get into these cat fights...but really - you should know how to do something like this on your own w/o the little program. Yes...the guy took a shot at you. Ignore that part of the post or go after each other in PM...whatever. Understand the "meat" of his post is right.

I find a 2 or 4 bar loop in the original song/acapella and do the math (which I think would fall into the category of pre-algebra...at least 6th or 7th grade...not 4th! ) You're likely starting your beat w/ a loop anyway

[azrael kennedy]

Originally Posted by chris carter

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

lmao pwnt.

[Mr.Amokk]

Originally Posted by rallycapmusic

Hey guys!

A friend of mine wants me to remix a song he did at another studio. The problem is, the song is at the 120bpm default tempo. What am I to do to find the tempo of the song so I can start build a beat for it.

It has all the vocal and music tracks but am I to use Beat Detective for this and if so, how? Im not to familiar with Beat Detective because I never really had a reason to use it until now.

Thanks!

I do it oldschool style, but it works great: You take the fullversion (or instru) and hit play while counting the beats (usually snare) for exactly one minute. There you have the BPM (beats per minute). Some guys only count 30 secs and take the time x2, but that usually leads to problems.

Hope I could help, peace...

[Track Layer]

I personally load the full song with instrumental on track one, then I load in the acappella on track two and match the vocals to the song with instrumental. Once I achieve the Phaser effect then I know its a match. Then I check the vocals all the way through to make sure they match on the whole song (if acappella was recorded from a record player it tends slow down) then I just match the snare and adjust the tempo accordingly.

Not sure if this is the way most people do it but this is the way I taught myself and I have done plenty of remixes and it usually doesnt take me very long to do at all. Hope this helps!

[DaKid]

Originally Posted by chris carter

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

Is it just me, or is it everytime someone tries to insult someone else's intelligence on the internet, there's always some kind of spelling error in their insult?


But on the contrary, people really should do (or at least try to do) some searching before posting these kinds of questions. I just googled "how to find the bpm of a song" and that "MixMeister" is the second hit. It literally takes seconds to find the answers to a lot of these questions.

Google is your friend.

[Lawrence]

This is all kinda funny since not every "tempo" is a perfect computer generated tempo that can be locked in by measuring a couple of bars? I.E. live music.

I use tempo warping in Cubase for those songs that aren't played to a click of computer metronome.

Besides, I think every daw on the planet has tap tempo now right?

[phillysoulman]

Originally Posted by chris carter

Why don't you just zoom in, find a downbeat (or any other beat) and then go a few measures ahead (like 4 or 8) and find the same beat. Then measure the time (point_B - point_A = elapsed_time). Then just cross multiply and divide to get the beats per minute. I do this all the time and it takes me like 30 seconds and it's damn accurate.

I don't want to seem harsh, but "how do I find the tempo" questions come up on this forum all the freakin' time. It's litterally 4th grade math. Oh, my bad, this is the HIP-HOP forum... nobody here actually went to school....

lmaofuuckfuuck

[Storyville]

Originally Posted by voicegenius

Damn, did everyone have some asshole juice today? What's the deal? What difference does it make HOW you got the bpm??
...

It's on sale!

[brian_delizza]

Originally Posted by alleyeseeing

In Protools I usually use Identify Beat.
Peace,
Shakim

That's the way it should be done. + 1 for that....