Timing and BPM

WiNC · Post by **WiNC** » 27/02/2004 - 7:41

Hi,

Been looking at doing my own remixes, however before I start I have been trying to figure out the timing and bpm's of tracks. However, this is one are of school music I was pretty useless at.

Is there any tips or tricks you can offer to explain how you figure out what time signature and bpm of a piece?

Thanks

Winc

ifadeo · Post by **ifadeo** » 27/02/2004 - 8:36

use a beatcounter, a drumcomputer or your ears...

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/DJ_BPM_Counter/

'bout time signature, hmm, most remixes i've done are in
4/4 measure, except 'max headroom' is based on 3/4 measure...

cheers ifadeo

WiNC · Post by **WiNC** » 27/02/2004 - 12:13

Thanks - bar the program - I have been doing pretty much the listening, and drum machine approach... Cakewalk also has its own BPM "push space" addition - but it isn't working correctly.

I think (for the case of sweet) either I have made the wave incorrectly, or it isn't keeping to bpm. I suspect it is a timing issue, so I'm just going to have to make a best guess at it, and work from there... Since I suspect it is at 125bpm 4/4 - however in Fruitloops it doesn't really keep in time with the wave file... Oh well, just gonna do it all by ear, and see what I come up with

Post by **LMan** » 27/02/2004 - 13:37

The most accurate way is to calculate the BPM in a wav editor,
the following example is for a 125BPM SID.

1. Make a 44.100Hz WAV from the SID (with SidPlay for example)

2. Load into a sample player.

3. Select an exact ammount of beats with the selection tool.
(Let's say 16 beats). The Proggie should display the exact ammount
of samples selected. (338688 samples for our example)

4. Calculate:

Code: Select all

    44100 hz  *  16 beats  *  60 sec        42336000
    --------------------------------   =    --------   =   125 BPM
              338688 samples                  338688

There

- Markus

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 27/02/2004 - 15:18

As a shortcut, many tunes are 125bpm or 93.75bpm because this value is mysteriously tied to the 50Hz refresh rate. Martin Galway's tracks mostly weigh in at 125bpm or 93.75. Rob Hubbard's tempos are all over the place though

Chris

ifadeo · Post by **ifadeo** » 27/02/2004 - 15:58

try this progy:

http://download.ucsoft.de/ucsc141.zip

it's a easy to use samplecalculator, brilliant tool....

cheers ifadeo

WiNC · Post by **WiNC** » 01/03/2004 - 2:51

Thanks all - funny enough - 125 is the bpm of Sweet from what I can tell, but I think there is something up with the wave since it will increase bpm slighty, and decrease bpm slighty ... so maybe I'm ripping the wave from SID incorrectly...

Either way I'm doing 90% of it by ear anyway - while playing the sid. Takes longer, but I'm adding my own "feel" to the piece I believe

Tracey