[III_Demon]

this has been annoying me for a while, and i havent found a clear answer in any of the tutorials or documentation. i’m betting its out there somewhere, so sorry if this is a dumb question:

 

when beat mapping, should the beat fall exactly on the start of a sound, or a hair after, on the first big peak?

 

2 images to show what i mean:

http://imgur.com/a/O0F4T

 

i’ve seen it done both ways in various tutorials. the difference can be up to around 20ms or so, which is enough to make me second-guess my TV synch or my own playing or whatever….

 

is there a standard for this? is there a reference for how its done with official harmonix stuff?

 

part 1a of this question:

is it a better idea to nail every single beat as accurately as possible, or should i be aiming for a more ‘consistent’ beat map, and letting a measure or 2 or 4 keep the same beat, even though theres some real small drift on individual drum hits? i’m assuming the latter. i try to aim for a general beat, and allow the individual hits a bit of slop… but then that makes me wonder how to handle the first part of my question. =]

 

i guess my whole question boils down to: where should the beat be ‘centered’?

 

i’m interested in how the more experienced people handle this.

 

thanx for any and all insight anyone may have.

[Farottone]

If that span is 20ms, you’re tempo mapping using the wrong references. That looks like a sloppy bass note attack (again, based on waveform and timing you provided), you should use a dry sound, like a snare or a kick (kicks are better because they tend to be on the 1 of the measure but on older recordings they aren’t dry enough). Define small drift: on a normal tempo, not too fast and not too slow, with a low notes density, you can probably get away with as much as 30 ms of delay on a measure or two. If you’re authoring complex prog rock and similar or very slow songs and/or songs with high notes density you may even need to go as precise as beat by beat in some sections. Never, and I mean ever, judge your calibration using customs: make sure your setup works perfectly with official releases, then test customs.

[III_Demon]

thanx for quick reply. =]

 

thats actually a snare hit, from a cure song from 1979, so its pretty old and PUNK RAWK.

 

the reason its bugging me is i play drums on official songs, and it feels fine… but on a song i authored, i feel like i’m a little off. its so slight that i cant tell if theres actually a problem, or if i’m just being paranoid about my own work. i’m not a rock band god or anything, so i cant really trust my own gameplay skills to mean much.

 

are there a few good examples out there of official songs that i could look at in reaper? or should i start extracting things? i’ve never tried to disassemble an existing song, maybe thats what i should be doing?

[Drihscol]

Try not to over think it.

Make sure you’re always using the metronome when you author the tempo map.

If the timing on the drums are a bit sloppy, but the rest of the instrumentation is in time with it, then by all means author beat map to be perfectly in sync with the drums.

 

If the drums are a bit sloppy, and it’s a little bit out of time with the rest of the instrumentation, then author the beat with the rest of the instrumentation.

(The way I look at it is that for sloppy songs, you want the tempo map to be the click track that the performers were trying to play to. Not sure if I can explain this very well)

 

You can then author the drum notes that seem a bit too far out of time off of the grid lines, and the rest of the instruments won’t be effected.

 

As far as where on the envelope (the shape of the notes on the waveform) should you author the beat to, you want the click from the metronome to ‘disappear’ into the sound of the beat (unless the drums are out of time etc). The waveform is more of a guide for the tempo map rather than being exact. The most important thing is how it sounds.

[Kemiroch]

Hey Drihscol that is a nice way of putting it (having the metronome click disappear). I am still building up the courage to try my first tempo map, and its little ‘for dummies’ tips like that which give me hope that I might be able to do it ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

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