finding out the bpm of an accapella
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Posted on Mar 27, 2003 04:53 pm
koolio
Member Since: Mar 27, 2003
i am pretty new to the producing game and i am interested in doing some rnb remixes just to get to grips with working with vocals, has anyone got any good ideas on finding out the bpm of accapellas. many thanks Koolio
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Mar 27, 2003 06:18 pm i like the "tappable" counters where you just tap tap tap on every 1/4 note and after a few moments the bpm begins to zero in to an accurate reading.
i use "Sample Calculator" (brilliant name huh?) which is a free stand-alone program you can find here www.ucsoft.de/ just click on the "Multimedia" link and and download the "SampleCalc" program. it also contains some number crunching functions that i rarely use. i mostly just use it to tap out an approimate tempo of a song that i'm hearing.
it works by dividing the ellapsed time since youstarted clicking with the number of clicks you made, and displays the approximate bpm accurate to the 10th of a bpm. try it out on a dance track first to get the hang of it. click on every kick drum. boom boom boom boom. of course it's only as accurate as your clicks. if you mess up just stop click for a few seconds and it resets itself.
there's better beat calculators out there, but this one works for me, and i'm too lazy too look around for something else. -j
Mar 27, 2003 08:36 pm Analog X has a little software taper that figures BPM's...along with tons of other groovy little freeware effects for random and unique uses. www.analogx.com/
For "Tap Tempo" www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/taptempo.htm
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Mar 28, 2003 08:18 am You guys kill me! Buco high tech solutions to everything. Please don't misunderstand I think it is cool. But how bout your foot and a stop watch? Start taping your foot and when it gets in sync start your stop watch at the last beat of a measure. Count out say five or ten measures and stop the watch on the last beat of a counted measure. Divide the beats counted by the time on the stop watch.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Mar 28, 2003 08:24 am Or just smash the space bar 5 times... :)
Mar 28, 2003 08:24 am Argh, Walt, you are so old school... ;-)
Mar 28, 2003 08:46 am Or just old.
Hehe... just kidding walt.
koolioMember
Since: Mar 27, 2003
Mar 28, 2003 11:37 am thanks alot guys iam gonna try all methods and let you know what worked best with me once again your help is much appreciated
p.s just tried sample calc and have to say it is great all the time such a simple program could have saved me hours of torture and chipmunked vocals
DanMember
Since: Nov 21, 2002
Mar 28, 2003 12:40 pm I think the watch method is much more practical, simply because you don't have a computer always at your disposal... Though im sure that will change within 5 years.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Mar 28, 2003 05:12 pm I resemble those remarks, I want you to know!
Mar 28, 2003 06:06 pm hehe chimpmunked vocals are unacceptable
I once used WaveLab to time-shift two songs into the same tempo in order to make a remix, without changing their pitch. I scooted a trance anthem from 138 to 150bpm, and i scooted a reggae song from 83bpm down to 75. the results were pretty decent. only the lower frequencies got garbled and gumboed is the transfer. the two songs melded nicely together.
BTW i used SampleCalc to determine the appx bpms
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Mar 28, 2003 08:34 pm Geez Walt, that brings back some bad memories. I had a timex sittin on the mixer all the time just for that purpose. Man when I think about what it was like to beat match back then, it gives me the willys.
