3 Tempo and meter belong together. Without both, there is no way to know where
8 Tempo provides a musical pulse, which is divided into beats and bars by a
9 meter. When tempo is changed or an audio-locked meter is moved, all objects
10 on the timeline that are glued to bars and beats (locations, regions) will
15 When performing meter or tempo operations, it is advisable to use the BBT
16 ruler (available by right-clicking an existing marker or ruler name), and
17 ensure that the constraint modifier is set (in Preferences->User Interaction)
18 so that no other modifiers share its key combination. The constraint modifier
19 is the "Constrain drags using: " setting under the "When Beginning a Drag"
20 heading. One viable setting is
21 <kbd class="mod1n"></kbd><kbd class="mod3n"></kbd>.
27 Tempo can be adjusted in several ways:
31 <li>by double clicking on a tempo marker. This opens the tempo dialog which
32 allows entering the tempo directly into an entry box.</li>
33 <li>by using the constraint modifier (which is set in Preferences->User
34 Interaction) to drag the beat/bars in the BBT ruler or the tempo/meter lines.
35 This is the preferred way to match the tempo to previously recorded
39 When dragging the BBT ruler, musical snap has no effect, however be warned
40 that non-musical snap is in effect if enabled. Snapping to a minute while
41 dragging a beat may result in some verly slow tempos. Snapping a beat to a
42 video frame however is an incredibly useful way to ensure a soundtrack is
43 punchy and synchronised to the sample.
46 <li>by holding down the constaint modifier while dragging a tempo vertically.
47 This is used for more complex tempo solving, as it allows changing of the
48 position and tempo of a tempo marker in the same drag; it is, however, a
49 useful way to adjust the first tempo for a quick result.</li>
53 A tempo may be locked to audio or musical time. This can be changed by <kbd
54 class="mouse">right</kbd>-clicking on a tempo. If a tempo is locked to music,
55 an entry will be available to lock it to audio. Similarly an audio-locked
56 tempo may be locked to music by <kdb class="mouse">right</kbd>-clicking it
57 and selecting the "Lock to Music" entry.
61 Audio locked tempo marks stay in their frame position as their neigbour's
62 positions are altered. Their pulse (musical) position will change as their
63 neighbours move. Music locked tempo marks move their frame position as their
64 neighbours are moved, but keep their pulse position (they will move as the
69 A tempo may be constant or ramped:
73 <li>A constant tempo will keep the sesion tempo constant until the next tempo
74 section, at which time it will jump instantly to the next tempo. These are
75 mostly useful abrupt changes, and is the way in which traditional DAWs deal
76 with tempo changes (abrupt jumps in tempo).</li>
77 <li>A ramped tempo increases its tempo over time so that when the next tempo
78 section has arrived, the sesion tempo is the same as the second one. This is
79 useful for matching the session tempo to music which has been recorded
80 without a metronome. Ramps may also be used as a compositional tool, but more
81 on this later. Note that a ramp requires two points—a start and an end
82 tempo. The first tempo in a new session is ramped, but appears to be constant
83 as it has no tempo to ramp to. It is only when a new tempo is added and one
84 of them is adjusted that a ramp will be heard. The same applies to the last
85 tempo in the session—it will always appear to be constant until a new
86 last tempo is added and changed.</li>
90 <img src="/images/constant-tempo.png" alt="A constant tempo displaying the tempo at the playhead in the audio clock">
92 A series of constant tempo markers. The tempo at the playhead position is the same as the previous tempo.
97 <img src="/images/ramped-tempo.png" alt="A ramped tempo displaying the tempo at the playhead in the audio clock">
99 A ramped tempo marker. The tempo at the playhead position is approaching the second tempo. Because the playhead is equidistant (in beats) between the two markers, the tempo at the playhead is the average of the two.
104 To add a new tempo, use the primary modifier and click on the tempo line at
105 the desired position. The new tempo will be the same as the tempo at the
106 position of the mouse click (it will not change the shape of the ramp).
110 To copy a tempo, hold down the primary modifier and drag the tempo to be
117 Meter positions beats using the musical pulse of a tempo, and groups them
118 into bars using its number of divisions per bar.
122 The first meter in a new session may be moved freely. It has an associated
123 tempo which cannot be dragged by itself (although all others can). It can be
124 moved freely and is locked to audio.
128 New meters are locked to music. They may only occur on a bar line if music
133 An audio locked meter provides a way to cope with musical passages which have
134 no meter (rubato, pause), or to allow a film composer to insert a break in
135 music which cannot be counted in beats.
139 If a meter is audio-locked, its bar number is fixed from the point at which
140 it left the main score. That bar number cannot be changed, nor can tempo
141 motion allow the previous bar to overlap. If another bar is needed, lock the
142 meter to music again (right click->"Lock to Music"), drag the meter to the
143 desired bar and re-lock to audio. The new bar can be freely dragged again.
147 <li>To change a meter, double click it. A dialog will appear.</li>
148 <li>To copy a meter, hold down <kbd class="mod1n"></kbd> and drag it.</li>