<p>
When you load an audio clip into a trigger slot, Ardour applies some
- heuristics to estimate its temo in beats per minute. If neither the file
- name nor the metadata specify it, Ardour will use
- <a href="https://github.com/breakfastquay/minibpm">minibpm</a> to analyze
- the file assuming it has a fixed tempo.
+ heuristics to estimate its temo in beats per minute. Unless a metadata
+ in the file source provides information,
+ <a href="https://github.com/breakfastquay/minibpm">minibpm</a> is used
+ to analyze and detect the file's BPM.
</p>
<p>
- After estimating the tempo, Ardour will enable stretching for the clip
- to make it match session's bpm at any given time. This means that should
- session's tempo change over time (in either ramped or constant mode),
- Ardour will re-stretch all audio clips to accomodate for that.
+ After tempo is estimated, the clip is time-stretched to match the
+ session's tempo map. This means that should session's tempo change over
+ time (in either ramped or constant mode), all audio clips will be
+ re-stretched to accomodate for that.
</p>
<p>
<h2>BPM</h2>
<p>
- This is where Ardour displays the estimated tempo rounded to the closest
- integer. You can progressively divide or mutiply by two whatever Ardour
- thinks is the original tempo.
+ This is where the estimated tempo is displayed. It can also
+ be progressively divided or mutiplied by two.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
- If you divide the estimated clip's tempo by 2, you get 45bpm. Stretching it
- back to 120bpm will make it sound faster. And multiplying the original
- clip's tempo by 2 will make it 180bpm. Stretched down to 120bpm, the clip
- will sound slower than it originally is.
+ If the estimated clip's tempo is divided by 2, stretching the resulted
+ 45bpm back to 120bpm will make the clip sound faster. Vice versa,
+ multiplying the original clip's tempo by 2 and then stretching it down
+ from 180bpm to 120bpm will make the clip sound slower than it originally is.
</p>
<h2>Clip Length</h2>
-Measured in beats. Affects the bpm. FIXME
+<p>
+ This control allows adjusting the estimated tempo in a finer manner,
+ by changing the amount of beats it takes to play the clip in the selected
+ trigger slot. The change is immediately displayed in the BPM field above.
+</p>
<h2>Length in Bars</h2>
-<p>It’s a hint to help you counting. FIXME</p>
-
-<p>1) when a file is loaded, we infer its bpm either by minibpm's estimate, a flag in the filename, metadata (TBD) or other means</p>
-
-<p>2) we assume the clip must have an integer number of beats in it (simplest case is a one-bar loop with 4 beats in it)</p>
-
-<p>3) ...so we round to the nearest beat length, and set the tempo to *exactly* fit the sample-length into the assumed beat-length</p>
-
-<p>4) the user may recognize a problem: "this was a 3/4 beat, which was rounded to 4 beats but it should have been 3"</p>
-
-<p>5) if the user changes the beat-length, then the tempo is recalculated for use during stretching</p>
-
-<p>6) someday, we will also allow the sample start and length to be adjusted in a trimmer, and that will also adjust the tempo</p>
-
-<p>7) in all cases the user should be in final control; but our "internal" value for stretching are just sample-start and BPM, end of story</p>
\ No newline at end of file
+<p>
+ This is an estimate of the clip's length as measured in bars for two
+ popular time signatures: 4/4 and 3/4.
+</p>
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff