Pro Tools LE tempo map question...

Aaron Smith

Envisage Audio
Feb 10, 2006
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Seattle, WA
I'm almost completely good to go with the backing tracks for my band, but I have a tempo map question that I'm hoping there is a good answer to...

I have all the songs in the same session on a single stereo track, with a click insert on an aux send. The click of course, follows whatever tempo I automate in the map. There is one part of a song, where the band switches to two-thirds of the initial 4/4 beat, and per my drummer's request, he wants the click to switch to 118 bpm from the initial 177 bpm. If I change the tempo map at that point in the song, all the tempos after that point in the session no longer line up with the audio. So...I'm wondering if there is a way to lock a certain tempo area into a stationary position in the session, so that when I change a bpm ahead of that point, it doesn't affect what comes after it.

Hopefully my wording makes sense o_O I poked around for a while the other day in some different menus and I couldn't figure it out.

Thanks!
 
Great question Arron....
Man Ive had this same problem but it was just on one song so it was kinda a simple fix to just fix everything after it. I'm definitely would like to know also for future projects.

Oh by the way i actually listen to the pre production stuff the other day and sounds great. Can't wait to hear the new stuff! :kickass:
 
Maybe I don't understand. If you slow down the tempo, all of the other tempo points past it need to be moved back since you're adding time (min/secs) to the song. Again, maybe I'm missing something. How can you expect to add time to the song and have the other markers stay in place? Doesn't make sense to me. If you are just changing the feel, make sure you have the time signature set right otherwise you will be adding time.
 
It's not an unreasonable request. If I understand what you're asking, this is how I do it:

What I do is copy all the audio and tempo markers starting on the first tempo after the one I want to change, then I change whatever needs to be adjusted, find the tempo I started my copy from, and paste everything back. So everything up to the changed tempo isn't affected (as usual) and everything after isn't affected (because I copied it from before I adjusted the tempo) then I work with whatever needs to be done in the adjusted section.

If you want markers (Song section markers) to line up after you change the tempos, you have to change whether their reference is absolute (min/secs) or Bar/Beat. I don't think this is what you were asking, but it might be relevant.
 
Try changing you audio tracks to be "tick" based instead of "sample" based. When the audio is tick based, it will be fixed to a specific bar/beat and if you adjust the tempo it should move relative to your changes and still be in the correct spot.

(I think this is what you are wanting to do at least....)