Tempo Mapping for Bands

[crosstalk]

What program could I suggest to bands to map out the tempos and time signatures to their songs before they actually record? Is there anything free and reasonably easy to use?

I would love to just suggest that they use a trial version of Reaper and then get me the session files, but that would require a little know-how on their part.

Nothing comes to mind for me. When bands use Guitar Pro or Tab It (not sure that's the name), they tend to leave the whole song at 120bpm and just mess with note lengths to get it to sound correct.

I just had a band actually ask me what I would suggest for them to do so that they would be more prepared and I realized I haven't a clue what would work well for them.

Thanks.

 

[guitarplaya18]

i was going to say guitar pro or a program similar, but if that is too complicated for them, then I would suggest just sitting down with a metronome and counting it all out. Then write in down on paper. That would probably be the easiest way for them if they are not idiots haha

 

[Harley Barley]

When writing tempo maps should you work with the drummer or the guitar player? drummer seems obvious to me but then again the guitar player wrote the song and he knows how it should groove. What are you thoughts guys?

 

[crosstalk]

i was going to say guitar pro or a program similar, but if that is too complicated for them, then I would suggest just sitting down with a metronome and counting it all out. Then write in down on paper. That would probably be the easiest way for them if they are not idiots haha

I've had a few try that, rarely do any of the tempos they come up with actually match what it was supposed to be. So many of them are totally clueless when it comes to this stuff.

When writing tempo maps should you work with the drummer or the guitar player? drummer seems obvious to me but then again the guitar player wrote the song and he knows how it should groove. What are you thoughts guys?

If at all possible, work with both. Whenever I've mapped the tempos with only the guitar player, the drummer goes to play along and "this is too fast, this is too slow" starts to happen. What I like to do is have the guitar player play the part while the drummer either taps along or plays on my e-kit and I find the tempo. Then I play back the click and have them play along with it and make sure it feels right to them.

 

[DavePiatek]

You could always have the guitar player play a scratch track section by section and program the grid to his performance. I find this is usually WAY faster than trying to get the band the figure out their own tempos.

 

[crosstalk]

You could always have the guitar player play a scratch track section by section and program the grid to his performance. I find this is usually WAY faster than trying to get the band the figure out their own tempos.

This is also what I normally do to some extent. Find the tempo for say verse, scratch track it until tempo changes, then find new tempo and repeat.

I'm not necessarily trying to get them to do it, although it would be nice. Some want to do it, but don't know an easy way to go about doing so.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I'm a guitarist and when we did our clicks, I sat with the drummer and showed him all the clicks I had made....we both agreed everything was fine, but of course...when he started trying to track to the clicks, "too fast, too fast"....."but dude, you play it FASTER than this at practice!!!"

I just recorded us at practice, then in Reaper you can TAP the Tempo button, and if you already have a Time Sig Marker before the tempo you are trying to find, it will automatically change the tempo when you stop tapping.