Tempo

Figure 140. Tempo track.

Your project can incorporate all kinds of tempo changes, including instant changes from one tempo to another, gradual increases (accelerandos) or decreases (ritardandos), and almost any other type of change you can imagine.

A recording can sometimes sound mechanical if the project has a single static tempo. The tempo in a natural human performances tends to drift slightly, which can produce more musical and interesting results.

You can add tempo changes to your project in the following ways:

By drawing tempo changes graphically in the Tempo track. For details, see Using the Tempo track.

Inserting tempo changes in the Tempo Inspector. For details, see Using the Tempo Inspector.

Setting the project’s initial tempo by clicking the tempo display in the Control Bar’s Transport module. For details, see Using the Transport module.

Using the Project > Insert Tempo Change and Project > Insert Series of Tempos commands. For details, see Using the Tempo commands.

By extracting tempo information from audio clips. For details, see Setting the project tempo from an audio recording.

By tapping along with the recording. For details, see Setting the project tempo from freely recorded MIDI or audio.

By aligning measure and beat boundaries manually. For details, see Aligning measure/beat boundaries manually.

The Process > Fit to Time and Process > Fit Improvisation commands can also be used to introduce tempo changes. For more information, see Stretching and shrinking events and Fit Improvisation.

 

Note: Tempo changes have no effect if the clock source is set to MIDI Sync, because Cakewalk follows the external tempo. For more information, see Synchronizing your gear.

 

See:

How tempo changes affect audio clips

How tempo changes affect automation

Tempo track

Tempo Inspector

Changing tempos

Using the Tempo track

Using the Tempo Inspector

Using the Transport module

Using the Tempo commands

Offsetting the tempo map

Setting the project tempo from an audio recording

Setting the project tempo from freely recorded MIDI or audio

Aligning measure/beat boundaries manually

Setting the Metronome and Tempo settings

Backwards compatibility