Setting the project tempo from freely recorded MIDI or audio

You can record a performance without the metronome and have Sonar adapt the project tempo to match the tempo of the recording.

The Process > Fit Improvisation command lets you take a recording and create a tempo map (with measure and beat boundaries) that fits what you played. Your performance is not changed in any way, even though MIDI note start times and durations are adjusted to fit the new tempo map. This is important if you later want to use any of Sonar’s editing features that depend on a proper tempo map for best results, such as Snap to Grid and Quantize.

In order to create a tempo map, you must first record a MIDI reference track and tap in the beat (one note per beat). To do so:

1.	Select Insert > MIDI Track to insert a new blank MIDI track, then arm it for recording.

2.	Rewind to the start of the project, and start recording.

Use a MIDI controller to tap the tempo along to the beat of the freely recorded music.

IMPORTANT: You must record only a single MIDI note on each beat boundary. The reference track must contain one event for every single beat, with no extra beats or missing beats. Missing or extra MIDI events will cause the tempo matching to fail. The first beat of the reference track should be at 1:01:000.

The better the quality of your reference track, the better job the Fit Improvisation command can do. You want each of your reference track events to be as close as possible to the beat of the music.

3.	Stop recording and play back the recorded MIDI notes together with the original recording to check if the timing is correct. Make any necessary corrections. You can use any editing command to adjust the reference track.

4.	The reference track must only contain a single MIDI clip. If there are multiple clips, combine all clips in the reference track into a single clip using the Track view Clips > Bounce to Clip(s) command.

5.	Select the reference MIDI clip, then select Process > Fit Improvisation.

Sonar adds tempo changes as necessary to fit the tempo grid to the reference track. When you’re done, you should mute the reference track, since the reference track events are not rescaled.

Note: If the resulting tempo grid exceeds 250 beats per minute, you will see an error message. If this happens, you can shorten the start times of each event using the Process > Length command, decrease the tempo to compensate for the change, and then try again.

 

Note: If you want, you can use other types of events as markers on the reference track, such as a sustain pedal. Remember, however, that MIDI sustain pedals generate one event when the pedal is pressed and another when it is released. So if you want to use the sustain pedal for the reference track, keep this in mind. Click down, up, down, up, for one, two, three, four. Some keyboards transmit aftertouch events when you record your reference track. These extra events will prevent Process > Fit Improvisation from working properly. Therefore, you should delete these events before using this command, or filter them out when recording the reference track (using Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Playback and Recording).

You can also use the Project > Set/Measure Beat At Now command to align a freely played MIDI performance with the Time Ruler. For details, see Aligning measure/beat boundaries manually.

 

See also:

Fit Improvisation

To fit tempos to an improvisation

To sync the project tempo to freely played MIDI

 

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

Setting the project tempo by tapping

Offsetting the tempo map

Setting the project tempo from an audio recording

Aligning measure/beat boundaries manually

Setting the Metronome and Tempo settings

Backwards compatibility

Tempo