# Recording With Tempo Changes



## GATA4 (Dec 14, 2010)

Hey guys,

So I think I have a pretty good question here:

How in the heck does one record a song where the bpm's change, midsong?

For example: bands like BTBAM, ATB, and especially The Dillinger Escape Plan, Born of Osiris, Elitist, and Structures........how do they record a single track where the tempo can vary sooooo much? 

Are there programmable metronomes that have something like: "program 200 bpm for 40 bars then switch to 260 bpm for 20 bars then switch to 160 bpm for 10 bars"? Or do they simply record one part at its particular bpm, then record the next part at its particular bpm, and so on? 

It just doesn't register with me , and it seems like it would be very complicated to get used to...switching from groove to groove...you have to feel the tempo, and I think it would take LOTS of practice to feel tempo changes like the above-mentioned do.

I guess continuity is my main focus here, and how it's achieved with this off-kilter stuff. ANY help is appreciated  

Take care.


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## highlordmugfug (Dec 14, 2010)

I don't feel that it's too hard. What I do is write the songs,and then then record/program the drum parts first, then record everything else after it. Just know the song and the changes and record.


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## GATA4 (Dec 14, 2010)

highlordmugfug said:


> I don't feel that it's too hard. What I do is write the songs,and then then record/program the drum parts first, then record everything else after it. Just know the song and the changes and record.



Fair enough. I guess my question is a bit more technical, and less in amazement or discovery. I will have to figure this out.


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## highlordmugfug (Dec 14, 2010)

GATA4 said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> So I think I have a pretty good question here:
> 
> ...





GATA4 said:


> Fair enough. I guess my question is a bit more technical, and less in amazement or discovery. I will have to figure this out.


I don't guess I understand what you're asking then...

What I bolded: playing using differing tempos and time signatures is a*ll about* being able to switch from groove to groove and feeling the tempo changes quickly. The only issue you'd have when recording would be making sure it was all the same since it isn't a live band setting and you wouldn't all be playing off of each other, but like I said, just getting the rhythm/drum tracks down first, listening to them at least once beforehand, and recording while listening to them is an easy fix.


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## xtrustisyoursx (Dec 14, 2010)

you just program a click track in your DAW. It goes pretty much how you described. You just input how many bars at what tempo in what time.


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## GATA4 (Dec 14, 2010)

highlordmugfug said:


> I don't guess I understand what you're asking then...
> 
> What I bolded: playing using differing tempos and time signatures is a*ll about* being able to switch from groove to groove and feeling the tempo changes quickly. The only issue you'd have when recording would be making sure it was all the same since it isn't a live band setting and you wouldn't all be playing off of each other, but like I said, just getting the rhythm/drum tracks down first, listening to them at least once beforehand, and recording while listening to them is an easy fix.



That makes sense man. It was definitely partially what I was asking. Sorry about the poop phrasing of my question  I got it all figured out now.



xtrustisyoursx said:


> you just program a click track in your DAW. It goes pretty much how you described. You just input how many bars at what tempo in what time.



Thanks dude  I've got it all going. You guys are helpful and patient. Haha


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## highlordmugfug (Dec 14, 2010)




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## Leper (Dec 14, 2010)

I generally tab out all my tracks on guitar pro with the necessary tempo changes/time signatures(horrible memory) and then export it as a midi. Then i just import the midi into my DAW, and voila, all my tempo changes are there.

Pretty much the same as programing a click in your DAW, but helpful if you tab your songs anyway.


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## Larcher (Dec 14, 2010)

here's what I do;

(this is assuming you're using guitar pro to track your drums)

(I use reaper as my DAW)

Import your exported midi file from guitar pro into your DAW

when you import, it will ask you in a "check" box 2 things:

1- Expand 4 source tracks to new REAPER tracks
2- Merge source tempo..

check both of those then hit ok

now it will show up another window with how you want your tracks layered (all in one track, or seperate tracks)

Obviously you want them all in different tracks, so chose Single-channel items on multiple tracks

then in the superior drummer 2 window (where you see the kit and such)

It'll ask you that for all the tracks in the midi file, so make sure you chose single for each track.

Now you have your guitars/bass/drum tracks, but you don't see the kick, snare, toms etc etc in their own tracks yet.

This next step is going to explain how to do this

First step is add Superior 2 in the FX chain of your drum track

then add a new blank track with nothing in it and highlight it (and make sure it's at the end of the tracks, as in your last track in line)

Now this is the most important part, so I took screenshots to show you.

First thing to do is open your superior 2 drum kit window and go to the Mixer tab at the top

and then you are going to locate where it says OUT 1 in the first column like so:







and then you're going to right click where it says OUT 1 and you will see a big dropbox open, and you're going to look for multichannel, and click on it. 






You only need to right click -> multichannel in the first column. Do not close the FX chain window just yet


now you're going to right click on the VST where it says VSTi: Superior Drummer 2 and you're going to click on Build multichannel routing for output of selected FX...






After clicking it it'll open a huge window with a bunch of lines and a Yes or No option, hit yes.



At this point you have like 20 tracks sitting in your DAW, but your drum tracks (kick, snare, hi-hat, toms etc etc) go up to S2-6. So anything after S2-6 you can delete.


And then it's time to start working individually on their sound !

Hope this helped 


btw, 

S2-1 = kick
S2-2 = snare
S2-3 = hi-hat
S2-4 = toms
S2-5 = overheads 1
S2-6 = overheads 2



edit: This method ensures that any tempo change, any time signature change you did in the guitar pro file will follow the same drum tracking you did in guitar pro.


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## GATA4 (Dec 14, 2010)

Leper, guitar pro works for me too. Thanks for the tip.

Larcher, awesome tutorial sir  thank you very much. I use Addictive Drums right now, but can still definitely apply this.


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## WhitechapelCS (Dec 14, 2010)

My band originally wrote riffs and then pieced them together with transitions and added the drum parts last. While this made it more interesting and original, it can get to be a pain in the ass. One song we wrote has 9 tempo changes in it from beginning to end and everyone thats tried to get drum covers down has been stumped unless I or a former drummer sat down to explain it to them. 
From here on out were going to try and write more to a steady tempo in a song just to see how the flow works, but for the lulz we might throw some odd tempo changes in here and there.


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## GalacticDeath (Dec 15, 2010)

Well from what I've experienced, they usually record each riff seperately so they don't really have to worry about tempo changes since they're not recording the whole song in one run. They have to pull it off live but that's usually how they record it.


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## Leper (Dec 15, 2010)

@ Larcher - Great post, that pretty much covered the whole procedure

I guess this is sort of relevant to the thread - 
Has anybody tried recording a section of riffs where for example, the tempo gradually decreases from 150 to 120. I programmed this in gp, using 'change tempo gradually in 16 beats' reducing the tempo in steps of 8 bpm. I'm kinda pleased with the result, but its still not as smooth as I would have liked. Any other ideas on how to go about this?


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## drmosh (Dec 15, 2010)

Leper said:


> I guess this is sort of relevant to the thread -
> Has anybody tried recording a section of riffs where for example, the tempo gradually decreases from 150 to 120. I programmed this in gp, using 'change tempo gradually in 16 beats' reducing the tempo in steps of 8 bpm. I'm kinda pleased with the result, but its still not as smooth as I would have liked. Any other ideas on how to go about this?



Yeah, we've done this as a band with a drummer with very good timing keeping us all check 
But it's pretty easy in a DAW with a click track too, personally I use cubase because it's what I am used to and it's very easy to set up a tempo track


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## Ben.Last (Dec 15, 2010)

Simplest solution....

Don't depend on a click track.


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