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HOW TO | Add Tempo Changes to a Cloud Song
HOW TO | Add Tempo Changes to a Cloud Song

Playback supports tempo changes in Cloud Songs; learn how to correctly add them to your original song.

Trevor avatar
Written by Trevor
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

Playback's support of tempo changes unlocks the ability to add tempo changes to original Cloud Songs on MultiTracks.com. Tempo changes added via timecode ensure that song sections, MIDI Cues, and the built-in click track stay perfectly in sync with a song's varying BPM.

Playback supports gradual tempo changes as well as instant tempo changes. Here's how to program either in your Cloud Song shell on MultiTracks.com.

Note: For the sake of this article, Ableton Live will be the DAW music software used to show tempo changes in a DAW. However, tempo change mapping and timecode can be found in most DAWs and utilized in Playback.


Gradual Tempo Changes

What is a gradual tempo change? Gradual tempo change is when the BPM slowly and consistently changes from one BPM to another over a period of time. This type of tempo change might look like this in your DAW:

In the master track of the above Ableton Live session, you can see that there is one BPM point at measure 5, one point at measure 11, creating a gradual slope. Here's how to draw this slope into Playback.

1. Set the starting song BPM. For this particular song, it starts at 75 BPM.

2. Find the Timecode of each BPM point

  • The song is in 75 BPM up until measure 5, where the final point of 75 is added. Place your cursor on each BPM point and take note of the time code (00 minutes, 00 seconds, 000 milliseconds) where it is located.

^ The 75 BPM ending point is 0:12:800 (12 seconds, 800ms).

  • Over the course of measures 5 and 11, the tempo of the song gradually increases from 75 to 80 BPM. The point where it officially hits 80 is 0:31:393 (31 seconds, 393ms)

3. Add tempo markers to Cloud Song on MultiTracks.com

  • Once the tracks have been exported and uploaded to a new Cloud Song (learn how to export and upload tracks here) open the Tempo Changes tab in your Cloud Song.

  • Click "Add Tempo" to add each tempo marker that you see in your song's DAW session. Make sure the starting tempo is included in this list.

3. Save Tempo Change Markers. Once saved, your song can be opened up in Playback and the tempo, waveform grid, and built-in click track will follow the tempo changes!


Instant Tempo Changes

When songs have a sudden BPM change, the tempo change markers need to be drawn differently, so that Playback successfully changes from one tempo to another in the same millisecond. Here's what an instant tempo change looks like on a DAW timeline:

^ On measure bar 5, the tempo instantly changes from 75 to 80 BPM. Here's how to implement this via tempo change markers for Playback.

1. Add the song's starting tempo. Like gradual tempo changes, the song's initial tempo still needs to be established in the tempo change markers.

2. Find the timecode of the singular tempo change marker.

^ The tempo change happens at bar 5, which is at 0:12:800 (18 seconds, 800ms)

3. Add the tempo markers to cloud song on MultiTracks.com

  • Once the tracks have been exported and uploaded to a new Cloud Song (learn how to export and upload tracks here) open the Tempo Changes tab in your Cloud Song.

  • Add the initial tempo to establish the song's starting tempo at the song's beginning, and another point at the place of tempo change (for this song, that second point would be 0:12:800).

  • Create the instant tempo change: Add another point for the changed BPM 1 millisecond later. For the above song, that would be 0:12:801.

3. Save Tempo Change Markers. Once saved, your song can be opened up in Playback and the tempo, waveform grid, and built-in click track will follow the tempo changes! At bar 5, the tempo BPM will instantly change from 75 to 80.


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