aligning recording with beat

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:25 pm

hey i just had a quick question about recording in live. so i made a beat with impulse and then i made audio tracks and recorded some basslines that i wanted to loop. the problem i am having is that the recordings dont seem to sink up with the beat on play back. i watch the little clock dial on the beat and my bass parts dont come in on the one, they seem to just be randomly picking spots. does this have to do with warping? i want everything to be the same tempo... so yeah if anyone can help me out it would be much appreciated, thanks!

laird · Post by **laird** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:08 pm

i doubt its random. How long is the Loop Length of your bass clip? If you don't know, you have most likely set the loop markers (and the sample start time) improperly... or more to the point, not set these at all.

read the manual section on audio clips, esp Warping and Loop Markers.

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:24 pm

the loop lengths are all different. i recorded fills on different clips so they are shorter. should they all be equal and if so, how long should they be?

laird · Post by **laird** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:31 pm

um... make them multiples of each other.
Like 1.0.0 + 2.0.0 + 4.0.0 + 8.0.0

NOT 1.0.3 + 2.4.1 + 4.3.3 + 3.2.1

and still read the manual, esp. the part about Warping... you _need_ to know what that is used for.

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:14 pm

you mean like where to put the start marker? i do have those set to the main beats of the tempo. i have one bass clip for example that is 2 bars long but it wont start at the 1 of my midi beat. i hit the trigger and it flashes waiting to come in and then it comes in at odd times. when i play the bass clips by themselves they sound exactly how i want them to loop, so idk.

laird · Post by **laird** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:17 pm

No, loop lengths are not start markers. They look somewhat similar, but are two different things.

what is the global quantize set to? 2 bars? set it to 1 (or lower), and see what happens. Its the button at the top middle of screen. If you can't tell what it doesn, check the manual under "global quantize"

dootdoot · Post by **dootdoot** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:26 am

If your loops are not warped, or they don't have a tempo setting in the header (premade loops with tempo data like Apple Loops or Acid Loops, etc...), then they will just run free and not sync to your project. If the loops are steady in tempo, then turn on warping for the clip and then adjust the tempo until it syncs with the metronome. Even if your project tempo and clip tempo are different it will work. You can click on the tempo box in the clip info and then use the mouse motion to get close. If your project is at 120bpm and your clips is at 150, then when you hit 150 bpm on the clip they will be in sync.

if you don't have the start right at the beginning of the clip then you can drag the start markers to the start of the clip. You might need to turn clip quantize off to get the markers to move in small enough increments. If you need to deal with setting warp markers, then look around here and on youtube. Lots of info to be had.

Two other tips: The metronome is OK, but tiring, and sometimes I like to use a midi 1/4 note drum pattern. Also, occasionally you have to restart the scene to make sure that everything is on the 1.

Good Luck

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:06 pm

ok so i warped all my loops and set warp markers in each one, making sure the 1st one is on the first hit. i even rerecorded all the bass parts to be 2 bars to hopefully make things easier but still no luck! the clips all have matching tempos as the top tempo and i messed around with the global quantization. i see that if i activate a clip to play right after one thats playing, it doesnt wait for the first beat. and the more i activate the less sinked up the clips get. i am so lost..

laird · Post by **laird** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:35 pm

newDaze wrote:ok so i warped all my loops and set warp markers in each one, making sure the 1st one is on the first hit.

The first warp marker doesn't necessarily mean that is where the sample will start playing. make sure the sample start marker is set there are well.

And make sure the loop length is set to an even number. Like 2.0.0, not just close to 2

Is Warp even turned on for there clips? Probably, unless you turned it off. I also assume you didn't mess with any of the clips' Launch Mode's.

And set the global quantization to a setting you can work with, like 1 or 2 bars.

and dont try to sync up 20 loops at once. Try syncing one loop to the metronome and figure out what the problem is.

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:40 pm

i checked and all the sample start markers are right on the beginning of the loop bar position. i check one recorded track along to the metronome and it was dead on the first and seconds pass but as it went on i could see the higher sounding click(the 1) was missing its target worse and worse.

here is a screen cap i took which might show the problem.

laird · Post by **laird** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:23 pm

click on the arrangement view button and see if something has been recorded there and delete it, then come back to session & try again.

That loop looks OK, i dont see anything wrong.

SO the problem is that loops drift out of sync? Or they start out of sync? Now I'm confused. Still, erase anything in the arrangement view...
because that loop should sync up to the metronome (maybe not a MIDI drum track) just fine.

newDaze · Post by **newDaze** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:40 pm

holy shit i figured it out. it was something in the arrangement view but there was no recording. i had the loop bracket there set so i took it off and it seems to have fixed it. now with no restraints i was able to finish the song really fast. thanks