Note timing in a DAW
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 15 posts since 17 Mar, 2017
Since I'm a beginner in this field, is it possible to know the time between notes in our head without playing back every time we add a note while programming a composition in a DAW?
- KVRAF
- 7137 posts since 8 Feb, 2003 from London, UK
Beats per minute (BPM) tells you how many quarter note / crotchet beats there are each minute.
If you have a BPM of 120, one four beat bar lasts ((4 beats * 60 seconds) / 120 beats per minute) seconds = 2 seconds.
If you have four regularly spaced notes in a four beat bar at 120 BPM, then your notes start 2 / 4 = 0.5 seconds apart.
If you have a BPM of 120, one four beat bar lasts ((4 beats * 60 seconds) / 120 beats per minute) seconds = 2 seconds.
If you have four regularly spaced notes in a four beat bar at 120 BPM, then your notes start 2 / 4 = 0.5 seconds apart.
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 15 posts since 17 Mar, 2017
So does only feel help writing notes from our head within the wanted moment?
- KVRAF
- 7137 posts since 8 Feb, 2003 from London, UK
Oh I see what you mean.
Translating the feel of timing is probably for me the trickiest thing. You can subdivide the beat as finely as you like but translating that feel into what you see isn't simple. I don't believe anything can tell you how to get the feel you, alone, are feeling -- it's got to be down to you learning how to translate what you're feeling into your DAW, because you probably can explain it better to the DAW - i.e. writing the notes down and adjusting, over and over until it's right - than you ever could to another person. ... Except most musicians seem to have an implicit understanding of what's meant by a certain feel -- even so, it's not simple to actually play it.
Of course, if you can play an instrument well enough to express the feel you're after and the instrument has MIDI capture, you can capture the feel that way. I never found the patience for getting feel by entering notes into a DAW by hand, gave up and just play via MIDI now - as I improve my playing, the feel gets better .
Translating the feel of timing is probably for me the trickiest thing. You can subdivide the beat as finely as you like but translating that feel into what you see isn't simple. I don't believe anything can tell you how to get the feel you, alone, are feeling -- it's got to be down to you learning how to translate what you're feeling into your DAW, because you probably can explain it better to the DAW - i.e. writing the notes down and adjusting, over and over until it's right - than you ever could to another person. ... Except most musicians seem to have an implicit understanding of what's meant by a certain feel -- even so, it's not simple to actually play it.
Of course, if you can play an instrument well enough to express the feel you're after and the instrument has MIDI capture, you can capture the feel that way. I never found the patience for getting feel by entering notes into a DAW by hand, gave up and just play via MIDI now - as I improve my playing, the feel gets better .
- KVRAF
- 25053 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
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I failed to note 'since I'm a beginner'.
Yes, you can know many things about the distance between notes. Do you, first, understand how to subdivide by two?
I failed to note 'since I'm a beginner'.
Yes, you can know many things about the distance between notes. Do you, first, understand how to subdivide by two?
- KVRist
- 69 posts since 20 Nov, 2016
This is something I've been working on myself lately. What I think will help is practice this when you don't have any particular rhythm in mind. Instead, just lay down any sort of pattern in your DAW along with a four-on-the-floor beat. The four-on-the-floor gives you a good steady reference to compare to, and you can just listen to see what the pattern you drew sounds like. This will give you a better reference when you want to know what the pattern in your head is.
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 15 posts since 17 Mar, 2017
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but in the plainest interpretation, I think I dojancivil wrote:---
I failed to note 'since I'm a beginner'.
Yes, you can know many things about the distance between notes. Do you, first, understand how to subdivide by two?
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- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 15 posts since 17 Mar, 2017
Thanks!RamblinWreck wrote:This is something I've been working on myself lately. What I think will help is practice this when you don't have any particular rhythm in mind. Instead, just lay down any sort of pattern in your DAW along with a four-on-the-floor beat. The four-on-the-floor gives you a good steady reference to compare to, and you can just listen to see what the pattern you drew sounds like. This will give you a better reference when you want to know what the pattern in your head is.
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- KVRist
- 159 posts since 2 Feb, 2017
Yes, but unfortunately only with experience. It's quite easy to understand intellectually what you're putting in, e.g. a couple of eighth notes (or quavers where I come from), but it's something else actually feeling what it will now sound like.SoundGimmick wrote:Since I'm a beginner in this field, is it possible to know the time between notes in our head without playing back every time we add a note while programming a composition in a DAW?
Steve
- KVRAF
- 25053 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
Well, first I wrote something about how the plain grid really isn't enough to quantify 'groove', then I noted 'beginner'.SoundGimmick wrote:I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but in the plainest interpretation, I think I dojancivil wrote:---
I failed to note 'since I'm a beginner'.
Yes, you can know many things about the distance between notes. Do you, first, understand how to subdivide by two?
1st thing we learn, typically, is quarter note beat (4 is the numerator & denominator in the time signature: 4/4).
8 8ths, 16 16ths, and so forth in the 4/4. Usually the basic layout in a DAW's piano roll will show that.
But then there's 3: eg., 3 triplet 8ths = 12 to 4/4. {3:2 at that level, 8th notes}. Et cetera.
Then, duration of notes. You might have something land on each of 4 beats here but they are shorter than quarter notes. A de facto 16th on the beat, with the space of 3/16ths before the next 4 of 4 'quarter note beats' aka 4/4.
And so on.
- KVRian
- 715 posts since 22 Nov, 2016 from Tokyo, Japan
I learned writing by reading first.
I am a guitarist, and am a tablature reader waaaaay before I wrote my first composition. I learned:
oh so this is 8th
and this is 16th
oh jug---jug---jug-jug, this is how dotted notes sound
oh these are triplets
Etc
Google those terms if you don't know them yet.
Ofc this worked very well for me as this is my usual way of learning, pretty much everything. It might not be everyone's way.
I am a guitarist, and am a tablature reader waaaaay before I wrote my first composition. I learned:
oh so this is 8th
and this is 16th
oh jug---jug---jug-jug, this is how dotted notes sound
oh these are triplets
Etc
Google those terms if you don't know them yet.
Ofc this worked very well for me as this is my usual way of learning, pretty much everything. It might not be everyone's way.