KVR Audio

SoundGimmick · Post by **SoundGimmick** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:14 pm

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?

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:19 pm

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.

SoundGimmick · Post by **SoundGimmick** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:46 pm

So does only feel help writing notes from our head within the wanted moment?

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:43 pm

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

.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:09 am

---
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?

RamblinWreck · Post by **RamblinWreck** » Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:13 pm

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.

SoundGimmick · Post by **SoundGimmick** » Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:49 pm

jancivil 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?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but in the plainest interpretation, I think I do

SoundGimmick · Post by **SoundGimmick** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:23 am

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.

Thanks!

slipstick · Post by **slipstick** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:37 am

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?

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.

Steve

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 6:20 pm

SoundGimmick wrote:
jancivil 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?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but in the plainest interpretation, I think I do

Well, first I wrote something about how the plain grid really isn't enough to quantify 'groove', then I noted 'beginner'.

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.

shidostrife · Post by **shidostrife** » Sat Apr 29, 2017 12:29 am

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.

Note timing in a DAW