Ultimately, how significant are time signatures when composing?

[halfpower]

I'm looking at a MIDI editor right now with a time signature of 4/4. The bar is split into 4 sections and each section has 384 locations to place a note. This results in 1536 positions to place a note. For 3/4 time there are 1152 locations. Do different time signatures really have a large effect on the end product?

[tapper mike]

If you can't differentiate between a waltz and common time I would suggest you seek out some waltzes and gain a better understanding of music in general, ad more specifically rythmic meter.

[Lotuzia]

I wouldnt use something that can do only 4/4

I might not be your usual customer though

LtZ

[jdt]

An actual numerical Time Signature is really only important when acting as a visual guideline for relaying a set piece's basic rhythmic structure (and its performance) between Score Reading musicians and composers. At 120 bpm a quarter note in 4/4 will 1/2 a second. Other that that it's only a relative thing.

[Nystul]

An actual numerical Time Signature is really only important when acting as a visual guideline for relaying a set piece's basic rhythmic structure (and its performance) between Score Reading musicians and composers.

Which is not something to be taken lightly if you will work with a real musician at any time!

I would think even if one is not a formally trained musician and is creating music using only a computer and a MIDI editor, that person is still human and will benefit greatly from organizing the rhythmic ideas of the music in a simple and logical manner. If you were to write in 4/4 something which in principal has 3 beats per measure, you will have to either not use the beats or not use the measures in a logical manner. This would make it far more complicated to keep track of your own creation. Sure, it will be physically possible to place all of the notes in the right place. But it is a lot easier to find the right place when everything is organized in a way that makes sense.

If anyone has recorded a keyboard track in MIDI without following the click track, and then tried to edit it for some reason with the MIDI editor, you know what I mean. It's hard to get anything done without the logical subdivisions of the beats being shown properly in the MIDI editor. You can't just run the computer in your head and say OK this next note should have been 238 ticks after the one before it.

[megadeth]

It remembers me when ppl use double tempo (ex : 240 bpm instead of 120 bpm) to get better precision, doubling the number of ticks per second
In your case, 4/4 would be 3072 positions instead of 1536.They do this to get better groove, swing precision for syncopated music like samba.
Some ppl hear the difference, some not.

But back to the OP, the main reason to use the right signature is to handle music in a faster, effective way for humans like us

And if you think you don't get enough precision with 1152, double the tempo

But i would prefer to use a better software, with real signatures...and may be tick settings for advanced groove (like FL Studio).

[tapper mike]

Re Swing which is 4/4 time

Computers don't operate on fractions. A swing value is based on dividing 4 quarter notes into triplets. the second value of the triplet is omitted. If you divide 100 you get 3.33. If you want a true swing feel then you would use midi swing and set the value at 66.6

[Audiosprite]

Swing as a rhythmic concept is a little more complex than just playing eights as though they were triplets. I'd say it's outside of the realm of what could [easily] be done with MIDI.

[JumpingJackFlash]

An actual numerical Time Signature is really only important when acting as a visual guideline for relaying a set piece's basic rhythmic structure (and its performance) between Score Reading musicians and composers. At 120 bpm a quarter note in 4/4 will 1/2 a second. Other that that it's only a relative thing.

In the real world, Time Signatures do a lot more than make the music look organised.
Traditionally, under normal circumstances, the 1st beat of each bar is stronger than the others, the last beat is usually the weakest. In a bar of 4/4, the 3rd beat is the next strongest, and the 2nd the next weakest.

Real musicians generally put more emphasis on the strong beats, even if it's just subconsciously. And composers rely on that to create certain effects. Of course, this default can be overridden when a composer deliberately accents a weak beat - this creates a specific effect called syncopation.

Take the simple tune "Happy Birthday to you" as an example. However you sing it, the emphasis is always on "birth", that is why the melody has to start on a weak beat of the bar, so the "birth" is saved for the emphasised first beat. (This is called an anacrusis). It makes no musical sense at all to start the "happy" on the strong beat.

The Time Signature is more than just a symbol, it provides the Metre. It is the reason why 3/4 (simple triple) and 6/8 (compound duple) sound very different to each other, even though both have six quavers in a bar.

[filkertom]

I think I'll just give you an example of 5/4 time:

and I'm not even sure what the time signature of this one is:

[anomandaris1]

take 5 is 4/4 - 180 bpm

[Aroused by JarJar]

take 5 is 4/4 - 180 bpm

No it isn't. Interestingly enough, Brubeck has an ancient/Balkan type of feel in his combinations of 2 and 3, in which it's not really 2 and 3 but long and short (like in ancient Greek poetry). You can subdivide western and mainstream (westernized) versions Balkan rhythms into precise groups of 3 and 2 eighths, but you can't do it exactly with the real thing. But you have to be there and get away from any discos etc. to hear it these days. Or you can listen to Take 5- count it really slow as a heavily limping (aksak) 2 and you'll hear what I mean.

[fandango]

I think I'll just give you an example of 5/4 time:

On the classical line there's also "Mars" from "The Planets" which a lot of people recognise.

1:dadada|2:dum|3:dum|4:dumda|5:dum

[Audiosprite]

Also the themes from "Mission Impossible" and "The Incredibles," Gershwin's "Summertime," and that Dream Theater song that I forget the name of

[tapper mike]

Not to mention "Money" by Pink Floyd, another classic 5/4 song.

.
Paul Desmond wrote "Take Five". Commonly associated with Bruebeck as he was the band leader and Bruebeck wrote most of the songs on that album. As well D.B's Stick was working in different time signatures.