DAWs should always adapt to the musician. Why should I set a tempo in advance?

[Tj Shredder]

Usually a track starts with just noodling and having fun. When I decide to record, I want the DAW to capture it and simply set the tempo with all the breathing for me… In Logic I can do that afterwards and only with audio recordings (though it would be easier to get onsets with Midi). In general I want the DAW to adapt to me and not the other way round…
Editing the recorded tempo track afterwards is still easy if I wanted to do that. That would be better than any quantizing…
The tempo value should be blank, until I play or set it…

[darkinners]

You can do that with S1(with built-in Melodyne) and Logic (10.7.5 update)

[BertKoor]

Are you effectively saying you want an old-fashioned tape recorder?
Can you just ignore those vertical bars?
Or set tempo to 60 so it means seconds instead of bars?

[andy4trance]

Your need is not that straightforward if you use vst's, as they're already fed with the default tempo. So the egg is before the chicken in this case.

For externally recorded instruments you can easily tap the tempo in all daw's when ready.

[BONES]

The tempo value should be blank, until I play or set it…

Self-centred, much? How's it supposed to know if you are playing full notes, half-notes, quarter-notes or something in between? And what if your timing is sloppy/imperfect, how's it supposed to work it out? If you speed up or slow down, should it ramp the tempo? It's a ridiculous expectation.

[Tj Shredder]

The tempo value should be blank, until I play or set it…

Self-centred, much? How's it supposed to know if you are playing full notes, half-notes, quarter-notes or something in between?

Well, thats easy, just give it a range for example 80-160, which could be corrected after you played either half or double the expected speed…

And what if your timing is sloppy/imperfect, how's it supposed to work it out? If you speed up or slow down, should it ramp the tempo? It's a ridiculous expectation.

Thats exactly what I need, I want to let the music breathe and vary the speed! Ever heard of a tempo track? Did you ever try to fit a tempo track to a free flowing performance? That is the ideal task for a machine, but a nightmare for us mere mortals…
We are in the year 2022, if Apple can do it, its as far from a ridiculous expectation as it could be, it should be standard since years…

[Tj Shredder]

Your need is not that straightforward if you use vst's, as they're already fed with the default tempo. So the egg is before the chicken in this case.

For externally recorded instruments you can easily tap the tempo in all daw's when ready.

Of course all kinds of fx need some tempo information to make sense, but just playing doesn’t need delays or any tempo based fx. It would even have the advantage, to put them in later and those fx follow as well your tempo…
A tapped tempo is still a fixed tempo and would exclude a whole universe of breathing music…
Btw. your performance is the tapping already, but you get a tempo map instead of one tempo…

[Tj Shredder]

Are you effectively saying you want an old-fashioned tape recorder?
Can you just ignore those vertical bars?
Or set tempo to 60 so it means seconds instead of bars?

I just want to start out as tape machine, that isn’t going back, that its bringing back what we lost by the rigidity of fixed tempos in sequencers and DAWs. Let the DAW follow you and not you follow a tempo dictator (the metronome). And at the same time keep your organization of bars and beats…

[SJ_Digriz]

turn the click off and just play ...

[Artie Fichelle]

... And there you go and have your tape machine

[fmr]

I just want to start out as tape machine, that isn’t going back, that its bringing back what we lost by the rigidity of fixed tempos in sequencers and DAWs. Let the DAW follow you and not you follow a tempo dictator (the metronome). And at the same time keep your organization of bars and beats…

In my home land we have a popular statement that says: "Querer sol na eira e chuva no nabal". Translating it freely means you want to have a rigid time division of bars and beats but one that adapts automatically to your own playing. You must realize that's basically an impossibility. First of all, there's no technology that can guess what kind of figure values you are playing, unless you provide a beat (a metronome). Second, bars and beats are just approximations, and no real musician follows them rigidly. Actually, since the 1800ths that the tempo is very fluid and fluctuates almost freely. Third, you can even change tempo division and/or sub-division, and once again, no applic ation can guess it, unless you give some reference pattern.

Your best option is to play freely and then use a "tap tempo" feature (all major DAWs have something in that vein, AFAIK) to create a tempo map that adjusts the grid of bars and beats to your performance without changing it. That's what i do when I play improvised.

[pdxindy]

In Logic I can do that afterwards and only with audio recordings (though it would be easier to get onsets with Midi). In general I want the DAW to adapt to me and not the other way round…

Since the just released Logic 10.7.5, you can do it with audio and midi and it seems to work well.. I have not tested it yet as I've been on the road. I often play (sans metronome) off the grid.

[GaryG]

wasn't there an old Mac sequencer that did exactly this? 'Metro' maybe..?

[aMUSEd]

In Logic I can do that afterwards and only with audio recordings (though it would be easier to get onsets with Midi). In general I want the DAW to adapt to me and not the other way round…

Since the just released Logic 10.7.5, you can do it with audio and midi and it seems to work well.. I have not tested it yet as I've been on the road. I often play (sans metronome) off the grid.

Me too - I just ignore the DAW tempo and play to my own

[apoclypse]

In Logic I can do that afterwards and only with audio recordings (though it would be easier to get onsets with Midi). In general I want the DAW to adapt to me and not the other way round…

Since the just released Logic 10.7.5, you can do it with audio and midi and it seems to work well.. I have not tested it yet as I've been on the road. I often play (sans metronome) off the grid.

It works well so far. It’s actually pretty slick. I think this is the next wave for DAWs. Notes by Ableton has this, it will make it to the main DAW at some point I’d imagine, Logic has it. I’m sure others will add it too.

I think Logic 10.7.5 does exactly what the OP wants.