KVR Audio

core · Post by **core** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:01 am

I would just use something like this: http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/ ... alcul.html
But once printed it's not very helpful

Xnah · Post by **Xnah** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:06 am

Ambisphere wrote:Xnah, if you read the the note above the table it plainly states that the beats are rounded-up to thousands of a second. That's how the decimal system works. The first column is 1 beat, the 2nd 4 beats and the 3rd 8 beats. A 140 BPM Trance track for example, would round-up to 0.428.5 per beat (1 beat).

That answer doesn't help me. Do you mean the timing is rounded up?

What am I supposed to start with? a number of beats? or a number of seconds? Maybe this table is just to complex for me.

0.428.5 per beat... is that 0.428,5 or 0,428.5? of what? hits?

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:07 am

heh, so true Core. I just keep a copy in notepad. Just takes a sec to open that.

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:15 am

Xnah, you go by the number of beats. Try this, open a drumloop in your audio editor. Make sure the time line in you editor is set to decimal. Playback the drumloop and count the number of beats. Most loops are 8 beats (counts). Move your cursor to the end of the drumloop waveform to determine its length then simply check it with table to see whether it is accurate.

Xnah · Post by **Xnah** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:27 am

oh ok. now I understand. But ACID and BeatCreator do this automatically for me, right?

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:37 am

Xnah...No, audio editors don't do the figuring for you. That you must do yourself. At least, as far as I know, there aren't any that do the calculating for you automatically. It would be a nice feature however. Actually, that would be some pretty sophisticated software code writing. Still, you would most likely have to enter the data into the editor anyway. So it would be redundant.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:38 am

ACID and BeatCreator probably do this automatically. Those programs are pretty sophisticated software, and go far beyond plain audio editors like Audacity and the likes.

Xnah · Post by **Xnah** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:45 am

Ambisphere wrote:Xnah...No, audio editors don't do the figuring for you. That you must do yourself.

Not sure what you mean: If I load a wave file in ACID or BeatCreator (either ACID'ized or not), they will slice it for me based on a.o. transients, and all I need to do is tell them who many beats / measures there are. No counting or anything. Trust me, I've done it. And even if the slicing doesn't work (e.g. pads), I can set the number of measures (which you need to know anyway!), and everything is automated. Of course I don't do that for complete songs, only for short pieces of 4-8-16 bars (1-2-4 measures).

But I think I'm starting to understand the table now... You count the number of beats, look at the time marker to see how long it took, and then you can do the reverse lookup in your table to find the BPM... But in that case I'd like to see the time (milliseconds) in the first column, since that would be the entry point, right? And then have several columns for 4/8/12/16 beats and the corresponding BPM ... or am I wrong again?

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:30 pm

BertKoor, I went to the Sony website. You are correct. Acid does in fact determine the BPM's. It's called "Beatmapping". But you cannot do precise editing in Acid, which is why they make Sound Forge. And unfortunately SF doesn't beatmap. Personally, I prefer working hands on with a wave anyway. It's more intimate in that it lets me get to know every detail of its nature. However, the beatmapping feature is nice in Acid. I just don't have $499 to fork out for it.

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:43 pm

Xnah, it took me like a whole day to do that table! I considered placing milliseconds, but didn't think it was really necessary. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so as not to confuse. I kept it a 8 beats max because most loops seldom ever go beyond 8. But I understand your point completely and thanks for the suggestion. I have learned that it is much quicker to refer to a premade table than using any type of calculator. After all, that's why various types of tables are made, for quick reference. Thanks to anyone who finds this table useful. Now, I really must get back to the music making thing...best of luck to all, and Happy Holidays.

Zyxoas · Post by **Zyxoas** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:20 pm

Ambisphere wrote:Xnah, it took me like a whole day to do that table!

You should've used Excel.

Xnah · Post by **Xnah** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:21 pm

Ambisphere wrote:Xnah, it took me like a whole day to do that table!

???

You don't have Excel or something like that?

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:40 pm

I think it would be easier to just pick up a calculator rather than open a web browser, find the site, etc. It's great that you've done this work, but I don't know that it's any quicker than using a calculator (which I've always got laying on my desk).

Ambisphere · Post by **Ambisphere** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:31 pm

robojam, there is a utility on your start menu called 'notepad'. I find it useful for copying text to and from the web. Try it sometime, works for me.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:34 pm

Still quicker to use the calculator.

BPM Reference Table Online