![]() ![]() Your DAW will feature a dedicated track or other means for automating time signature changes, making it a cinch to implement them non-destructively, so don’t be afraid to experiment. They can be useful as temporal ‘effects’, switched in for a bar at the end of a phrase in order to throw the groove momentarily, or called on as the basis for polyrhythms (see below). Embrace odd time signaturesĮven if you have no interest whatsoever in composing entire tracks in 5/4, 7/8 or anything other than 4/4 (perfectly understandable, especially if you’re making dance music) don’t completely disregard odd time signatures. This will guide the rest of your recorded and programmed parts, and no matter how good a player you are, the subtle deviations that can’t help but occur in your mapped performance will add an organic, fluid feel that can make all the difference.įor dance music, we wouldn’t recommend playing in the entire drum track, but mapping a live one- or two-bar loop can deliver that slightly off-grid vibe without compromising the all-important predictability and repetition of the beat. Record your main rhythmic line – the drums most likely, or perhaps the guitar or piano in a sans-drums track – with or without a click for guidance, then use your DAW’s tempo mapping feature (if it has one) to analyse the part and create a tempo track based on it. In some DAWs, the tempo track also gives you the ability to set the moment-to-moment project tempo based on analysis of a live performance – just the thing for bringing a gentle, naturalistic sense of ebb and flow to a project. Of course, we’re talking small, incremental changes – just enough to alter the drive of the track without being overtly apparent – so don’t go beyond 2 or 3bpm unless its to wilfully creative ends. While big, obvious changes are often employed as part of the compositional process (halving the tempo for the middle eight, for example), you’d be surprised at the difference a sudden or gradual increase of just a few BPM can make to the energy of a chorus or upward momentum of a pre-drop build, or the anticipation created by a temporary ramping down in the pre-chorus. The tempo track in your DAW is a supremely powerful tool, giving you the ability to manipulate the flow of time throughout a song. Liberate yourself from the temporal tyranny of the 4/4 timeline and quantise grid with these half dozen creative tempo and meter-related concepts. ![]()
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