BPM changes

[M0nkeyz]

Hey I had a question about BPM changes, I am working on a song that has constant bpm changes, it keeps accelerating and slowing down, with no clear patterns. Is it really necessary to keep changing the bpm or can I just step it as is?

The reason I ask is because it will turn into some sort of color arrow fountain :P
I will still keep very clear structure and everything just the colors will be kind of messy.

There are songs in the game that don't have clear red blue purple/yellow color structure. (Twister, romance in the club, etc.)

If it's necessary can someone advice me a program that can monitor BPM changes better than mixmeister?

[rushyrulz]

apparently ddream will do it but I never figured it out.
I use this for songs with dynamic BPMs http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

[trumaestro]

hi19 had a good tutorial for this http://www.twitch.tv/hi19hi19/b/551910023

There seem to be a lot of different opinions on colour notes in general. My opinion is that if you have to use them then your sync is wrong somewhere, but if you want to use them then it becomes a style choice

[ilikexd]

it's ok to use color notes for an unquantized or offbeat solo

it's not ok to have a color file because you haven't figured out the bpm

ddream is easier for syncing tracks with dynamic bpm, but both sm and ddream can do it
it's as simple as placing the beats on the downbeats in the music
for some genres like rock where the tempo is being set by a drummer, it usually has a clear kick or snare visible in the filtered waveform in ddream to which beats can be aligned
the truth is it just takes lots of time and practice to actually train your ears and improve your hearing to get better at syncing

you should, in my opinion, wait until you are proficient at stepping music with a static bpm before trying music with dynamic bpm as it'll be even further error-prone and unnecessarily difficult

[Tidus810]

^ I would agree with what's been said. If you look at something like revo etude v2, it has dramatic and noticeable drifts in the bpm that are followed beat by beat. Songs like that may even require sub-beats as well.

[M0nkeyz]

well, to best describe how the song sounds is to listen to =planet karma=. It has constant bpm fluctuations and alot of parts do not repeat so it's hard for me to find where the bpm changes actually occur.

I've done bpm changes before, but those were songs with repeating patterns where it becomes really clear where to put the next beat.


Edit: ok... I am desperate because I rly rly like the song.. I will manually move every beat to the wave, it will be alot of work, but it has to be done I guess the hi19 video kinda suggests the same.

[trumaestro]

You can play the song in ddream while tapping b to place beats to get a general idea of it. If you can count along or headbang to the song this will work, you'll just have to fine tune the sync manually.

[M0nkeyz]

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/511706

Dno if im allowed to post links to songs, but here is the link

As you can hear the beats are very varying. And to make it even harder it's littered with polyrhythms

[M0nkeyz]

from 1:50 is where the trouble starts

[TC_Halogen]

I see where your problem lies.

When you have a song like this where there's a clear break in the percussion that's holding the tempo after a clear speed change, it might be worthwhile to figure out the BPM further into the song, and use that BPM as the tempo for the given are.

Listening here, the BPM takes a pretty reasonable drop at 1:30, so that's where the first sync challenge will be. Once you sync that slowdown, you don't have much to work with for generalizing a pace. Try getting the BPM at 2:07 in, and then see if you can apply that BPM at 1:30ish to see if it works (or is reasonably close).

From experience, I will tell you that Step's music is a little easier than your typical orchestral pieces to sync, but that also takes into account that most orchestral music is brutally hard to sync because it's never constant. Do your best to keep everything lined up with your percussion. If you are synced to your percussion properly and some sort of instrument decides to play a very imprecise rhythm, do not feel you absolutely have to change the BPM to make it "properly" colored.

Anyone who has performed in some sort of band/ensemble should tell you that percussion is always the one leading the tempo, and in many cases you should apply that theory to your syncing structure.

EDIT: if you're not doing so already, it might be time to start learning how to use DDream Studio. If you are using it, utilize your assist tick, lower rates, and subbeats to help you out.

[M0nkeyz]

Originally Posted by TC_Halogen

I see where your problem lies.

When you have a song like this where there's a clear break in the percussion that's holding the tempo after a clear speed change, it might be worthwhile to figure out the BPM further into the song, and use that BPM as the tempo for the given are.

Listening here, the BPM takes a pretty reasonable drop at 1:30, so that's where the first sync challenge will be. Once you sync that slowdown, you don't have much to work with for generalizing a pace. Try getting the BPM at 2:07 in, and then see if you can apply that BPM at 1:30ish to see if it works (or is reasonably close).

From experience, I will tell you that Step's music is a little easier than your typical orchestral pieces to sync, but that also takes into account that most orchestral music is brutally hard to sync because it's never constant. Do your best to keep everything lined up with your percussion. If you are synced to your percussion properly and some sort of instrument decides to play a very imprecise rhythm, do not feel you absolutely have to change the BPM to make it "properly" colored.

Anyone who has performed in some sort of band/ensemble should tell you that percussion is always the one leading the tempo, and in many cases you should apply that theory to your syncing structure.

EDIT: if you're not doing so already, it might be time to start learning how to use DDream Studio. If you are using it, utilize your assist tick, lower rates, and subbeats to help you out.

I did BPM shifts manually to the percussion and it worked out great!
thanks for the tip