# MIDI Sequencing tips for rubato pieces/ lots of tempo drift



## Dan Drebing (Feb 22, 2017)

I'm running into lots of issues when writing flowy pieces not tied down to a very strict tempo and hoping to learn from others' experience dealing with this. When recording performances into my sequencer where I'm emphasizing slight tempo changes and fermatas, I always end up far off of the midi grid after not much time at all. This causes headaches when I then try to clean up my performance later and when trying to sequence accompanying midi tracks. I should mention that I like arpeggiating chords so the problem can get out of hand quickly 

Obviously one solution is becoming a better performer, but that doesn't happen overnight. I was thinking of trying to lock in the midi notes to the grid and "perform" the humanization of the pieces using an automated tempo track (I'm in Ableton Live), but that only has okay results so far. Does anyone out there have tips or tricks for dealing with this issue?


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## Studio E (Feb 22, 2017)

I need help with this as well. Over the past week, I have been preparing, for the first time ever, to have a live player or two play on my score, half of which I just played-into Cubase with no regard to tempo whatsoever. Whoops, I have paid for it since and it makes it difficult for the player as well. I have been revisiting my original midi file and breaking it down to individual cues for the player to transcribe. As I was doing it, I just kept thinking, there has got to be a better way. To make things worse, I can figure time for a lot of things, but a couple things I played, just didn't seem to fit any particular timing that I could come up with. It was just too weird to figure out. I don't feel like it sounds weird, but to put it in a meter, I just couldn't do it. I look forward to seeing what this thread comes up with.


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## Mundano (Feb 22, 2017)

In Logic Pro X you can "detect tempo" after you had recorded a cue AUDIO track, for example a piano track with rubatos and rits. For example you choose 100 bpm to start but you record naturally flowing without paying strict attention to the metronome. Afterwards you select the AUDIO track and choose "detect tempo" or so what (im not at pc) from edit menu i think. You have to mark "use detected tempo in project" and there you have: your metronome with variable tempi. A nice feature is that you can edit the tempo track! (change the tempo per pulse, measure, etc.). Then you can overdub all MIDI tracks you want, your metronome will guide you through the rits and rubatos also.


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## samphony (Feb 22, 2017)

Also if you have Melodyne 4 at hand you can easily generate a perfect tempo map for any DAW.


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## jemu999 (Feb 22, 2017)

There is tempo detect feature in Cubase as well. But what I usually do is just compose to a locked grid, and then afterwards, I adjust the tempo mapping as needed. Works flawlessly, although I understand the desire to just play what you feel first, and then do the tempo detect.


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## Dan Drebing (Feb 23, 2017)

Sounds like other DAWs have much more robust features than ableton :(



samphony said:


> Also if you have Melodyne 4 at hand you can easily generate a perfect tempo map for any DAW.


My cursory ableton forum search looks like this works in ableton, so I may be getting this. Thanks for the tip!



jemu999 said:


> There is tempo detect feature in Cubase as well. But what I usually do is just compose to a locked grid, and then afterwards, I adjust the tempo mapping as needed. Works flawlessly, although I understand the desire to just play what you feel first, and then do the tempo detect.


My biggest concern is really getting the performance with the locked grid to feel real, I guess I'll just need to experiment with the automated tempo map. Unfortunately the midi quantization jitter feature in ableton doesn't really help when you're as far off the midi grid as I am and everything is getting quantized to a mostly unrelated midi grid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


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## muk (Feb 24, 2017)

It's an important topic. Here are a few interesting threads about it:

http://vi-control.net/community/threads/best-ways-to-record-midi-at-a-dynamic-tempo.56891/

http://vi-control.net/community/thr...ase-best-way-to-approach-tempo-mapping.45936/

http://vi-control.net/community/threads/cubase-7-5-how-to-record-in-free-tempo.38334/


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## LamaRose (Mar 8, 2017)

Record your own tempo track. Play back your composition in your head and tap/record the general time on your knee, and then record over that track. Much more connected and organic... and you'll have something for your player(s) to work off of. 

Click tracks are stressful by nature... it's like having the proverbial ruler-wielding piano teacher hanging over your shoulder just waiting to pounce!


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## Saxer (Mar 8, 2017)

Sometimes it's helpful to conduct an imaginary orchestra with the music in mind and make a silent movie (by phone). When the video is open in the DAW it's rather easy to detect the beats and set the tempo accordingly. And it's easier to play on top following your own the video conductor.


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