# Cubase 7 Tempo Automation?



## The Darris (Jul 27, 2014)

Hi all,

When utilizing the Tempo Editor Track there is a slider at the top that is called "Tempo Rec." Is there a way to control this via an external device like a midi controller (fader, knob, etc)?

Cheers,

Chris


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## Rctec (Jul 28, 2014)

That's a ten minute mod Wolfgang Kundrus made for me while hanging out at the studio. But we never finished it. The Pitchbend wheel was supposed to control it. 
It's actually very hard for Cubase to write tempo in real-time, since it's a 'look ahead' structure. That's what keeps it all nice and tight. But if you change the tempo on the fly, it has to recalculate the position of everything past the point youre playing. Yes, I wish it could do it... It changed me from a romantic composer to EDM 
-H-


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## germancomponist (Jul 28, 2014)

Rctec @ Mon Jul 28 said:


> That's a ten minute mod Wolfgang Kundrus made for me while hanging out at the studio. But we never finished it. The Pitchbend wheel was supposed to control it.
> It's actually very hard for Cubase to write tempo in real-time, since it's a 'look ahead' structure. That's what keeps it all nice and tight. But if you change the tempo on the fly, it has to recalculate the position of everything past the point youre playing. Yes, I wish it could do it... It changed me from a romantic composer to EDM
> -H-



I asked them many years ago for this function, but..... .


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## The Darris (Jul 28, 2014)

RcTec,

Thanks for your comment. My end goal was to try and control it via motion with the Leap Motion sensor as I felt it would allow me to feel/conduct the tempo versus clunckily automating it.

I did notice that that slider effects the tempo ahead of the beat which seems odd since all other automation seems to follow the ASIO latency compensation (iirc). Oh well, thanks for clearing that up for me so I don't invest hours upon hours trying to figure this out. :D 

Cheers,

Chris


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## givemenoughrope (Jul 28, 2014)

Why not just play a hihat in or beatbox a 'tick' sound and do tempo detection? I use this and warp with snap to events. Unless it's a library track that gets documented with a certain bpm I almost never use a constant tempo either.


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## The Darris (Jul 28, 2014)

givemenoughrope @ Mon Jul 28 said:


> Why not just play a hihat in or beatbox a 'tick' sound and do tempo detection? I use this and warp with snap to events. Unless it's a library track that gets documented with a certain bpm I almost never use a constant tempo either.



I want to automate tempo in real time to my orchestral palette versus creating a separate beat track that I play alone in hopes to capture the feeling I want. Think of it as a sort of Virtual-Conducting that my orchestral recording adapts to in real time, like players following a conductor's motion. Given what I understand about Cubase's tempo system, this would require major scripting and code to bypass its current functionality, none of which I am qualified to do. 

RcTec's mod for the pitch bend was an awesome idea but given how the slider send information to the tempo track, was pointless in the end game.

Beat detection works if you play your stuff in live and want a click to it later, unfortunately I have a very hard time not playing to a click. That is years of practicing percussion to a metronome and using player performances to take cues and stay together. If I had the ability to manipulate tempo in real time during playback and control that via motion sensor tech, would be such a great way to capture a more performance feeling in my music.

There are just too many variables at play with this, the first one being latency and how the track would compensate on the fly.


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## Freds (Jul 28, 2014)

I transitioned from Digital Performer and this is one feature a miss a lot. 

However, you could do something even cooler, which I think if might be possible into program in Cubase since there's some delay allowed here: you can "conduct" in real time your sequence by tapping a MIDI controller. DP will react in real time, but with a slight delay. This is how I used to program ritardandos, for example. You can compensate for the delay just as you would with a real orchestra (if players didn't have click). It's a very organic way to add some free timing even with a rigid click.


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## The Darris (Jul 28, 2014)

I am going to have to spend some time with Cubase's tempo system to figure out what will work. I tried doing the 'tap' during play back feature in Sibelius and that is just a nightmare for me. 

Thanks for all the input everyone, this has opened my eyes to Cubase even more. I guess I am just ahead of the times as far as what technology I want available to me. :wink: 

Cheers,

Chris


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## GrimeBrett (Jul 29, 2014)

I've had a lot of success using givemenoughrope's suggestion. Sure, you can't hear the music while you play in the tempo, but at least you don't have to deal with any latency when the music is in your head. Well, hopefully...


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## Daryl (Jul 29, 2014)

When it comes to doing rits and the like I tend to play a rough Piano busk and then just warp the tempo track to that. However, one has to be careful not to employ Pianist rubato when doing orchestral stuff, because that really doesn't work well.

I like the idea of conducting the tempo, but as I can actually conduct, it wouldn't work for me. :wink: 

D


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## playz123 (Jul 29, 2014)

As an 'aside', I was recently ask to comment on an orchestral piece someone had composed. Overall, it was fairly well done BUT the kicker is there wasn't one tempo change in the entire 5 minutes of music. "Never use tempo tracks".  Point being, the Tempo track is indeed 'your friend', no matter how you use it.  Yes, it would be nice to remote control it, but Mr. Zimmer has already explained why that would not be an easy thing to achieve in Cubase.


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## 24dBFS (Jul 30, 2014)

Hi Guys!
This is a feature that I am interested in since quite some time but no luck doing it live while recording so far.
I did manage to automate the Tempo Recording Slider to my Modulation CC#1 and using my MIDI foot pedal or my ModWheel to ride it and I also tried to use touch sensitive monitor to just ride the slider with my finger and while it is great for writing the tempo changes AFTER something has been recorded it is just not working live while recording stuff mainly for reason Rctec already described. 
The Cubase click just keeps going/clicking in the initial tempo during the start of the recording pass and although all the tempo changes are being recorded, we hear the same steady initial tempo click. 
There is no problem with recording your rubato stuff first and then writing the tempo changes afterwards to match the rubato recording.

Cheers!


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## KevSharpMinor (Aug 7, 2014)

24dBFS @ Wed Jul 30 said:


> Hi Guys!
> This is a feature that I am interested in since quite some time but no luck doing it live while recording so far.
> I did manage to automate the Tempo Recording Slider to my Modulation CC#1 ...



Hi, how did you end up doing that? Thanks!


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## 24dBFS (Aug 10, 2014)

Hi KevSharpMinor,

I did that with Bomes Midi Translator (http://www.bome.com/products/miditranslator).
Just mapped all the slider positions to my ModWheel and voilla!
I hope I could help a bit.
Cheers!


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