Calculate the bpm of an imported track

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

hello,

can I calculate the bpm of an imported track?

so that i can set the bpm of the ardour time-ruler?

thanks for all the hints :slight_smile:

cheers
Jochen

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#2

There are free Android apps for this. The app listens the sound coming from the phone microphone and tells the bpm of the music.

I usually do this manually by using a metronome. I set an approximate bpm on the metronome while listening to the music and start the metronome on a drum hit. If the metronome keeps up with the music I have found the bmp value, if not I adjust metronome tempo up or down and try again. This is much quicker than it sounds.

#3

Yes yes yes, I would absolutely love such an integrated feature. I’ve read this suggestion before and I believe the best implementation seen was in Cubase. One can calculate the bpm after setting a loop with the Marker. Nothing fancy but fast if you want to remix or add synth drums.

I don’t know if there is a suggestion board for Ardour features … think they are discussed real-time on some IRC.

Still I’m really happy I switched from other DAWs to Ardour and Mixbus. Props Paul and Robin :sunglasses::guitar:

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#4

There is the Rhythm Ferret tool in Ardour, but I have never been able to figure out how to work it so I have fallen back on a method similar to what @mhartzel described. Has anyone here had success with Rhythm Ferret and is willing to give a quick run-through?

#5

Rhythm Ferret is more about slicing regions than setting existing BPM honestly. I would need to make a video on it to demonstrate, sorry.

 Seablade
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#6

Maybe “Tempo Mapping” can help here. The following video demonstrates this in Mixbus, but it’s identical in Ardour:

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#7

You can open the track in Audacity (another great opensource tool - with a different “focus” than Ardour). It has a beat detection feature which is quite convenient. I had fun once with a Serge Gainsbourg tune from the 70s which had been recorded without a click, the tempo was varying a lot along the track - so with this feature I was able to get the bar length precisely relatively efficiently and from there to do my tempo map bar per bar.

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#8

Ardour also has a “tap tempo” feature by clicking on the tempo marker. type any key in sync with the tempo and Ardour gives the measured BPM.

#9

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