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Finding tempo of audio & MIDI
Beat Detective in Pro Tools allows you to calculate the tempo of rhythmic audio or MIDI passages, even if the material has varying tempos or swing. This is especially helpful when working with stems, loops, or imported files that need to align with your session’s tempo. It’s also useful for remixing or combining tracks with different tempos, ensuring everything stays in sync with your session’s tempo map. Here’s how to find the tempo of audio or MIDI clips:
1. Make a selection
- Audio Selection: In the Edit window, select the audio region for which you want to calculate the tempo. Ensure the start and end points fall cleanly on beats.
- MIDI Selection: In the Edit window or MIDI Editor window, select the range of MIDI notes. The selection should start and end at musically relevant locations, such as barlines.
2. Open Beat Detective
- Go to Event > Beat Detective from the menu bar, or press Command+8 (Mac) or Control+8 (Windows) on the numeric keypad.
- The Beat Detective window will appear, floating above the Edit window so you can make real-time adjustments.
3. Set the Operation to Bar|Beat Marker Generation
- In the Beat Detective window, select Bar|Beat Marker Generation from the Operation dropdown menu.
- This mode is used for analyzing the selection and generating tempo markers based on transients in the audio or MIDI data.
4. Define the Selection Range
- If your audio or MIDI selection doesn’t match the session’s tempo or meter, manually enter the Time Signature and Start/End Bar|Beat locations in the Beat Detective window.
- If you are unsure of the material’s length, click Tap End B|B and play back the selection, tapping the button until the End Bar|Beat value stabilizes.
5. Analyze the Selection
- In the Detection section of Beat Detective, click Analyze to allow Pro Tools to detect transients or rhythmic events in your selection.
- Adjust the Sensitivity slider to control how detailed the detection is. A higher sensitivity will detect smaller rhythmic events.
- Once analyzed, Beat Detective will display Bar|Beat markers that represent the detected beats, which can now be used to generate tempo information.
6. Generate the Tempo
- With the selection analyzed and the markers in place, click Generate to create Bar|Beat markers at the beginning and end of the selection.
- These markers will define the tempo of the selected material, and the generated tempo can now be applied to the session’s tempo map or used for quantizing other tracks.