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Hi,

I am trying to learn how to play this song. Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny...this version https://youtu.be/YBRCvVpknvg.

I assume this is in 6/8 time but don't know the BPM correctly.

At some point I want to make a backing track so my friend and I can play the guitar part and the steel pedal part on the second guitar.

I wish I had a Sho-Bud...lol...every one I see for sale is about $3000. If you hear a loud gun shot, that is my wife killing me for buying one...lol

Thanks,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Billy, it's probably in a 12/8 time signature with a tempo of about 65 (that recording has a tempo of 63).

You could also use a 4/4 swing 8 style with a possibly similar result.





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Thanks

I had assumed about 64 BPM on the record. I have the original recording in my DAW. I just could not get the measures to line up properly. I will try the 12/8 and see if that works.

I downloaded three sample sheet music arrangements for the internet. One was in 4/4, one in cut time, and one in 6/8.

Just listening to the record I sort of thought the ascent was on the 1 and 4 which would indicate 6/8 to me.

This is always an issue with a DAW. It simply will not work correctly unless you have the correct time signature and BPM.

Thanks,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Billy,

SongPicker suggested ZZPBAL12.STY, which is an All MIDI style with 4/4 swing timing. I tried the style and C, Am, F & G at 65 BP and it's a great starting point.


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Thanks Jim,

I have a new friend who plays guitar and bass. We get along really well and we want to play together, just the two of us.

The idea was to use BB or any other software to generate a backing track for parts we can not play.

Almost every country cover tune we like has pedal steel guitar and fiddle parts. In general the pedal steel parts are signature licks for the song. Sleepwalk and All My Exes Live In Texas are perfect examples. The point being, the intro for example has to be pretty close to work. I am trying to learn to emulate steel on guitar but I am a long way from making it sound like anything I would feel comfortable to play in public...lol

I have really been struggling to figure a way to deal with this issue. Like many guitar players, I have given little thought in the past to music theory or sight reading. Being able to use software like BB or any DAW for that matter brings up a whole new set of issues.

All My Exes Live IN Texas is one of the top 100 all time great songs. If any one has a idea how to build a backing track I would really like to hear about it.

At this point the only answer I can come up with is to pay someone to play and record the steel part.

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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"At this point the only answer I can come up with is to pay someone to play and record the steel part."



Here's a guy in Citrus County. I don't know him personally, but he does teach, so he can probably do a track for you online.


https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=314752



Regards,


Bob

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Thanks Bob

I will see if I can contact him.

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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That is called compound rhythm, where it seems like 3/4 but it is 4 groups of 3/4, so whoever said 12/8 is right. You can find downloadable BPM analyzers all over the web.

https://mixmeister-bpm-analyzer.en.softonic.com/

Count this song 123 223 323 423.

Last edited by eddie1261; 01/15/19 01:57 PM.
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Thanks Eddie,

Actually the BPM or the time signature has little importance to me if I am just playing this or any other song on my guitar.Like many guitar players I listen to the song then just play it by ear.

All these questions come as a function of the operation of software. For example some time ago I transcribed a song called "Rock Me Baby" in Finale. I did this in 4/4 first and it would not play out correctly. Next I tried 6/8, which also did not work. I then used 12/8 and everything went to normal.

The point to all this is, the song could be written in 4/4 or 6/8 and a good guitar player with sight reading skills could play it with no issue. The software in general is not that skilled...lol I see a lot of triplet based music written in 4/4 which has always seemed pretty illogical to me!!

Put a song in a DAW that the Time signature and BPM are not known with precision and the measures will not line up and the metronome will not work.

None of these technical issues cause me much of a problem when creating original music using BB or any other software because I just adapt to the limits of the software and worse, adapt to my limits of understand of the software....truly frustrating at times but usable.

Putting a cover tune in a DAW for the purpose of trying to learn the song and wanting to slow it down or loop certain parts becomes problematic at times.

I wish I could buy songs that all the instruments and vocals are on separate tracks!! I wish we had better copyright laws!! I wish we had better politicians...lol...lol

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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[quote[Put a song in a DAW that the Time signature and BPM are not known with precision and the measures will not line up and the metronome will not work. [/quote]

The software I pointed you to will tell you the BPM. Then set your DAW at what the BPM is and it will line up when you import it.

Quote:
Actually the BPM or the time signature has little importance to me if I am just playing this or any other song on my guitar.Like many guitar players I listen to the song then just play it by ear.

All these questions come as a function of the operation of software. For example some time ago I transcribed a song called "Rock Me Baby" in Finale. I did this in 4/4 first and it would not play out correctly. Next I tried 6/8, which also did not work. I then used 12/8 and everything went to normal.


Those 2 sentences are 180 opposed. If it "would not play out correctly" (whatever you mean by that - I have to guess) it's because the downbeat in the DAW was not in alignment with the downbeat in the music.

I do this all the time to do edits and it works just fine. Read the BPM in BPM Analyzer, set the DAW, import the file. The downbeats will match.

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Originally Posted By: Planobilly

Putting a cover tune in a DAW for the purpose of trying to learn the song and wanting to slow it down or loop certain parts becomes problematic at times.


To do this, give Riffstation a try. It is a nice program.

And it is FREE.


https://pro.riffstation.com/

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Another big plus 1 for Riffstation.


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Thanks guys,

I will give Riffstation a try.

I decided to buy Platinum Samples Real Country AD. One of the first Midi packs I have been truly happy with. Good stuff!!

Hi Eddie,

I am going to download the BPM analyzer you suggested.

Finale is not a DAW, it is Music Notation Software( one of the two big ones, Sibelius is the other). You enter notes in standard notation. It requires all the same sort of things you would need if you were writing music on a piece of ledger paper. It will play out those notes with a built in midi synthesizer, in more or less the same way a classically trained musician would sight read it. Finale like many software programs has a very steep and serious learning curve.
Hence, my rant and frustration with music software in general. https://www.finalemusic.com/

I am old enough to remember the only way to learn a song like "Stormy Monday" was to go watch Aaron Thibeaux Walker AKA TBone Walker play it live in a dive in Houston or Dallas...lol

Cheers,

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Hi Billy,

Just checked on https://www.karaoke-version.com and there is a Santo and Johnny backtrack there.
You can also download the individual tracks as Custom Backing tracks. ($2.99)

https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/santo-and-johnny/sleep-walk.html

Last edited by CountryTrash; 01/16/19 10:41 PM.

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I downloaded all the tracks to "All My Ex"s live In Texas" from karaoke-version.com/custom...Ideas all the way from South Africa...what a concept!! Thanks...I will get to Sleepwalk in a bit.

While it is a good ways from perfect, I find some usable stuff. I just put the 11 tracks in my DAW so I have not had the time to try to make things better yet but well worth the $2.99.

Riffstation was a very well made piece of software which was truly free. Go to the site and download...end of story. Thanks Floyd

Cheers,

Billy

Last edited by Planobilly; 01/17/19 12:36 PM.

“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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It can definitely get confusing to explain. 120 BPM = 120 BPM, whether you use the 1/8 note as the beat or the 1/4 note .. BPM is beats over time (a minute) and what constitutes a beat is defined by the time signature. Time signature is more about how you are going to notate it (3/4 or 6/8) and how many beats are in a measure. (2/4, 3/4, 4/4 ..)

Anyways this might help (or further confuse) -
http://tools.masteringmatters.com/

Last edited by rharv; 02/25/23 02:00 AM.

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Originally Posted By: rharv
you use the 1/8 note as the beat or the 1/4 note

.. or occasionally 1/2 note for marches and similar (time sig 2/2 oc the 'C' with a vertical line through it).

Sometimes the easiest approach is to just set the tempo in the application and listen whether the song sounds right or is madly too fast or too slow, then halve or double to suit.


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Hi

Welcome to the forum.

Here is a video that will show you how to change the BPM/Tempo at any point in the song. https://youtu.be/EXuZpg2UP9w

BPM stands for "Beats Per Minuit." 60 BPM equals 60 beats per minute, for example.

Time signature defines how many particular note values are contained in each measure.

4/4 is one of the most common.

Simple time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other:

The lower numeral indicates the note value that the signature is counting. This number is always a power of 2, usually 2, 4, or 8.

The upper numeral indicates how many such note values constitute a bar. If this number is 2 or 4, the signature is described as duple meter; if 3, it is called triple meter. Other, less common, descriptors such as quintuple meter are occasionally used.

Try to stay with the most common time signatures until you get skilled in counting them. These common time signatures are 2/4, 4/4, and 3/4. Frequently used but less common are 6/8 and 12/8.

How to count the notes in a measure in 4/4 time. Turn on the metronome in Studio One. It is at the bottom on the right. There will be four clicks or sounds per measure.

Whole notes = 1 note per measure
Half notes = 2 notes per measure
Quater notes= 4 notes per measure
Eighth notes= 8 notes per measure

If you google this stuff you can find explanations that you can understand.

Hope this helps

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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All good information given thus far. I will add one thing. If you are using MIDI then you can increase or decrease your tempo with no problem. But if you are using audio/RealTracks moving the tempo to far away from the initial tempo may cause artifacts; that is glitches in the audio.


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The basic theory is universal, but in your post you ask about something specific to Studio One Pro. Unless someone else here also coincidentally uses Studio One Pro, the process for tempo changes within a song in Studio One Pro may or may not be the same or completely different from either of the PG Music programs. So while you can learn the theory about tempo, BPM, time signatures and such from this thread, I don't know if your specific question about Studio One Pro can be addressed here. Studio One Pro has forums at this link and you will probably have better results in finding specific instructions to do a tempo change there.

+++ Presonus Forums +++

The theory principles that have been provided thus far are spot on. 60 BPM is one beat every second, 120 BPM is 2 beats per EDITED minute second. BPM is to music what RPM is to engines. I won't repeat everything that has been said because it is all correct as stated.

Last edited by eddie1261; 02/25/23 04:56 AM.
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