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Take the “Tempo / time signature challenge”, using Blueberry Hill.


Here is a simple challenge, where you are asked to listen to a piece of music (Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill). This piece of music is notated in different time signatures, sometimes 12/8, sometimes 4/4.(and could be notated in 6/8 too)

===================

The simple questions are:

1. what is the approximate tempo of this recording
if it was notated in the following time signatures:

12/8 time sig, tempo is _____ bpm
6/8 time sig. tempo is _____ bpm
4/4 time sig, tempo is ______ bpm

Of course the tempo will vary slightly in the live performance, we are not concerned with that as we are just looking for the approximate tempo in the first 8 bars or so.
Note the answers are expected to be the musically correct answer, ie) What Leonard Bernstein (and other educated musicians) would agree that the tempo is. Not what Program X says it is.


2. (Y/N) the DAW I use is _________ and I was/wasn’t able to load the audio and set the tempos above in my DAW and the barlines (approximately) matched.
================

Last edited by PeterGannon; 05/14/24 08:57 PM.

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Peter Gannon
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Now, once you’ve answered those questions, can you load the audio of that into your DAW and match it up with the tempo you’ve entered above, with those time signatures.”

Maybe someone here will make a short audio excerpt (on Dropbox) from the video so we have a WAV file example. Let us know if you’ve been able to match up the bar lines tempos youve entered with the tempo in your DAW.

It will be interesting to hear everyone’s answers and what DAWS agree with them. I have stated my answer many times on the forum, and will post them in a few days when others have been able to enter their results. Remember, we are only looking for apporxamire numbers, don’t worry about precise tempos to the decimal point.

There is a definitive answer to the questions above, and I hope that this challenge ends with everyone agreeing.

Last edited by PeterGannon; 05/13/24 10:54 PM.

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Peter Gannon
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I don't see a recording your link Peter.
Or am I doing it wrong?

Quote
what is the approximate tempo of this recording (https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=489839 ) if it was notated in the following time signatures: ..

Am I supposed to go find a version?
If so, recordings were live back then, so various recordings will vary a bit.

Last edited by rharv; 05/14/24 04:25 PM.

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Blueberry_Hill_Fats_Dominos_Version.mid
I can't get the time signatures to fit in Biab:

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Yes, time signatures are a challenge
Quote
...with all the limitations like currently talked about with time signatures not matching the standard of DAW's and notation programs. There is so much resistance from PG as there are major issues with the software because things were all done wrong in the first place and have been there for so long, then they have to use boggy workarounds to solve issues, I think only a total rewrite will fix them. It's always "BB & The Workarounds".

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