I have a Cakewalk project with a tempo of 72.3 bpm, and I want Biab to generate some realtracks to add to the project. What would be the best way to accomplish this?

I've used Biab Realtracks(Pads)generated at 72 bpm with some success, but using rhythmic guitar parts is very labor intensive with all the cutting & pasting.

I would change the Cakewalk project to 72 bpm. The tempo in BIAB must be an integer.

Wouldn't changing the tempo of the CW project, only change the CW grid and not the actual recorded music, or am I missing something ?

Is there a way to slow down the recorded audio tracks from 72.3 bpm to 72 bpm, and maintain the original feel, in Cakewalk ?

My assumption would be that changing the tempo across the entire track by that little would not even be noticeable. Time is changed the same throughout the whole track so feel wouldn't really come into play.

Thanks Matt & Steve...
Again, changing the CW project tempo just changes the timeline grid and doesn't affect the recorded audio tracks...

I considered making a stereo sub-mix of the CW tracks, and using something like Riff-Station to slow down the tempo to 72.0 and then adding the additional Biab RTs. I'm wondering if that would work, or if there's a better solution...
Is there a way to do this just using Biab & Cakewalk that would sync up the time without altering the pitch?

I don't know exactly how in Cakewalk Bandlab, but there are many audio programs with a Time Stretch utility that will allow you to alter the length of the recorded audio without changing pitch. Some of these are even free stand-alone utilities, I believe. The ones I've seen work on percentage change basis like 99% of the original time. But even that isn't close in your case; you need an adjustment into the hundreds of a percent. You might instead search for a utility in the DAW that matches up tracks based on pulses in the music. I forget what SONAR called that, but it's in there.

Hi bloc-head,

I use time-stretching and time-shrinking a lot in Reaper. It would be there in Cakewalk for sure.

One thing that is worth trying it is to use BIAB to save your Realtracks with ACID information. Then, when you load the saved audio into Cakewalk, if Cakewalk is set to read this information by default (like it used to be), the BIAB track should automatically adapt to Cakewalk's tempo setting.

To do this...

1. IN BIAB, select "Audio" on the top menu.

2. Select "Export song as audio file".

3. As shown on the graphic below, make sure that "Include ACID info" is active (#3 on image).

4. Now click on "Render" and save the file to some location.

5. In Cakewalk, manually load the saved file.

Did that work?

Regards,
Noel

Thank you Matt & Noel... you've given me some great advise, and ideas to try out. I'll let you know how it works out.

I remember: in the old SONAR, it was called AudioSnap.

Yes, AudioSnap. I do recall playing with that feature, which analysed transients, to help in creating tempo maps. I'll have to revisit that. Thanks again Matt.

bloc-head,

Cakewalk can definitely adjust timing. It has two ways to accomplish what you want they are called Audio Snap and Ripple Editing. Unfortunately, I don't know how to use either feature. I do have some suggestions though.

Visit the +++ Cakewalk forum +++ and ask how to adjust a project tempo to match existing audio.

Search the forum and Cakewalk Reference Manual using the search terms ripple edit and audio snap.

Great advice, thanks Jim.

I thought about your question some more. Both Band-in-a-Box and RealBand have an Audio Chord Wizard or ACW. Actually Band-in-a-Box 2019 has two Audio Chord Wizards with the new one built-in while the original is still an add on feature.

Both the ACW in Band-in-a-Box and RealBand can tempo map an audio track and then apply the tempo map to the chord sheet. RealTracks can then follow the tempo map as they are created. While the ACW in either program can create a tempo map the tempo map the RealBand ACW creates is much more accurate than the tempo map created in Band-in-a-Box.

Internally, Band-in-a-Box tempo map resolution is XXX.XX bpm while RealBand tempo map resolution is XXX.XXX bpm.

Pages 178 to 185 of the 2019 RealBand User manual has a wonderful explanation of the Audio Chord Wizard as well as how to use a tempo map.

Another 2019 RealBand feature you can use is "Align Music To Click Track". This feature attempts to align a track of music that was recorded in free time to a click track. Look at pages 220 to 227 in the RealBand User manual for an explanation of four different ways "align music to click track" can be used.

I've used the align music to click track feature and it is pretty easy to use. Once you designate an empty track as a click track you identify bars by pressing a key on the computer keyboard at the beginning of each bar while listening to playback of the guide track. You can also identify beats.

Huge thanks again Jim... although I'm not very familiar with RealBand, it may be exactly what I need to to accomplish my goal. I do have the latest version of RB, I have a click track, drums, Keys, guitars, Vocals, all recorded in CW at 72.3 bpm... I also have the whole arrangement laid out in Biab... now I just need to figure out how to use the tools in RB to make it all come together, with added RealTracks.

Yes, this whole thread got sidetracked into Bandlab and what it can do. The original question was how to do this in Biab and the ACW is the obvious answer to that. It specifically use fractional tempos because the whole point of using it is to create a tempo map of imported audio. The audio doesn't have to have a perfect tempo all the way through either. One of it's main uses is to take a freely recorded piece of music that was not done to a click track and tempo map the variances in the original file. It's very cool. Once it's been tempo mapped you then pick a style to go with it and generate the tracks.

Bob

Thanks Bob.. can I just import the CW click track into RB, or should I import all my CW tracks, or a sub-mixed track..? and what about the Biab arrangement?

Jim, I also understood that BiaB Tempo used an integer value. If it's stored internally as a floating point value, why does it give an error if a floating point number is entered? Is there a way around that?

Sometimes it requires some experimenting but I would start with your complete mix. You want to add some Biab style parts so try using everything so you can hear what it sounds like. Since you're using the Bandlab DAW you may like Real Band better because it's a DAW too plus it generates all the Biab styles. You'll see on the RB track view your imported file as a wav. Below that you have 47 more tracks to play with. If you're not familiar with RB but understand Biab then it could be easier to try it in Biab first. Both will probably work.

There are several vids showing how to use the ACW in RB.

Bob

Thanks again Bob.