Cakewalk by Bandlab - Make the click track play in time with YOU! (AudioSnap)

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Would you like to make the click track play with you? In this video I share a technique where I use the AudioSnap feature in Cakewalk by Bandlab, to make the click track sit in time with an audio track.
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[@michaelneuman4851]

Great video, Mike. However, I have to tell you there's an easier way. It's called 'Fit to Improvise." With Fit to Improvise, you record the click track after the band has already been recorded. Basically you just tap any midi note, making sure to tap along to the music, 1 click per beat. Then you click Fit to Improvise, and Cakewalk will enter all the tempo changes needed to line the grid up with your click track. Then you delete the click track.

[@CreativeSauce]

Great tip thanks!

[@jimmysee1234]

Love tip Michael. Could you tell me where in Cakewalk I can find the "Fit to Improvise" function. I don't recall seeing it before. Cheers

[@stevew2724]

@@jimmysee1234 It's under Process on the menu bar.

[@meaalfaro]

Hi I like the simple way that you explain . I will like to know how you run Battery 4 in Bandlab 2020 adding Latin percussion to the drum map Thank You

[@houbsta]

I've tried this and it makes a mess of everything. Like it alters the WAVE data length and the duplicated track no longer matches up. Not simple at all unless you haven't explained everything properly

[@patrickrutz6117]

My thoughts as I watch this: (1) Wow! I can't believe how many amazing features Cakewalk has (2) Wow! Mike has real talent for instructing (3) Wow! I am so lucky to have found this treasure trove of videos on KZbin. I know this video has fewer hits than some of your others but thanks so much for taking the time to make it!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Patrick. Hehe - thanks very much man. My thoughts are 1) You are very kind 2) I'm lucky to have such great viewers 3) Good luck with you music producing journey!

[@severomagiusto4737]

I totally agree with you. This Cakewalk feature is great, and this video truly helped me understading how it works.

[@OneandOthermusic]

so say we all !!

[@davidlincolnbrooks]

I've always achieved this effect the way Michael Neuman describes below, by creating a new "dummy" MIDI track, then record on that track, tapping out MIDI notes 1+2+3+4 along to the source music. When that's done, I select all the notes on that "dummy" track, then go up to PROCESS----> Fit to Improvisation. That usually does the trick.... provided your first dummy beat is aligned with Time 0:00, and provided you have a good natural sense of rhythm and can accurately predict where all beats must fall (in your source music). This method is useful if your music a). contains music *not* highly rhythmic (with crisp and visible transients), as in a vocal track, and b). contains rests/silences/pauses. I suspect your method is more surgical and precise, to be honest, and I will try it out for myself right away!

[@paolomoscatelli]

oh my. this is one of the best music instructional videos EVER. Thanks.

[@fhidalgo]

This is exactly what I was looking for to replicate the original audio from a song with MIDI.

[@nctwister_km]

Great videos - I've used CW for decades and I pick up useful stuff in every one. Keep up the good work! There seem to be at least 3 methods to align audio to time ruler. The easiest one I've found (in 2022 version at least) is "Set Measure/Beat at Now...". -I haven't seen it mentioned. You place your first beat where you want it, then go to any other important beat (doesn't seem to matter much), drop the cursor, right-click in time ruler and "Set Measure/Beat at Now". Tempo is calculated to make it happen. Play forward until things are a little off, and repeat as needed. After the first big adjustment, CW will probably guess the right values. It is helpful to start with tempo approximately right. Usually not that many adjustments are needed.

[@LloydDana]

Beautiful video, this is a wonderful explanation of tempo change, I absolutely love this Mike, you are the man!

[@angelogarcia1980]

Hi Mike, I just want you to know that I always comeback to this video whenever I forget how to map tempo, vary grateful for this. Maraming salamat from the Philippines

[@micapoan9]

When you have a good teacher you will learn your subject really fast and you may find that you don't have to keep replaying the video over and over again. You sir are very good and I will definatley subscribe

[@davidwilliams2403]

At 7.48, you talk about the plectrum hit. It hits the BOTTOM string first unless it is an up-stroke. Thanks for a very good informative video, works like a dream. However, I had to firstly do as this video says and sync the midi time to an audio track. Then I had to sync my other audio vocal track to that modified tempo track. Took a while but it worked. Cheers from Thailand.

[@bodkwlbhdlsyhspdkgldpsldhgi9dj]

Thanks! It has always been a mystery for me. Now it is all clear! Especially the last measure treatment, it is very creative. That's how you get around with Cakewalk!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you!

[@johncostopoulos7741]

Absolutely brilliant tutorial!! Profuse thanks!! I wish I had this facility years ago!! It would have saved me a lot of programming effort (inserting "live feel" tempo changes within a song

[@CreativeSauce]

You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@clownpocket]

Thanks for this, it works quite well. I would never in a thousand years have figured all this out from reading the help files and documentation. More accurate than my previous method of recording a track of me tapping on a mic with a pencil along with the song and extracting a tempo map from that.

[@andreasurban6795]

I use another DAW, but I must say, your videos explain concepts more clearly than those videos of other presenters. So glad I've discovered this channel!

[@arpeggioblues5924]

Hey Mike.. I followed these instructions.. and it was quite tedious.. for an audio that was quite long.. however, I discovered something very interesting... I have full melodyne support (studio.. tho essential is good enuf); I loaded one of my full mixes, all instruments (bass, drums, guitar), I followed all the Prep you did with the example audio you demonstrated in your video. I trimmed the audio pickup, so that the track started on the start beat.. I selected the track, and dragged and dropped it on the measure timeline, (it turns a color showing it started to analyze).. Melodyne kicks in and starts the analysis of the entire track (mine is 10 minutes long.. IT WORKED.. it completely analyzed the track and created a tempo map.. took all of about 40 seconds. Played it and it with the play-metronome.. It was perfectly in sync with the metronome This is amazing, what a surprise. Have you tried Melodyne to create the tempo map? Cheers, mate.

[@paulhaullussy8662]

Wow, this is very useful, because that is my allergy against clicktracks: too robotic. It's impossible that I would have found this out by myself, thansk again!

[@ronaldanderson9263]

This feature, hands down is my desert island tool. It solved an age old quandry. Now I can quantize everything nessesary to my "grovey man" strummed guitar track.

[@crunch6161]

I think this is a very good way to get a click track to exactly follow the timing of a live performance, however there is a much easier way. Simply drag the audio clip, in your case the guitar track, onto the timeline ruler. A message appears saying it may take awhile to calculate, press ok, and that's it. I just tried it before posting this, I dragged a live 3 minute drum recording onto the timeline and within seconds a detailed drum map was created with all the subtle time changes. For me it worked perfectly!! Absolutely brilliant!!! I would definitely try this method first because it literally takes seconds, if the click isn't exactly right then use the method from this video.

[@manroopaf2295]

how and where can i find this timeline ruler you speak of?

[@crunch6161]

@@manroopaf2295 I called it the timeline ruler but it's actually called the time ruler. It's simply the ruler at the top of the project just above the first track with the measures and beats. I haven't used Cakewalk in awhile but I'm sure it still works.

[@Examigan]

@@crunch6161 I just tried dragging audio up there like you said and nothing changes.

[@Tony-Stockport]

Great video, as always. This is a eureka moment for me. My songs have lots of (deliberate) tempo changes and often pauses. All my recordings (due to Herr Click) have gained accuracy but lost feel. Now I'm totally changing the way I record. Also thanks to the guys in the comments section for offering up alternatives and tips. My initial finding is that the drag to timeline is great if there are only minor tempo changes and it gets 90% of the work done in seconds. Will be trying 'Fit to Improvise' later. Thanks Mike. Your work is much appreciated.

[@manmohandubey8125]

Man you tell everything right from basic information and building it up to the level. That's your best part. 👍👍

[@CreativeSauce]

Glad its useful to ya :)

[@Isaacthompson]

Thanks for doing this video! Very helpful!

[@jimmysee1234]

Hi Mike. Glad to see you are making good use of your isolation time. :) Excellent topic. I was not aware such a feature existed. I also read Michael Neuman's comment and I will have to try both methods out. I suspect your method would be more accurate while Micheal's method would be faster. I guess I will find out. Stay happy and healthy my friend.

[@Ssemaganda]

Hi Mike, am a beginner all this music production and i use cakewalk. would just like to thank you for always delivering this content . it has helped me learn a lot of things. thank you.

[@andrewrobinson2040]

Thanks Mike, after repeat watching the video many times I finally succeeded. I was having problems moving the tempo map triangles, and found I had to change from Smart, to Move/Select (F7 and F6). The smart was playing up. After a restart it was working with Smart again... little bugs are a pain, along with the crashes.... but hey, it's free! The clearest explanation I have seen for how to use this feature. Cheers

[@peterm3352]

Thanks Mike. This was exactly what I was looking for. An existing audio recording and getting it in sync with the MIDI tracks. Couldn’t find out how to use audio snap. This helped quite a lot.

[@FlockofAngels]

Very good tutorial! I have heard the term "hype" used to describe when a song gradually speeds up. Nice crisp sounding guitars too! Best to you, great work! :)

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks for watching, much appreciated :)

[@AnthonyCarrier]

Thank you for your tutorials

[@timothyreynolds6255]

Watched again...to review - just like you said I would in the video! Thanks!

[@denisbordage7345]

Hi Mike, Very useful tutorial. I've been trying to figure out how to... for a while. And there was the light. You're tutorials are always intelligently explained and interesting. Thanks for you're time.

[@BOF_Band]

Mike, as always another great video. I normally prepare the audio file as you suggest e.g. apply trimming, estimate the tempo and align the first beat. I then drag and drop the audio file onto the time ruler. This automatically analyses the audio and creates the tempo map (without having to manually adjust each of the transients - although this is still possible).

[@summerislempc2982]

Mike, thank you so much for explaining how to actually use this feature in Cakewalk. This a great video.

[@joegrint6280]

Fascinating stuff Mike. I made the trying to watch it after a bottle of wine last night - it made much more sense today :-)

[@joegrint6280]

Even if my sentence above doesn't!

[@CreativeSauce]

LOL

[@CreativeSauce]

But maybe a bit more fun with the wine!

[@thoang101]

So helpful. I wonder about this for a longest time. Thank you.

[@davidharpersongs]

Fantastic. So needed. I understand just about everything about Cakewalk but tempo stuff. My snap efforts have always failed miserably. I'm going to go through this with a project of my own, done the same way, following an acoustic. We'll see. But again... thank you thank you thank you

[@bruceboome]

Thanks, Moyk, I've been using Cakewalk since Windows 3 and thought I was pretty clued up. Your videos have shown me that I've hardly scratched the surface of this fantastic beast. This video in particular has opened my eyes. I have a track that I no longer have the midi for that I want to add to but I've not been able to find the tempo.

[@Patrickillian]

Your channel has the best Cakewalk content. ;)

[@catsven1973]

The best tutorial I’ve seen since a long years ago ! Thanks a thousand time ! It’s so great to have such process to apply in my next project .. I’m tired of that robotic feel of my recent records !

[@mimojapan]

Whow! Now THIS is one thing I never used but seems extremely helpful. Until now, I did adjust the tempo map by ear. But your version seems more precise, as long as there are clearly distinguishable transients in the data. I'll check your technique out soon

[@bevo65]

Man, I have been waiting for this video forever. THANK YOU!! 🤙🤙🤙

[@KellyMillerGerlach]

Great video, just what I was looking for...Thank you for taking the time in putting this together!

[@gary4gill]

Fantastic video, I have been putting off learning this process from the manuals. You have just made it a whole lot simpler. Huge thanks again!

[@HoboInASuit4Tune]

Oh thank Bandlab for modernizing the tempo track UI and functionality.. phew, seeing this is like seeing times past you DO NOT WANT TO RETURN TO. :P Thanks for the tips!

[@justinis]

I found that when working with time signatures other than 4/4, it's necessary to set the "average tempo" and "beats per measure" at the bottom-left of the track view after selecting "edit clip map." Otherwise Cakewalk has a very hard time configuring the metronome and refuses to set the project temp from clip. Thanks for the great video, Mike!

[@FreedomExchange]

Great videos, I've learned something from all of them. Been a Cakewalk user since it was Sonor and I thought I knew it all - not even close. I think this video may be my favorite. I did run into a problem I don't think you touched on in the video. I have a couple of songs that I played guitar to a drum track using EZDrummer, but I was still a little off time every now and then. I thought this would be a godsend. Turns out however that Cakewalk gets real confused if there are midi tracks in the mix. Followed your instruction (which are excellent btw) and then hit the tempo to project button. My 116 bpm song suddenly turned into 228 bpm for the drums while everything else pretty much stayed at 116. Turns out it is much easier to work on the guitar (or whatever instrument you play) by itself then add the virtual instruments later. Also, I really wish there was an easier hot key combination to toggle the tempo markers. :-\ Thanks again for all your content!

[@G-Doggy]

Prefect tutorial on this, Mike. Thank you! I hope YOU are doing well.

[@MrMaestrodon]

Really great idea, well done Mike, love your attention to detail and well explanatory process.

[@flevert]

Another great video, well described! I also like comments from this good community. I feel improving my knowledge on guitar recording very fast now. Thanks Mike for this channel. It is my main home recording support. Love it !

[@palvarado223]

Your Cakewalk videos are extremely helpful Mike thank you so much for taking a time to share🤙

[@RainStickland]

Back in Black is all over the place, and it swings in such a great way. I refuse to quantize my drums, because that's taken the life out of metal music. They sound totally mechanized now, and nobody enjoys that. Angus Young knows his stuff, as did his brother. Warren Huart was talking about this subject in a video I watched recently, but it was only a talking point rather than an instructional video, so I didn't see how it was done. Thanks! (By the way, I already bought my initial interface, so if you get my name in the draw, please redraw for someone who might really need it. I had to get mine directly from England, because Amazon no longer has them. Not sure how long they'll be available for people to buy in other countries.)

[@bayoubill3561]

AWESOME video! I've had to do individual measures over entire sections in the past. THIS FIXES THAT!!! Thank you so very much again for a very useful DAW/ Cakewalk video!

[@peoplemoverstation]

This was a very useful method to fix a very common issue!! Super good tutorial!

[@terrybi]

Thanks Mike, I was hoping there was a way to do this. It'll take a bit for my old brain to confidently do this but at least I know I can refer to this vid when I need to. Thanks again.

[@savydemirmusic]

it's super useful Mike.I appreciate it.🙏

[@DigitalSacalait]

Nice video brother! I've been a Cakewalk user for a long time and just learned this! Awesomeness!

[@Honky_Grapster]

Worked for me Mr Sauce, but it took me a while to be working at the “measure” level not “clip” level - couldn’t figure out why the click track was not syncing for a while there. I also found that activating a few adjacent transients around where I thought the down beat was allowed me to trial which transient snap created the best match for the free performance

[@nebukenazar]

And, again you are the best!!!

[@CreativeSauce]

I have the best viewers! Thank you.

[@raphaelwolfgang2484]

Massive thanks to you! It's something that I always wanted to do but didn't even know it was possible to do! Thanks so much for sharing this!

[@Gledii]

Thanks a lot. This is one of the best tutorials i've seen recently! im trying to do this with a backing track from an Iron maiden song and i think it will take me quite a while to adjust all bars. thanks again for this help

[@basementmidi]

Hi Mike! Your videos are so valuable to me! Thank you so so so much for taking the time to help us all. I just became a new subscriber to your channel. THANK YOU!!!

[@stevenrandall3439]

Thanks Mike, really helped, been looking how to do this for ages

[@CreativeSauce]

So glad it helped Steven :)

[@georgebaader9817]

This is a great video! I wish I would have seen this 5 or 6 years ago when I first had struggles with this problem and couldn't get any information on how to solve this!! Thank you!! (subscribed and saved this video!)

[@pranavsawant1439]

This is amazing. Thanks a lot!

[@jacquesboileau6087]

I had been trying to do this for quite a while, but never succeeded. Thanks for the info!

[@BuddieOLLi]

Today also interesting. Greets from Germany.

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Olli. Thank you!

[@nevadamusiceducation306]

This is helpful. I watched a few times and went step-by-step.

[@CreativeSauce]

Glad it helped!

[@WAValenti]

There's yet an easier way. You can just find the transients by tabbing to them and use Shift+M to "Set measure/beat at Now." You can do it every beat or half beat if you have something very rubato. You don't have to assign more frequently than every bar, but you can.

[@johnpeterson5354]

Hello, Can you explain further? I get the tab key jumping to the next transient but when I Shift+M, the dialog opens, but I don't know what to click on. I do not see "beat at now". What are you clicking on after Shift+M?

[@ktib74]

@@johnpeterson5354 Neither I found "beat at now". Instead just set the Measure and Beat values to the nearest that makes sense.

[@laylaschannel502]

@@ktib74 right click

[@MG-br5vc]

One of the best you did. Thanks Mike!

[@franciscorossier4859]

I have found that when a song has several changes in tempo in marked sections its better to cut the clip into several ones corresponding to each section. That makes much easier for Cakewalk to set the project tempo from the clips.

[@connorlaplante9318]

I have been looking for something like this for years!!! Cause I used to have a problem of staying on time while recording vocals but with this I can shift the instrumental to line up with my vocals instead of shifting my vocals to line up with the instrumental I can’t wait to test this out on one of my old songs with vocals that are off beat😳

[@jonnymcaleer2728]

Fantastic and informative video Mike. Thanks! Do you plan to do a video on the Audio snap tool as a general tool eg for adjusting to the grid eg two acoustic guitars? Cheers

[@MrVouligny]

Total game changer! Thank you!

[@dunelmtinker4758]

Have just been wondering how to do his in cakewalk on a recent project I’ve been sent. Great stuff! Recon I’ll be a half decent producer after watching your tutorials! Cheers

[@kingy525]

Oooops... just checked other feedback and sorted it.... marvelous..eeek

[@boberios4439]

As always, you make your videos very helpful. Thanks!!!!

[@davepugh7961]

I love the video, you have taught me much. This one however does not work for me as my timing and writing is too frenetic. Will try some of the other techniques here but always the slow by measure method, and even then I must use workarounds throughout.

[@RainStickland]

Very useful. I'm finally recording a demo of one of my songs, and it has a rather dramatic slow-down in tempo at the end.

[@TwangGuru]

Just in the event that this helps anyone else -- I find the shortcut, to be very awkward... and in addition, if you make a very slight mistake, the default binding for is "duplicate selected clip" which really screws up your track. I used "Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts" and added which not only fits my fingers for my keyboard, but also, is pretty much free and clear of potential errors. But thanks very much for the video -- this process is relatively tedious, but it allowed me to fit an Addictive Drums track to an existing audio track.

[@julian65886]

As always, an awesome video!

[@Andre4b]

Great content. More Audiosnap, please!

[@ktib74]

Extremly useful video. Thank you for your effort, Mike!

[@thelsel348]

Dude, I have literally spent hours trying to figure this out with no luck at all. I usually resort to squeezing the auto to fit the tempo which isn't what I want. Now I have some idea what to do. You are the man!

[@jonathantoine9937]

I just want thank you for what you're doing... (french guy writing with mistakes sory)

[@CreativeSauce]

My pleasure, I promise my French is less than a 1yr olds!

[@DigitalCollision]

I feel like this is SUPER close to what I need (forgive me if I'm jumping off topic here). So, I work almost exclusively with a mix of midi and real instruments (guitars, mostly). Modern VST instruments, such as those produced by Toontrack, have the ability to add "swing." I've been playing with this lately, and like it. Buuut, I also like to edit my guitars. Now, if I use Cakewalks grid to edit the guitars, they lose the swing--because I'm aligning them with grid. I'd like to set the GRID to the swing of the drums, so I can then use the gridlines to edit other instruments and be editing to the "swing."

[@royvdboorn]

Fantastic one!!! Thank you again Mike

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks for watching Roy!

[@benbirdsinging3275]

Those are very useful tips, thanks everybody!

[@JRYKRL]

Thanks so much for the tutorials...Ive learned so much

[@maizve92]

I needed this tutorial so bad!! Thanks!!

[@dujuarez1234]

Mike, great video. I didn't understand the about dragging the box from the right? Please explain. Thank you.

[@Cactus_Music_BC]

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, And I think it's a new feature since this video was made. But you can drag an audio track to the timeline and if your lucky Melodyne ( percussive algorithm ) will extract the tempo. I find with live recordings this will work using the Hi Hat track and sometimes the Bass. Otherwise this is the best video on using Audio snap by far. I just posted a link in the Cakewalk forum to it again.

[@MAdhiMursyid]

THIS!! :"D Thank you.. I always hate drawing tempo at my song cause i want it go naturally dynamic mood vs static tempo and click track make me feel rush to record. Now i can just record guide track without static tempo in the beginning. THANK YOU. :'D

[@CreativeSauce]

Enjoy :) Thanks for watching!

[@jimfogle184]

A great subject for a video. I knew it was possible to create a song project tempo map that follows a guide track but no idea how to do it. I have several songs that I need to do this to.

[@glennhunter9166]

Hi Mike, I write in April 2023. I'm still a beginner with Cakewalk so forgive me if I making some wrong assumptions. With regard to this video on "click track play" it seems that some of the features have been upgraded/changed in the 2021 update (which you briefly discussed in a later video). Is it possible to do a comprehensive update of how to make a "click track play in time with you" with all the latest features of Cakewalk as they currently are in 2023. That is "Audio Transients" are still there but the tempo maps seem to have changed dramatically with the temp track now above the track view, there's a tap bar etc. It would be great to see how it all fits together now in 2023 with a recorded acoustic guitar or piano audio track where the tempo is constantly changing to match the mood of the music etc. The Cakewalk manual is pretty thick and a lot of the graphics are gone thus making a lot of the material very hard to apply (I suspect because of the many changes over the years). It's people like me who are late to the party (haven't grown up with Cakewalk so to speak) where your tutorials are invaluable. Thanks very much for the tutorials you already done. They have been of great help.

[@ricibob]

Hi, Worth noting here that if AudioSnap is enable already on the track before you do the trimming off the start then "Apply trimming" will be disabled. Toggle off AudioSnap for the track (using the first power button style icon on the ctrl + a AudioSnap palette) perform the "apply trimming" and then toggle back on.

[@ricibob]

Also failing to do that trimming a. really screws up the timing markers and b. causes Calkwalk to crash when you try to edit the markers.

[@imjsupreemeproductions6353]

man thats a very cool guitar play love it so cool

[@JayanJayanthan]

This was a very usefull toutorial. Thank you. I am working on arrangin pre-computer music era songs as instumentals using Cakewalk. Most of htem have the timing slipping back and forth.

[@lickguitars1276]

its a great tutorial thanks

[@davmar9923]

Working on a current project, which is primarily virtual instruments, I recorded the audio of a Daf (Middle Eastern drum) from a plugin that had presets of drum patterns that played (supposedly) at 120 BPM. I recorded 18 bars of the pattern. I could see that the end did not perfectly line up with the 120 BPM Cakewalk tempo. I found that if I changed the Cakewalk tempo to 121 BPM that it matched the audio.

[@AlekosMazzolotti]

Excellent video!

[@TamirOrkobysPiano]

Same for midi recorded without metronome?

[@dromeliton3836]

Mike amazing cakewalk tutorials. You certainly deserve more subscribers and more likes too. I wanted to ask you...Have you got a tutorial where I can find out the tempo of a backing track for example so that I can play a guitar part assigned to me with the same backing track if you know what I mean? and then send my solo to the other guitar players. or have you got a link where I can find how to do it with audioSnap?