Finding the Song Tempo in REAPER

Finding the Song Tempo in REAPER

[@rumariomusic]

Still a pain in the ass, that Reaper has no automatic song tempo detection

[@georgebarry8640]

Seriously, that ONE feature is crippling to me. I create my own backing tracks and I need to mimic a real drummer..with tempo changes etc Your method works for beat detection of a drum machine (all 3 examples you give are DRUM Machines). But alot of music flexes..like a real drummer. How can I reliably do beat detection on a source that flexes tempos as the song prgresses. Ive looked at your older videos...its waaaaay to labor intensive.

[@TommyMedal]

@@georgebarry8640 Yeah I'm trying to find this for a song that I'm pretty sure has about 12 tempo changes. I need something more.

[@jaggo86cu]

pero de esta forma te da la posibilidad que despues podras cambiarle el tempo y se adapta todo el proyecto. el fl studio tiene un detector automatico pero todo se va de tempo si despues quisieras modificarlo. esta forma no es automatica pero te brinda mas control a la toma de decisiones en un proyecto. y reaper es el mejor que lo hace. saludos.

[@lieutenantdan7212]

This is one of those glaring weaknesses of not only Reaper but many DAW's. To anyone watching, save yourself some time and hassle and just upload your track to Tubebat's analyzer which will also give you the key of the song as well. It literally takes like 3 seconds. DJ Software is also great at doing this as well. Thanks Kenny for all of your awesome tutorials!

[@guymanuel4260]

This is just another instance of you uploading exactly what I needed for what I was trying to do in reaper.

[@sniffrat3646]

is this guy a mind reader or what?

[@federicovalerin1444]

Me tooooooooooo

[@noompsieOG]

Before I watch this video I’m gonna say my method is I’ll drag the track into reaper then I’ll right click the track and then change the timing from (project time) to (timing) which means when I change the tempo it won’t stretch or squish the track next I’ll line up the first hit from the first beat then tap out the beat as it plays then fine tune it from there

[@devinhedge]

Kenny... you are just amazing.

[@EuropaMan]

Love it. I sometimes I work with old cassette recordings from the 70's and need to figure out the tempo. We never used a click back then. Thanks, Kenny.

[@ericstrauch3215]

Kenny to the rescue again!Importing tracks from other DAWs is a nightmare, this helped immensely. Thanks again brother!

[@zloboslav_]

I was doing something similar, but your process is so efficient that I'm instantly switching to your way! Thank you for another great and very needed tutorial! You're awesome!

[@desoconnor7445]

Another fabulous resource I had no idea existed …one of this days, Im going to tune in and the tile will be . …how to get reaper to get you a glass of champagne and bowl of olives 😂👍🙏🙏🏿🎩✨🎵

[@urasam2]

This is sooo much easier than the older method I learnt from you. Saves me loads of time, thanks

[@PianoDentist]

When you have tweaked the alignment (shift move the item, or turn off snap) to the beat/measure, be careful as you'll likely move slightly outside of the selection. Worth trimming the beginning or end of your loop before you loop or copy it further. I now use this updated method (thanks Kenny),then use along with stretch markers, for old loops that were made without a metronome or pre-click track.

[@domhatch]

Thanks Kenny. Super useful to know right now. I'm about to go back in history and capture a whole bunch of tracks off my ancient Technics keyboard. This will help line everything up right in case there's a misstep in time between the k/board and Reaper. Strongs!

[@zaporozac100]

Simple way, take the stopwatch start at the beat and count the numbers of it in 10 seconds than × 6 you"ll find out the exact BPM

[@davidbachy5627]

Fantastic song too!

[@KerenSongs]

As a songwriter, I am always asked by other musicians or producers what the tempo is of a song, what's the key, what rhythm do you want. The songs come naturally, but it's so hard to analyse the tempo. It honestly shouldn't be this hard, but it is. Rhythm is a whole n'other ballgame too.

[@autobotsNdecepticons]

I had a project recently where I was trying to recreate songs I recorded on a Yamaha PSR-500 back in the 90s, but since the onboard drum loops don't get sent to the MIDI out, I could only use the audio outs to capture them. I couldn't get them to match up with the measures in the project and found after a while 96 bpm in the PSR-500 isn't the same as 96 bpm in Reaper. I suspect the keyboard is the less accurate one, being older and having a rather slow processor, but who knows. Guitar Pro also gives weird results on the first measure of playback of scores with the PSR-500 as the tone generator--for some reason the first beat or two is always off and then after a measure or so it starts working right.

[@ericBcreator]

Hey Kenny, I love your channel and have been watching your videos for many years, always learning something, great job! I'm a long time Reaper happy user, it's a great DAW. I do, however, find it odd a BPM analyzer has not been implemented yet and you have to find the BPM manually. It is not a big problem as I have been using a simple free BPM analyzer for over a decade. But, considering all features Reaper has to offer, it seems odd this one is lacking.

[@gorsefan]

Agree, this is a huge omission for me.

[@Ahobakachan]

try reatrack brother

[@MarcFonda]

Best and quickest method yet, I might add.

[@nigratruo]

Hey Kenny, yeah, I'm also surprised that Reaper has no tempo detector, such a simple feature, I used an online too, for free. Could you ask the Reaper devs for this feature (I figure since you make the tutorials, you might know them well), I think this would help many people so much and should be easy to add.

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

as consequence of your previous video 🙂great methods. Reaper offers several ways to perform the same action, giving an incredible flexibility.

[@EZRockman]

Kenny, you just saved me a bunch of time. Again. Thanks brother.

[@chrisashworth7089]

I learn loads with every masterclass video.....thanks a lot !!

[@shindin89]

Kenny, great thanx

[@southsideronnie]

Kenny, you always share something really good! Complete explanation and easy to understand. Thank you so much!!

[@mukisajohnmary]

Thanks, Ken, this is a lifesaver. just wondering if this would work with an acapella..

[@guymanuel4260]

It should work, but the Acapella must be in time.

[@thelightinlife]

query/suggestion: seems there's 3 similar videos with identical title - 'Finding the Song Tempo in REAPER' - if you would please identify (in the title) which version number the tutorial is for, would be even better cool video series REAPER Mania thanks for your work and helping others make music

[@energycsdx]

there is a faster way, you need just select one bar, and in status line on the bottom of the window there is length of selection, when you move mouse over it it shows BPM

[@HaruSkage]

What about for a song where there's a lot going on, like a rock fast rock song with layers and tempo changes?

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aISlaGaofMp8jrM

[@jenskrgaardlarsen9572]

After you have set the tempo for the first part, count a few bars and find the second tempo, change the strech mode to time, and make a tempo shift. (I think)🤠🎸

[@banterbanter]

Thanks Kenny 🥇

[@RyanMcQuen]

Is this the last video with "Hi, I'm Kenny Gioia"? I love that intro.

[@MarkFromHawaii]

Brilliant! I've been just tap tempoing and then inserting the file and trying to synch the click by moving the track with the snap off. It usually take several trials that way. This is much faster. Good application to make your own cover backing tracks. Just saying.

[@danmenez]

I don't really need to do this right now, but this video is so good that I have to give it try...

[@calvingudu9237]

Kenny, You are frying my brain, Lol!!!

[@deeskushun]

i always learn sumfin, thanks kenny

[@MarcFonda]

Is it possible to make a macro to automate some steps, perhaps?

[@AndyCampbellMusic]

Great Kenny. Worth putting that action on a toolbar button surely..?

[@airfreshoutletja]

How do I do this to a stem with beat and 8 vocal track I dont understand help plz

[@chillseekerthechillseeker]

When you have the WAV imported and change the track tempo, it will change the WAV to match. How do you freeze the audio file to not change tempo when you change the song tempo?

[@JovianPath]

Right click on the track and change the track timebase to "time" instead of the default (or beats)

[@aarongabbard]

Leaves me a little lost when going to old projects where I didn't use a metronome:(

[@waedi73]

New project, empty, then I import a bunch of wave files, Reaper ask if the items tempo should change to the project tempo. How can I make it the other way around ? I want the project tempo change to that of the item ! But how to read out the meta-data of a wave file ?

[@EmmanuelB]

Very useful, thanks!

[@niteshades_promise]

after using mixcraft for 10 years, i find reaper is much slower and harder to use. still learning. so frustrating.😞🍻

[@max-d.guitar]

Thanks a lot!

[@Ya.sa-]

Cool. Thanks

[@Alchemist_X]

Awesome tutorial

[@emach07]

Man, I got half way through and thought, dang, it seems easier to just go and try different tempos til you get it right. Then I thought, get off your lazy ass and just watch the video lol and not only was it easy as pie, but worked flawlessly!!!! Thanks so much

[@FretboardToAsh]

Love the channel, your content is great and I don't at all mind you putting your face in with the newer ones. However, intro-videos are really disappearing in favour of a short 1 or 2-second slate, these days. A 16 second intro is very 2010, it can be good branding, but if it's too much it can harm channels. 16 seconds is a lot.

[@WENDLEtheOWL]

Hello all, sorry to be that random guy but I can't find an answer to this stumbling block. I have assigned a custom keyboard shortcut in the action list to 'select midi note plus all later notes'. It works and toggles status to on, but then it won't switch back off when I repeat shortcut, so I'm stuck selecting groups of notes from there on. I've got something wrong here because it is just switching on but not off. Any suggestions?

[@Stoker3rdClass]

You need to use a different action to turn it off, try "MIDI note left click to Select note" to go back to single note selection

[@WENDLEtheOWL]

@@Stoker3rdClass Many thanks Ian! I'll search up that command line in the action list and give it a go.

[@scottdunlap4109]

HOLD Shift anditwill create a time selection and it should loop, BUT IT DOESN'T

[@aarongabbard]

But, how do we know the time signature?

[@persiaguitar]

Wait a min I have to do all those to just know a song tempo ?

[@jamisondonald384]

There are a lot of ways to do this, but what Kenny is showing is the most accurate in my experience. Automatic tempo detection isn't always as accurate as one might hope and tap tempo can get out of whack on some things

[@DreErdna]

I’ve done it thousands of times... I can do it in about 10 seconds sometimes.

[@gordowebb9910]

Doesn't work for me. Tried it a million times. tempo never changes

[@electricwhiterabbit]

Works great for electronic music that is on a grid but this won’t work with a band that is playing live.

[@Ledgwins]

I believe that Kenny has a tutorial about putting a song with imperfect tempos on the grid.

[@IrvingWash]

You can align a song with floating tempo and with changing time signatures, but it’s super tedious. You need to install SWS and use “move closest measure grid line to cursor”. And yes, you will have to do this for the each bar in the song

[@domhatch]

@@IrvingWash and, I assume, track for track in the song if you're recording each instrument on a different channel?

[@JovianPath]

Kenny's video on this is kzbin.info/www/bejne/aISlaGaofMp8jrM

[@IrvingWash]

@@domhatch sorry, but I'm not sure I understood your question or the problem. You can't have two different tempos at the same moment of time. You can record your first instrument and then use this recording as a tempo reference for the second instrument.

[@Argentuza]

Or use AI.

[@mmccurry9]

I don't want to hear your stuff. Just show me.

[@mmccurry9]

I don't want to hear your stuff. Just show me.