How To FIX VARIABLE TEMPOS for BACKING TRACKS or SONGS

In this video we are going over how to fix variable tempos for songs, backing tracks, or just things that were not recorded to the click in general. I use the website karaoke version often for my backing tracks, and the number one question I've gotten is how to fix the variable tempos. Here's how you do it!
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[@AlMcManusMusic]

Excellent video, thank you! Most of your stuff is right up my alley; we do the same projects. IEMs, tracks, karaoke-version, etc. I have struggled MIGHTILY with this issue over the years....I have some unsettling news. :) This looked good until you went through each track to nudge them. There is a MUCH easier and time-saving way! Try this: open a single-track project, then set the tempo (like you said)... THEN, under the BPM select "smart tempo project settings," select "imported files to" --> "on" THEN, import your file. Logic does the rest. Snapped to the grid, boom. Also, now it will change tempo if you decide you don't like the current BPM. Just change the BPM and the file changes as well. Awesome for hybrid project that might contain MIDI and audio. You may need to make some tweaks after the fact using your method above, especially with strings, horns, or whatever has fewer prominent transients. Anywho... I hope this saved you some time. Doh! I look forward to your content in '24. Keep up the excellent work. Cheers.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Wow! Really interesting! Thank you for sharing this! I appreciate it man! I just tried doing this on Superstition and it definitely did a pretty good job but overall messed up a good chunk of things. Like you said, some of the horns it tried to place all weird... and some drum fills got really screwed up because of it. But I'll have to try messing with that more. I have never heard of that feature, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! Thanks a bunch man! I really appreciate it.

[@peterchristianlemberg]

Why not the other way round? Right click Metronome track (region) - Tempo - Apply Region Tempo to Project Tempo - click Maintain relative positions of all other regions and ready (most of the time). Sometimes "remove all tempo information" is necessary, sometimes Logic understands 2 and 4 as 1 and 3, but generally it works; Logic Drummer follows the time variations perfectly, if you want to add percussion or something else, for example.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Oh nice! Someone else left a comment about Smart Tempo and it worked decently but not perfect, this one seems to give better results for sure! It's not perfect, but it's definitely much much closer! Thanks for sharing man! And yeah, it definitely moved the click to beat 4 instead of 1, but that works pretty well! It still drifts off a little bit, but much better than before! Thanks for sharing! I'm going to pin this comment so others see it too

[@robramond66]

Hi Scott! Thanks a lot for showing this method. I use a much more easier and quicker method to fix variable tempo in Logic Pro: First, create a new empty project with an empty audio track (or whatever you like). I used a template with custom tracks with clicks and cues. Second, go to File>Project Settings>Smart Tempo. Choose "Adapt ptoject Tempo" and "Set New Recordings To:/Set Imported Files To:" both to "On + Align Bars and Beats". I check "Trim start of new region" as well. In the Browsers Tab, I bookmarked the folder with my stem files. I Save this Project as a new template. I open the new template and drag all the audio files required for the song into the arrange window on he first beat of the first or second bar (or whatever you like). In the dialogue appearing after this, I check "Create new tracks" and "All selected files are stems from one project. After analyzing (which may take some time). Depending on the files, you have to select all the stems and drag them on the correspondent downbeat. In the upper row, you see a new tempo track with multiple tempo events.To get rid of these events, go the control display and choose "Keep tempo". After that, you can select all the tempo events and delete them. Set the correct tempo (or any tempo you want) in the control display. Et voilà 🙂

[@ScottUhlMusic]

That’s really cool! You are the 3rd person to tell me about smart tempo, which I was not aware of. Thanks for sharing man!

[@ZollipopG]

Thanks for this video dude! I use Ableton and it allows for the same quantizing by hand and I practiced this method today. Amazing technique!!

[@pbenson56fran]

Its always so good to learn more about the software we own. Thank you

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Thanks for watching!

[@BetaRecords]

Wow Scott!… you just fixed this really big (and most of all annoying😂) problem for me❤ Thank you so much for your great and really helpful videos

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Happy to help!

[@oneminuteguitarlessons6060]

Home run. Great video

[@picksalot1]

Thanks for all the wonderful videos you've made on the HX Stomp and MIDI. They've really helped me a lot to understanding and get the most out of my gear. Happy New Year! 🎉

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Thanks! Happy new year man 🤘🤘

[@fabioalferii]

Hi Scott,thank you! Waiting for you to do the same with Ableton....happy new year!

[@chucksaeger7500]

Fantastic Scott! I can’t tell you how many times I asked this same question in the GarageBand community and never got this kind of succinct solution! You are the best dude! Thanks

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Happy to help!

[@oneminuteguitarlessons6060]

Thanks!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Wow! Thanks a lot! Thats very generous of you and I’m glad you found the video helpful! 🤘🤘

[@KISSGreatestFan]

Hi Scott! Thank you for another informing video. I enjoyed our consultation on 12/21/23 Thank you for your wealth of Knowledge. Please keep making the videos! Steve :)

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Thanks Steve! Glad the consultation was helpful, and good talking with you!

[@JerryCastaldo_NYC]

Great, as usual.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Thank you!

[@danielstusnick6011]

You must have been reading my mind, since this appeared just as I was struggling with this issue. Excellent instruction as always!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Glad to help!

[@capoman1]

I use reaper, has flex time like this. You have to place stretch markers then snap to the grid... But rather than zooming way in, I just put stretch markers on the measures and that is usually enough to line it all up.

[@Mooseboy08]

EXCELLENT!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

🤘🤘

[@Andrew_O]

Indeed it looks like tedious work, but when you want to be a pro about it and you need things to line up exactly it's nice that that tool does as much as it does. I've bookmarked this to go over when the project I use tracks with decides they need to polish things up a bit. Cheers!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Yeah it’s definitely tedious for sure! But hell, I find a lot of stuff prepping as a musician is often tedious work haha. But you only have to do it once and it’s done 💪

[@brywool]

GREAT video, Scott. This has been a thorn in my side for years. I'm a Reaper guy, so I'm not sure how to move this to that (LOOKS like it's Stretch Markers). Also didn't realize it was that much work (moving each measure). Might be easier just to re-record the tracks yourself. Your page is always full of great info.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Glad it was helpful! I haven’t really used reaper otherwise I would share how to do it 🤘

[@francescomarchisotti]

I’m pretty sure that you can do it all much quicker by just turning on Flex Time and pressing Q (or finding the quantize button in some menu). It should then align everything to the nearest beat (or whatever the quantize setting is set to).

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Is there “quantize” for audio? I know there is for midi, but I haven’t seen it for audio

[@Shredberry]

Wow Scott you really manually correct those click for the whole track?! :O Mad props to you cuz my lazy arse have given up years ago lmao I'd just play to the backingtrack and completely ignore the project's click lol That is, until I found out about ADAPT tempo lol I see some people have already brought to you attention. It rocked my world too lmao now I just open a project, set tempo mode to ADAPT, import the stem with the most rhythmic info (majority of the time drum track unless it doesn't have drum or it comes in way late), then Logic figures it all out. Then I turn it back to KEEP and import the rest of the stems cuz I found that sometimes with each stem Logic tries to match again and ends up ruining the smart tempo. Also, when I asked around online some people said variable tempo is some sort of production standard to keep the track sounding more "live"? Idk how true that is but I do know almost every commercially released track that I import to Logic has variable tempo so there's that.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Yeah, I had not heard of that until I saw the comments. It worked decently, but it wasn’t perfect. But for some songs it might work out great!

[@JacquesOLINY]

Hi Scott, I saw your previous video on multitrack creation and I really enjoyed it... Yes, it's true that many of the songs on karaoke version have a fluctuating tempo, but I find that it's not so disturbing to play with the stems imported from karaoe-version if you import the karaoke version click track at the same time. If all the musicians have the karaoe version click track in their ear monitor (including the drummer), even if the tempo varies, it may not be very elegant, but I find that you can live with it and still get a good performance, especially if it's a small venue. I'm on Reaper and it would take me too long to synchronize all the karaoke version songs with a variable tempo.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Yeah, we honestly have just gotten used to it. Bad Fish and Inside Out there are some big tempo changes that are noticeable, and we just know to kind of "loosely slow down" when transitioning into a verse or something like that.

[@Phill_Ashley]

Interesting. Even at 2am! 😊

[@ScottUhlMusic]

That’s when most of the work gets done as a musician 😅

[@daveperek]

Love this channel. However, I deal with variable tempos in an easier way in Logic Pro. I have Logic Beatmap the Karaoke Version click track. This then sets the project tempo at the beat map (which is synced to the variable click track).

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I pinned another comment that shared that. I need to mess with it more because it didn’t work perfectly for me…. But I’m not opposed to updating this video. I’ll experiment around a bit more with it. Thanks for letting me know!

[@Mr-vp8kw]

Love your channel and thanks for making this video I've been seriously struggling with this exact issue. Anyone know a way to do this in Ableton?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I know it’s possible in ableton, but I haven’t tried it yet since I know logic better

[@Mr-vp8kw]

Thanks for responding I really appreciate your time sir! :) Aligning everything on the grid is so worth it to me so this video was a God send!

[@Shaneflynn316]

I import the track from karaoake version. Open the track, turn on smart tempo. Press edit…. Then hit apply region tempo to project tempo…. That will put the song in sync with logics metronome. I have a channel strip with my own click I use in it which I just add

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Another comment just told me about smart tempo. It’s pretty cool! I just tried it, but it definitely didn’t get it exact. I’ll have to try it again a little bit more. Click was dead on… but drum fills got weird and some horns got off

[@Shaneflynn316]

@@ScottUhlMusic I find overall with karaoake tracks for the best part the timings can be good but some are just terrible, alas I’m picking out what I want and recording the bass for all of them

[@vandergleal]

Great stuff as usual. If you don't use Ableton, is looking for a PC free alternative, Cakewalk will do that with the feature called "Audio Snap". What I usually do is try to aling 8 beats per time and usually gets to a pretty decent result if you're in a hurry. But if it still fails, then you fix the 4th beat (half the length) then it'll fix most cases to a very decent level... if any particular part is still too off, then you can use the 2nd beat, or even the individual beat. Cheers, from down under

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Oh nice! I haven’t used cakewalk, but I’ll have to look into it

[@vandergleal]

@@ScottUhlMusic you're very used to Ableton, life is too short for many DAWs, if you get what you need from yours go ahead. I'm a long time cakewalker and since they're still going, I'm still using it.

[@epade]

👏👏👏

[@ScottUhlMusic]

🤘🤘🤘

[@DestinationUnknownKnoxBand]

Scott - you RUHL!!!!! Did you see what I did there?!??! LOL 😁

[@ScottUhlMusic]

😂😂

[@DanWolkoff]

👍👍

[@ScottUhlMusic]

🤘🤘

[@rosietherivets465]

This is gold, thanks Scott! I'm following your method, but one issue I'm having (new to Logic so I'm sure its pilot error), when I drag the audio to the nearest beat, it's only moving the track/file I'm hovering over, but it your tutorial it's moving all the tracks to the beat (a big time saver). Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Are they all set to the Flex Time? Make sure all of them have Flex Time enabled

[@rosietherivets465]

I think I do, but I'll give it another try, thanks for the reply!@@ScottUhlMusic

[@chucksaeger7500]

Ok, so I’m gonna get Logic Pro. What monitor are you using? Straight or curved? Thanks man!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I have a straight monitor 👍

[@sj_music_877]

Hello not sure if you covered this before. Can you change the tempo when you download the backing tracks into Logic Pro X from Karaoke Version ? Sorry if this was covered already but wasn’t able to find it

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I don’t know how to change the tempo as you download it, but of course you could change the tempo or the length of the tracks in logic. I haven’t really ever done that, but I know you can!

[@sj_music_877]

@@ScottUhlMusicthank you. I’ll try to figure it out in Logic. Thank you for the reply

[@kidsaloneband]

Hey Scott, I'm struggling to understand the 'why' though? Yes, I completely agree that when we drag in our karaoke-version files, we want them aligned to the beat grid, but (using your previous instructions) this has happened all along with 'Apply Region Tempo to Project Tempo'? Yes, the tempo varies but Logic's internal clock keeps everything aligned and so as long one follows the metronome (or a self-created click track), there's no problem. Don't you feel that by using Flex you 'might' hear some artifacts from the speed up / slow down, and perhaps de-humanizing natural flow? (I know... 99.9% will never "hear" it). Thoughts?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I personally do not change the click like I do in this video. I just go with the variable tempos personally. However, it’s the number one question I get asked, so I figured I would make a video about it for those who do want to change it 👍

[@kidsaloneband]

@@ScottUhlMusic understood! Yeah, my question as to the ‘why’ was I guessed aimed at those who are asking? Maybe external devices that need a set number vs. being able to use Logic’s clock… who knows? Regardless, you probably just introduced a lot of people to the power of Flex Time so look out, here comes more questions! :)

[@chucksaeger7500]

This is shear brilliance but I have a question: did the click track you’re manipulating come from Karaoke version? It sounds a lot like the klopfgeist you used when creating your own click in another video. Also; could you use another track to manipulate and the rest still follow, like the bass track? Thanks a bunch.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I think what you mean is that you are hearing the click track built into Logic when I demoed how off from the click track it was. But I go over how I do my click here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKibqI2ce7iEaNksi=GIxEfBdj9Q9rXQvm

[@chucksaeger7500]

@@ScottUhlMusic How did I miss all that!? I see exactly what you mean so I’ll go back to my experiments and implement this. Thanks dude…you’re the best!

[@abesaenz75]

Long shot here. I have a vlbacking track that is off of A440 and I don't know how to change the tuning. Is that possible. I use the same backing track site you do. Metal Health is the song in question, actually all Quiet Riot songs are like that.

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I know you can change the pitch in logic as well using AppleNuPitch2 👍

[@dylanhoward718]

Anybody know how to do this in reaper?

[@oao8227]

Wonder if this would work for old beatles songs. Like a day in the life. That thing is all over the place

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I think it would for sure! Might just be harder without a click track

[@RemySmith0114]

also, if my drummer wants to run backing tracks they'll need a mixer and a di box. 1) do they need a single or dual di? does the di need to be passive or active? 2) do you have any recs on small mixers with at least 5 inputs??

[@ScottUhlMusic]

I prefer passive DIs. And you don’t necessarily NEED a DI, but it helps. I would watch this video on how to setup the backing tracks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i57FlZmApd2cf6csi=KhAAiiYXTFlF5fqY For small mixers, I like the Behringer ones

[@RemySmith0114]

@@ScottUhlMusic thanks! which would you recommend between xvive u4 and nuxb7psm? looks like the nuxb7psm might be a better option because its cheaper, 5.8 ghz instead of 2.4, and stereo instead of mono

[@ScottUhlMusic]

@@RemySmith0114 Xvive has more positive comments than the NUX one (see my pinned comment on my NUX IEM video)

[@RemySmith0114]

@@ScottUhlMusic I read it, but which one do you prefer? since I know you've used both. Also, would the in ear monitor system work if i put the transmitter into the same mixer that my drumming was using to run the tracks? Or would I (singer) need my own mixer for the transmitter?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

@@RemySmith0114 For budget friendly, I like the PTM 10 the best: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnuvkK1_Z8mliLMsi=T681aTrqeWR_8vK2 Between the other two, probably XVive, just don't use a bunch of stuff on 2.4ghz

[@RemySmith0114]

if my drummer wanted to run backing tracks from a laptop would they need anything other than a mixer and DI box?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

You’ll need a splitter cable 👍 Check out this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i57FlZmApd2cf6csi=-u3nrI5o7GQk-MQd

[@RemySmith0114]

@@ScottUhlMusic thanks! which would you recommend between xvive u4 and nuxb7psm? looks like the nuxb7psm might be a better option because its cheaper, 5.8 ghz instead of 2.4, and stereo instead of mono

[@clintreimann]

I haven't tried it yet, but couldn't you just quantize the click track to 1/4 notes?

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Check the pinned comment. A subscriber of mine shared how to do it with “smart tempo” which is pretty cool

[@chucksaeger7500]

Does anyone know how to do this in GarageBand? I’m not an experienced DAW user but this is what I have. Hey it’s free!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

GarageBand won’t have their feature unfortunately

[@chucksaeger7500]

@@ScottUhlMusic Guess I’m gonna have to spring for logic soon. Then the confusion can begin.

[@KISSGreatestFan]

Thanks!

[@ScottUhlMusic]

Thanks man!! 🤘🤘