I’m having a problem with ‘fast’ music that is being analysed as having low bpms in traktor for example various pendulum songs show as 70 and 87bpm. I’m also having trouble beatgridding some songs like this as they have irregular beats.
thanks
This is an easy one, Traktor is analysing the bpm as half of what it is. Open the advanced panel under the deck, click on ‘grid’ on the left hand side and click on the little button that says ‘X2’
The other option is to change the analysis parameters in the file management pane of the preferences window to a higher band, say 135-190bpm.
EDIT: I’ve found that when this happens the first beat is often out of place. Set a keyboard shortcut to delete the first cue (grid) point (I use shift+1) and another to drop a beat marker. You can do this with the mouse but it takes forever. You might want to put the grid/beat marker on the first beat of a drum heavy section, since pendulum songs don’t necessarily have a defined beat in the intro. Once it’s set you can always go back and put another one at the start if you want, since the grid will be accurate now.
Ok. But I do have music that’s lower than 135bpm right?!
Oh sure, you can put the parameters back afterwards but if I’m doing a big batch of D&B i set them to 160-190, if it’s dubstep then maybe 130-150. It doesn’t affect your whole library, just the songs you analyse from then on until you change it back.
What happens if a song has a lower bpm than the lowest parameter?
thanks
well it will most likely fuck up the beatgrid and you’ll have to do that one again so just do it with songs you know are in that range. I always do the stadard analysis on songs when i import them, but DnB often comes up at around 86-89bpm (half the true value) so I arrange the songs by bpm, select the ones in that range and reanalyse with updated bpm parameters.
Don’t forget to reset them afterwards or you’ll have a mess on your hands, and if all else fails as I mentioned before you can just go through each track clicking the double (X2) button. Make sure the beat marker is on a beat though.
Thanks!
Hmm, I still can’t get my head around how to beatgrid songs with irregular beats…
It seems impossible and is incredibly frustrating!
For example, I have a song Skindred - Babylon that comes up as 198bpm which it isn’t, and the beatgrid is very wrong although I have no idea where to set my own?
i never have this issue with traktor3… why is the bpm analyze/ autogrid so bullshit in traktor pro… you’d think it be better than traktor3 not worse.
Ha, good luck getting a beat grid to fit a live drummer. Non-syncopated drums are not possible to fit to a regular grid and Traktor won’t be able to set one, your best bet is to follow Ean’s tutorial but it’s not easy.
I’m having problems with drum n bass and trance, where I beatgrid the intro perfectly but after the pre-chorus build-up the beatgrid is wrong and I can’t change it because then the intro will be wrong… does anyone understand what I mean? the bpm is the same, but after the build-up it’s like it has moved.
EDIT: The tempo is actually different after the build up? surely this shouldn’t be? they are trance songs so I have no idea why this is the case
I can’t account for your music but Traktor isn’t changing the tempo! I suggest you grid them to the post drop section since the drop is what you’ll want to be timed perfectly to the previous tune. You may actually find that the intro section ends up in time unless it really is a different tempo.
Okay, thanks, I’m still having a very hard time beatgridding tracks where I can’t find a solid ‘beat’, and traktor’s beatgrids are all over the place
Drop another grid on the first beat after the breakdown. Another trick for finding the beat is to slow the track all the way down. You might be able to hear it better that way and it won’t affect where the actual beat is. One more that helps me sometimes is to right click on the move button in Traktor until you can definitely hear the grid is off them move it back in from there.
Hmm, it seems most of traktor’s beatgrids are actually correct as if I put a loop in the track it sounds ‘fine’.
Is that how you judge if the beatgrid is correct? If I do a 4bar loop and it sounds good?
no, you move forward through the song and see if the beatgrid drifts off of the beat.
edit: i mean, if a 4bar loop is all youre going for in a track and its working, then its as correct as you need it. if you want to be able to skip through the song without fear of drift, then more work is needed
Sometimes the beatgrid isn’t on the beat but a loop still works (could be going off a synth sound or something instead).
Most electronic music is okay and traktor analyses it as a whole number e.g. 138bpm but others are like 138.063, is this still right?
all circumstantial
if the loop works, use it. if it doesnt, or you find yourself drifting, there are loads of tutorials on this site and on youtube via ean golden that show you how to use the options in traktor to
- properly set the bpm
- set the right beat grid
- adjust the grid manually by small increments to perfect it
if youre not using cue points, then gridding isnt even required - just beatmatch and let it ride, and youll be all good.
here’s yet another beatgrid tutorial with youtube video. http://www.turntablepoetry.com/blog/?p=80 I also did one for drum n bass that you can find under the same youtube account (iTubeYou). See if those ideas help any; it doesn’t sound to me like you’re getting an accurate bpm for the whole song yet. But if you are and there is a breakdown and the song doesn’t start up again on beat, try a second gridmarker at the new “1” in the beat and see if that works.
After watching three or four different ones that’s the one that it all came together on for me. 