Tempo & the Grid
The deck needs a tempo for things the timeline can live without. Bar marks on the rim, the beat lamps in the clock, the length of a cue, the count-in, and where a REC-Q take is allowed to start and end: all of them read one grid. Perform tries to find that grid in the audio, and lets you overrule it.
The tempo key is the top-left corner of the deck. The number is the tempo in use. Under it is the time signature, or CHECK in amber when the detection is a guess you have not accepted. A tempo you typed or tapped is green. A spinner means layers are loaded and it is still listening.
Tap the key to open the sheet.
What it listens to
Detection runs on the layers, most rhythmic first. Anything named like drums, a kick, a snare, a hat, or a beat comes before bass, and bass comes before everything else. Vocals are last. It would rather lock to a drum stem than to a singer.
The sheet says where the number came from: “Detected from drums,” or whichever layer won. If there is not enough rhythm to read, it says so, and the BPM field stays empty until you type or tap one.
A detection it is unsure of is marked on the key as CHECK, and the sheet says it is worth a listen. Play a bar. If the beat lamps in the clock land on the drums, it is fine. If they land between the drums, it is off by half or double, which is the next section.
The detection is redone when the audio under that layer changes. Replacing a file, or recording a new first loop, gives it something new to hear.
Setting it yourself
The sheet:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1/2x and 2x | Half or double the current tempo. |
| -1 and +1 | A beat per minute either way. |
| The number | Type a tempo and confirm. The range is 30 to 300. |
| Tap tempo | Tap the button on the beat. A few taps set the tempo from the gap between them. |
| Use detected | Throws away your override and goes back to the detected number. Shown only while an override is in effect. |
| The other numbers | The detector’s other guesses, usually the half and the double, when they land in a playable range. |
Landing back on the detected number, by typing it or by halving and doubling your way there, is the same as Use detected. The key stops being green.
Half and double of a detected tempo keep its downbeat. The grid stays put, and only the bar size changes. That is on purpose. A detector that hears 80 in a song that is 160 has the right pulses and the wrong grouping. Doubling it should not slide the one.
A tempo you type that is not a half or a double of the detection has no downbeat to inherit. The grid starts at the top of the song. If the record’s bar dots do not sit on the drums after that, you wanted the detected grid, and Use detected puts it back.
Time signature
Under the tempo, a row of meters:
2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8.
The default is 4/4. The signature does not change the detected pulse. It decides how those pulses are grouped into bars.
That grouping is what REC-Q snaps to when you are recording over an imported song, what the beat lamps count, and what 1 BAR and 2 BAR mean on a cue pad. A cue’s 1/4 is always a quarter note. A cue’s 1 BAR in 7/8 is seven eighths. Pick the meter the song is actually in before you record a loop over it, or the take will be the right tempo and the wrong length. See Recording and Scratch, Slip & Cues.
Count-in
The switch at the bottom of the sheet is the same control as the metronome key on the deck. On, a take started from a standstill waits through one bar of clicks. The clicks follow this tempo and this meter. An eighth-note meter is clicked in eighths, so 6/8 counts six.
The clicks are not recorded. The clock on the platter takes over and shows how many are left.
A count-in on a wrong tempo is worse than no count-in, so an uncertain or missing tempo asks before it clicks. Confirm the number, set one, or turn the count-in off and record free. The details are in Recording.
Where you see the grid
You should not have to trust a number in a sheet.
- Beat lamps under the clock. One per beat, the downbeat taller. While the song rolls, the lamp on the beat under the stylus lights. Watch them against a drum layer. If the tall lamp is the downbeat you hear, the grid is right.
- Dots on the rim. One pass of the song, with a dot at each bar. They turn with the record.
- Cue sizes and REC-Q use the same bars. If a one-bar cue feels like two, the meter or the tempo is the thing to change, not the pad.
With no tempo at all, cue sizes fall back to 120 in 4/4 so the pads still do something, and the beat lamps are not drawn. Set a tempo and they appear.