SOUND ON SOUND

[JRocker]

Hi,
Is there anyone in this forum that uses Cubase?
I use Cubase LE AI 8 and I have a drum track I’ve imported into the audio event. The drum track was recorded at 130BPM, I want to keep the drum track but I want to change the whole drum track tempo to 120BPM so I can record guitars to the track and at the new slower tempo. Am I able to change this within Cubase and if so, how do I do it? Thanks in advance.

[Luke W]

A quick look suggests AudioWarp is the tool for the job, but I'm not familiar with the different versions of Cubase and what tools are available in each.

The Elf is a Cubase user, he'll probably be able to give you a much better answer.

[The Elf]

You can do it with Audiowarp, or by slicing/aligning. Are the drums a mono/stereo mix, or multiple separate tracks?

I have never used the cut-down versions of Cubase, so I can't be sure you have the tools available, so see what your version offers.

[Mike Stranks]

Slight deviation I'm afraid... The best - by a long way - tempo and/or pitch changer I've found is in iZotope RX... I use it all the time now...

More money though... :lol:

[The Elf]

Fari enough, Mike, but the tools in Cubase allow for easier manipulation, and if the drum are multi-track they will need to be kept in alignment in order not to enter a word of phasey pain!

[JRocker]

You can do it with Audiowarp, or by slicing/aligning. Are the drums a mono/stereo mix, or multiple separate tracks?

I have never used the cut-down versions of Cubase, so I can't be sure you have the tools available, so see what your version offers.

The drums are just one single stereo track...

[Fishnish]

If the drum track is a single file at a fixed tempo, import to project and place at bar 1(or wherever you want it to start) then find the drum file in the pool. (right click, or Audio Menu > show selected in pool)
In the pool, set the drum file's tempo as 130 (or whatever the orig. file tempo was) + check the Musical Mode box next to the tempo field.

The file should then play back at whatever tempo you set your project to.

At least, that's one of the possible methods you could use with Cubase Pro. I think you should be able do it on lighter versions too.

[JRocker]

Thank you all for your help. That worked.

[The Elf]

Glad that's got you sorted out. Well done Fishnish. :thumbup:

Since this is only a stereo mix of drums, you have the option to use AudioWarp to move the drums around to meet Cubase's tempo.

The opposite approach is to use TimeWarp to match Cubase's Tempo Map to the drums.

When multi-track drums are in play things get a bit more complex, since you need to preserve the phase relationships between all the tracks when you being to manipulate them, but we needn't go into that here...