Logic Pro 9 locking start position while adjusting tempo

D

doofus

Logician
I'm pretty sure I knew how to do this once, but...

okay, when importing a bunch of multitrack audio that was recorded to a click, I line up the first click with bar 1, beat 1. I zoom in close so it's dead on. I establish the tempo setting pretty close using bpm counter, but invariably it's still slightly off by the end of the song. So then I tweak the tempo by tiny increments until the whole song is lined up to the grid. By starting at the beginning and then forwarding through the song measure by measure, it's easy to see if the downbeat of each bar is drifting one way or the other, relative to the bar line.

This actually works quite well, but each time I adjust the tempo, the start of the song moves a little bit relative to the bar 1 grid line, and I have to nudge the files over to the line. Next tempo tweak, have to do it again. How do I keep the downbeat locked to the bar line while adjusting the tempo?

I've tried Region/lock SMPTE position but that hasn't helped-what am I missing here?
 
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sorry, not sure what you mean, but I don't think so. Strangely, I just did a test with another audio clip, and I wasn't having this problem. I've had it in the past a lot though, so I'm not sure what I'm doing differently now.
 
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Just re-reading your original post; it seems like you will be better off if you _don't_ want to lock the regions to smpte position.

With regions unlocked, they will remain at the bar/beat position rather than move as the smpte time changes in relation to the bars and beats when tempo changes are introduced.

Try it unlocked and see if it behaves as expected.
 
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The behaviour you're describing is consistent with the first beat NOT being locked to Bar 1 beat 1, but to a later downbeat. Are you certain that the silence at the beginning of the file hasn't tricked you into thinking you're at 1 1 1 1 when you're actually lining up to 2 1 1 1?
 
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the first beat of the actual song occurs on the downbeat of bar 4. There is a click track (recorded) that starts a few seconds before the song begins, some studio chatter and a vocal countoff by the drummer, who is hearing the click track in his cans. As an experiment, I tried adding a one-bar blank audio region at bar 0, beat 1, but that didn't change anything. As I said, a different song I had to get onto the grid didn't exhibit this behavior, so I'm confused. On that song, the downbeat of the beginning of the song stayed right where I put it (probably on bar 3 or 4, as that song also had some ad-libs and things before the song began that I didn't want to chop off).

I'm not sure what was meant by the question "do you have a tempo event at bar 1". I tried changing the tempo with the cursor at bar 1, beat 1, but the behavior was the same.
 
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That's your problem: when you adjust the tempo in the Transport window, you are, in fact, changing the tempo as of 1 1 1 1. Of course, this means that the position of 4 1 1 1 moves every time you change tempo, hence the behaviour you're experiencing. Click on "Lists" in the upper right part of the Arrange window, then click on the "Tempo" tab. If you change the tempo to line up the downbeat of Bar 4 dead on with the beginning of the song, then if you add another "Tempo Event" at 4 1 1 1 (Just select the only event that shows in the Tempo List, copy and paste and type in '4' before hitting Enter) then if you adjust *that* Tempo Event to make the rest of the song line up you'll get the behaviour you're looking for.
 
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well, it wasn't quite as simple as presented, but your answer/s got me on the right track. I had a step-by-step process written out in detail but my cat wiped it out before I could post it, and I'm too drunk now to go through it all again...suffice to say that it works, I get it, and all is well-many thanks to all for your help!
 
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