Is there an optimal BPM for making stems?

inakarmacoma

I enjoy making fun/wild stems on iOS and then later recomposing them in Ableton.

Let's say I have a beat from a Lumbeat App, and I don't know what BPM I'll want to use in the future. With stretch and shift, Ableton can usually recast my beat at the new tempo, but sometimes I can never get it right.

Right now I'm trialing making everything at 80bpm, and then I can always go to 40 or 160 without too much trouble.

Am I thinking about this the right way, overcomplicating? What do you all recommend for max flexibility?

[Deleted User]

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wim

I doubt multiplying or dividing by even multiples makes any difference.

Saving the BPM in the file name is always a good idea. And making sure you have perfectly trimmed loops. Checking that the n AudioShare by setting the BPM in the snap settings and checking that there is an even number of beats is always a good idea.

CracklePot

That is a wide range. Do you work in those extreme low/high tempos?
It might be better to consider the range you usually work in, and pick a tempo near the middle in between the 2 extremes. Also consider biasing the export BPM toward to lower BPM range, since it is easier to speed things up than slowing them down while maintaining good quality results.

So, maybe don’t aim for maximum flexibility in a generic sense (unless you are making loop packs for the public) but aim for maximum flexibility for your personal style, and try to cover the BPM range you are usually working in.

inakarmacoma

@wim said:
Checking that the n AudioShare by setting the BPM in the snap settings and checking that there is an even number of beats is always a good idea.

Thanks for the guidance here. Could you elaborate on that last point; sounds really applicable and useful, but I'm not sure I fully understand. In audioshare, I don't see a place to specify the BPM (other than filename) and I don't see any segments?

inakarmacoma

@CracklePot said:
aim for maximum flexibility for your personal style, and try to cover the BPM range you are usually working in.

Thanks, out of curiosity, how many BPM do you usually work in? I read up a little bit about 120BPM as it seems to be standard across DAWs, but seems it's not actually used by default all that often?

For me, it depends. I noticed that some artists like Emancipator seem to work at about 160BPM even though their songs are fairly slow/evolving. My guess is that this is to get high fidelity details on the drums or other intricate effects, but otherwise they're just spreading everything else out much more extensively?

oddSTAR

@CracklePot said:
That is a wide range. Do you work in those extreme low/high tempos?
It might be better to consider the range you usually work in, and pick a tempo near the middle in between the 2 extremes. Also consider biasing the export BPM toward to lower BPM range, since it is easier to speed things up than slowing them down while maintaining good quality results.

So, maybe don’t aim for maximum flexibility in a generic sense (unless you are making loop packs for the public) but aim for maximum flexibility for your personal style, and try to cover the BPM range you are usually working in.

+1 especially on the bias toward a lower BPM

wim

@inakarmacoma said:

@wim said:
Checking that the n AudioShare by setting the BPM in the snap settings and checking that there is an even number of beats is always a good idea.

Thanks for the guidance here. Could you elaborate on that last point; sounds really applicable and useful, but I'm not sure I fully understand. In audioshare, I don't see a place to specify the BPM (other than filename) and I don't see any segments?

Select a sample and go to tools > trim and fade. Below the sample window tap on "SNAP". Now set the Tempo and enable Snap to Beat. Just below the sample window on the right-hand side, you'll see the number of beats.

If you see decimal points after the number of beats then you know you don't have a perfect loop. If it's a little too long and Snap is turned on, then you can just move the end marker and it'll snap to a perfect beat length. If it's too short, then you'll need to increase the bpm a little then toggle snap off and back on to update the beat display.

That only covers editing the end of the sample. The process is more involved if you get clicks, or if you need to trim the beginning of the sample instead. When the beginning, or both the beginning and the end, need to be trimmed, I always start with the beginning, aligning that as closely as possible with snap OFF. Then go through the process above.

CracklePot

@inakarmacoma said:

@CracklePot said:
aim for maximum flexibility for your personal style, and try to cover the BPM range you are usually working in.

Thanks, out of curiosity, how many BPM do you usually work in? I read up a little bit about 120BPM as it seems to be standard across DAWs, but seems it's not actually used by default all that often?

For me, it depends. I noticed that some artists like Emancipator seem to work at about 160BPM even though their songs are fairly slow/evolving. My guess is that this is to get high fidelity details on the drums or other intricate effects, but otherwise they're just spreading everything else out much more extensively?

I am working in, I guess, lower BPM ranges mostly these days. I like the 80-90 BPM range, and probably extremes of 60-110. I do still go higher sometimes, up to 160-180, but speeding up loops is more forgiving, so not a problem. The loops can get a frantic quality sometimes when you double+ the tempo, which I like in some situations. But, you are also correct, I tend to compose new parts with sparser, longer notes when working at the high tempos, which ends up sounding similar to lower tempos but you get a finer grid to work with rhythmically.

For the perfect loop, @wim has given you some great tips.
If you happen to have any app with transient detection, that can make this task easier too.
I just do a quick transient detection pass that is good enough to catch the loop start and end, then I use those markers to quickly snap-select my loop region, and trim.
Then I do a new, more precise transient detection pass if I want to save slices or an Apple Loop.
Oh yeah, I am doing this in Auditor, BTW.
I suppose BM3 might be a similar workflow, and the new app sEGments can probably do it too.

wim

@CracklePot said:> Then I do a new, more precise transient detection pass if I want to save slices or an Apple Loop.
Oh yeah, I am doing this in Auditor, BTW.
I suppose BM3 might be a similar workflow, and the new app sEGments can probably do it too.

Auditor and BM3's ability to save the tempo and markers in the file can help a lot too. I forget the details of how to do that though.

jolico

I like 128bpm.

Every section is exactly 30 seconds long.

CracklePot

@jolico said:
I like 128bpm.

Every section is exactly 30 seconds long.

You should maybe think about laying off the coffee.
Your Internal clock is running a little fast.
😁

jolico

@CracklePot said:

@jolico said:
I like 128bpm.

Every section is exactly 30 seconds long.

You should maybe think about laying off the coffee.
Your Internal clock is running a little fast.
😁

128 on coffee
64 on tea

wim

either way, you're going to drift slowly out of the time continuum.

120 bpm = 30 sec in 4/4

It won't be 128 until programmers rule the world.

xor

@wim said:
It won't be 128 until programmers rule the world.

🤣