Sampling and tempo questions from a newb…..

Sabicas

I’ve never dabbled in sampling and I want to use the following audio:

1) Can I assume this is royalty-free?

2) I’m wanting to add my own instrumentation to it to create a old-school Delta blues Skip James-style hybrid. I hear it as 3/4 time, but it’s not sung in a steady tempo, so there’s no way to add a rhythm guitar track without moving syllables around. What is the best way to do this, considering there is a heavy reverb tail?

3) I imported it into loopy pro to see if it could determine the tempo better than me hitting a tap tempo on a metronome while listening. Is there a better way to determine the tempo? I figure I need to get that right before moving things around.

Thanks in advance.

Syn

Never assume,,,,,

Telefunky

While the folksong is „free“, that particular recording may have a copyright, so it would be appropriate to contact the publisher.
You may look up sheet music for that song to get details about timing.
Another method would be to load the audio track into a sequencer and apply a midi beat stretched on a separate track to get a „best fit“.

cokomairena

I will put it in koala and sequence each silabe to the original tempo. Then you can mess with that recording if you want to change it later.

Tapping is ok as you need an estimate

espiegel123

Most music not recorded to adhere to a click will have variations in tempo..eliminating it will change the feel. If you need to line things up with bar lines, you can use an app like Auria Pro or AEMS that have tempo maps. Auria pro additionally has audio warping which lets you add markers that can be used to line things up.

Another approach is what some studio drummers used to do if brought in to re-do drums on takes that had no click. Load the audio into your daw and don’t worry about the daw temp and record a click track by tapping along and use that as your guide for playing.

(Fun fact: jeff porcaro used that yo make a click track for beat it by clicking his drumsticks as he listened to Michael Jackson’s vocal track which had some bleed from the rhythm tracks that had been accidentally erased)

Sabicas

@espiegel123 said:
Most music not recorded to adhere to a click will have variations in tempo..eliminating it will change the feel. If you need to line things up with bar lines, you can use an app like Auria Pro or AEMS that have tempo maps. Auria pro additionally has audio warping which lets you add markers that can be used to line things up.

Another approach is what some studio drummers used to do if brought in to re-do drums on takes that had no click. Load the audio into your daw and don’t worry about the daw temp and record a click track by tapping along and use that as your guide for playing.

(Fun fact: jeff porcaro used that yo make a click track for beat it by clicking his drumsticks as he listened to Michael Jackson’s vocal track which had some bleed from the rhythm tracks that had been accidentally erased)

Changing the feel is something I’m concerned about. I might try to simplify the rhythm track to make it more flexible and just follow the melody. That’s what I’d do if I were playing this live without a drummer. I’ve been in that situation before.

That would probably have a better result, don’t you think? Those old country blues guys often rambled and meandered so why not?

espiegel123

@Sabicas said:

@espiegel123 said:
Most music not recorded to adhere to a click will have variations in tempo..eliminating it will change the feel. If you need to line things up with bar lines, you can use an app like Auria Pro or AEMS that have tempo maps. Auria pro additionally has audio warping which lets you add markers that can be used to line things up.

Another approach is what some studio drummers used to do if brought in to re-do drums on takes that had no click. Load the audio into your daw and don’t worry about the daw temp and record a click track by tapping along and use that as your guide for playing.

(Fun fact: jeff porcaro used that yo make a click track for beat it by clicking his drumsticks as he listened to Michael Jackson’s vocal track which had some bleed from the rhythm tracks that had been accidentally erased)

Changing the feel is something I’m concerned about. I might try to simplify the rhythm track to make it more flexible and just follow the melody. That’s what I’d do if I were playing this live without a drummer. I’ve been in that situation before.

That would probably have a better result, don’t you think? Those old country blues guys often rambled and meandered so why not?

Yeah, I would totally just follow the music.

Btw, a lot of great music rambles in ways one doesn’t realize cuz the flow is good. Hendrix plays with time a lot…even James Brown…in some of those tracks there is a lot of ebb and flow.

I’d try to internalize the time and play along with it in real-time.