Aligning measure/beat boundaries manually

If you have recorded a MIDI track without a metronome, you may want to align the project’s tempo map with the MIDI performance. The Set/Measure Beat At Now command allows you to create new bar lines to fit your project. This command does not stretch audio. It works by adjusting tempo so that measure lines line up with audio transients or MIDI data. The tempo will ramp up/down from the previous tempo change in order to arrive at the required tempo.

To use the Set Measure/Beat At Now command, you need to be able to identify where you want to put the downbeats of each measure, and possibly where you want to place some other beats of the measure, if the tempo varies a lot.

1.	Display the MIDI clip that you want the measure/beats to align with in the Inline Piano Roll view: click the MIDI track’s Edit Filter control and choose Notes. Zoom in enough to see the MIDI data clearly (you can also use the regular Piano Roll view).

Tip: To make it easier to visually align note events with the Time Ruler, drag the MIDI track to the top position so it appears right below the Time Ruler.

2.	If you want other MIDI clips that exist in the project to retain their current M:B:T positions, select the clips, right-click one of them, and choose Clip Lock > Lock Position from the pop-up menu.

3.	Turn off the Snap to Grid button , and use the Select tool to click the MIDI clip at the place where you want to set a measure or beat. The Now Time cursor moves to the place you clicked:

A. Now Time cursor

4.	Choose Project > Set Measure/Beat at Now to open the Measure Beat/Meter dialog box.

5.	Enter the desired measure and beat values, and click OK.

Note: Cakewalk attempts to guess the correct measure/beat, so you usually can just click OK to accept the default values.

6.	Move the Now Time to the next desired beat (click the start of the next note).

Tip: Press TAB to jump to the next note, or SHIFT+TAB to jump to the previous note.

7.	Choose Project > Set Measure/Beat at Now to open the Measure Beat/Meter dialog box, enter the desired values, and click OK.

8.	Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the Time Ruler is correctly aligned.

After you align the Time Ruler to your clip, you can smooth out the tempo changes in the Tempo view, and your clip will retain its M:B:T position.

 

See:

How tempo changes affect audio clips

How tempo changes affect automation

Tempo track

Tempo Inspector

Changing tempos

Using the Tempo track

Using the Tempo Inspector

Using the Transport module

Using the Tempo commands

Setting the project tempo by tapping

Offsetting the tempo map

Setting the project tempo from an audio recording

Setting the project tempo from freely recorded MIDI or audio

Setting the Metronome and Tempo settings

Backwards compatibility

Tempo