Musical editing adjustment

Musical editing adjustments gives you the option of automatically displaying the photos and videos to the beat of the music, e.g. to sync the picture sequence with the music for a music video.

It can be activated through "Edit" > "Wizards".

To perform musical editing adjustment the music must have tempo and bar information. To do this you can use the BPM Wizard which analyzes the music and generates the information. The basis for this analysis is the rhythmic speed measured in BPM (beats per minute).

Set playback marker and object end

Before opening the BPM Wizard, you should set the play cursor in the project window at the position of the song object where detection should start in a song. If the song contains a longer intro without beats, you should position the playback marker after the intro.

A few simple rules:

  • The tempo and beat recognition assistant should always be "fed" danceable music.

  • Furthermore, the playback marker should always be positioned just before the beat of a quarter note or, even better, just before the beat at the start of the bar.

  • If the playback marker is set before the audio object, the whole object will be analyzed from the beginning.

  • If analysis should stop before the end of the track, the object end can be shortened using object handles.

Checking the automatic tempo and bar recognition

The analysis takes place in four steps:

  • Step 1: Checking the start marker

  • Step 2: Tempo recognition

  • Step 3: Specifying beat starts

  • Step 4: Application of BPM and beat recognition

Step 1: Checking the start marker

Before you start the analysis you should set the start marker at the position where the rhythmic music begins. This means that if the song has a long ambient intro, the start marker should be set after the intro. If the wizard can't detect any rhythm it will ask if the start marker has been set after the intro. If not, you can move it to a better position in the dialog.

If the beginning of the song does not have a definite rhythm, you will be asked if you want to move the start marker.

Step 2: Checking the automatic tempo recognition

The BPM Wizard will analyze the audio material and try to determine the tempo. The object is played back while a metronome click can be heard and numbered green beat lines appear in the waveform.

Under the waveform on the left side the established tempo is displayed in BPM. There is a small transport console in the middle to make navigating easier. The slider serves as a position controller. To set the metronome volume, an additional fader and mute button are provided on the right-hand side.

The automatic tempo recognition doesn't always work right away. If you don't hear the metronome clicking in time with the music, click the "No" button in the upper section of the dialog in order to access the manual tempo input dialog.

To correct the metronome speed and any timeshift that may occur between the metronome clicks you can use the tempo correction as well as the "Tap tempo" button:

Tempo correction: The BPM Wizard offers various speed settings. The most probable tempo detected by the BPM Wizard is preset. If this tempo isn't correct, you can choose another one from the list. The next time you play back the song it should be in sync with the metronome.

On/Off beat correction: Now it may happen that the tempo is right, but the beats have been displaced. "On/off beat correction" provides a number of alternatives for moving the beats according to the complexity of the rhythm. Try out various alternatives until the metronome clicks are in sync with the beat.

Tap tempo: Instead of selecting the tempo under "Change Tempo", you can click rhythmically on the "Tap tempo" button or press the "T" key. Additional blue lines are displayed in the wave display. After at least four taps, the BPM Wizard attempts to select the correct tempo from the list in "Tempo correction". The display next to the "Tap tempo" button displays the current status. Keep tapping until the red display showing "Unlocked" changes to the green "Locked" setting.

Use the "0" key to manually set the quarter beats while the music plays. Surrounding markers will automatically be removed to ensure that the set tempo remains intact.

You can move the markers with the mouse. If you hold down the "Ctrl" key simultaneously, the subsequent markers are also moved.

If the metronome clicks now correspond with the music, you can continue to the next step.

Step 3: Determining the start of a bar:

Next you can set the time signature. The default setting is 4/4 but you can adjust this if necessary. The beat at the start of the bar should coincide with the high sound of the metronome, or the red line in the waveform display.

It can now be corrected in one step: If the start of the bar can be heard, click on "Tap One" once using the mouse or press the "T" key on the keyboard.

Alternatively, select how many quarter notes the "One" is to be moved back.

Use the "0" key to manually tap the position of the beginnings of the bars during playback. This allows you to correct the beginnings of the bars in longer sections.

Continue to the last step if the starts of the bars are now correct.

Step 4: Applying BPM and bar recognition

Select which action should take place:

  • Create remix objects mode: The object is positioned in the remix object according to bar length. What "Audio Quantization" is activated, remix objects are precisely arranged on the bar grid. The remix objects can then be reorganized in a different rhythmic sequence, mixed with loops or remix objects from other tracks etc.

  • Tempo adjustment: If the object and arrangement tempo are to be aligned, you can either adapt the object tempo to that of the arrangement via timestretching or, vice versa, you can change the arrangement tempo to that of the object. As most music has slight tempo fluctuations, the time synchronization is often not perfect: After some time the arrangement and the music "drift" apart. If the object tempo is to match the arrangement tempo, this can be prevented using audio quantization.

  • Save only tempo and beat information: Tempo and beat information will be added to the audio material, object and VIP are unchanged. The images on track 1 will be repositioned according to this information.