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"How To" Pages

Changing the Tempo

Contents:


Playing the music faster

Increasing the tempo from the beginning of the piece is very simple. Simply click your mouse on the box labeled "speed=120" and the tempo will increase by one beat per minute. Continue holding the mouse button down and the tempo will continue to increase. If click the mouse, drag it above the "speed" box, and then release the mouse button, the tempo will continue increasing until you click the mouse button again. I will increase the tempo of our hymn to 160. The screen should now look like this:

Faster


Playing the music slower

Decreasing the tempo from the beginning of the piece is very simple. Simply right-click your mouse on the box labeled "speed=120" and the tempo will decrease by one beat per minute. Continue holding the right mouse button down and the tempo will continue to decrease. If you right-click the mouse, drag it above the "speed" box, and then release the mouse button, the tempo will continue decreasing until you click the mouse button again. I will decrease the tempo of our hymn to 154. The screen should now look like this:

Tempo decreased


Ritard and Accel.

Changing the tempo in the middle of the piece requires a little more work. Be sure that you have set your base tempo before you insert any ritard or accel commands. After you insert ritard or accel commands, tempos after them are not affected by the "speed=" button.

Tempo changes in MIDI files are only made in track 1. In this MIDI file, that track is named "Conduct." Let's slow the tempo down at the end of the introduction, and then speed back up as the first verse begins. Start by right-clicking the mouse at measure 6 in track 1. You should see the Track Edit Window like this:

Edit Track 1

Notice that by pointing your mouse at measure 6, that is where you have entered the track editor. Since we are going to edit the tempo, go to the "Misc" menu and select "Edit Tempo." Your screen should change to show a tempo editing bar like this:

Track Tempo Bar

The vertical grid lines in the Tempo window correspond to the measures and grid lines in the piano roll above it. To slow the tempo in measure 7 and pick back up by measure 8, point your mouse at the top of the black section at the beginning of measure 7, and then drag down and across to reduce the tempo through the first half of the measure. The ritard should look something like this:

Tempo Ritard

Now click on the "Apply" button to make the change effective.

Notice that the tempo after the ritard has not been affected. The MIDI file will resume the original tempo immediately after the ritard. If you want to make the tempo increase more gradual, then you follow a similar approach. Use your mouse to follow the line back up as you approach measure 8. Your result should look something like this:

Tempo Accel

Again, you must click on the "Apply" button to make the change effective. Now close the Track Edit Window by clicking on the "x" button at the upper right and look at the Main Window. You will now see marks in the Conduct track something like this:

Main Window Tempo Events

The new black marks show that "MIDI events" are occurring in the measure. The tempo changes are "MIDI events."

If you would like to learn about changing the sounds in this file, go to the next page, Assigning Voices, or you can return to the Table of Contents.


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