M-Audio Torq 2.0 [68/171] Adding tempo anchors

Chapter 6: Waveform Display

Torq 2.0 User Guide

Adding Tempo Anchors

To add Tempo Anchors to a song:

1 Load a song onto a deck and press the Play button.

2 Use the Tap Tempo feature to determine the approximate tempo while the song plays. The tempo will ap-

pear in both the Global BPM display in the Toolbar, and the Deck BPM display. This is very important since

this will get the Phase Grid close to the proper position leaving only minor edits for you to do later.

3 Stop the song and rewind back to the beginning.

4 Hold SHIFT and drag the Phase Grid so that the downbeat (the thicker white line) is aligned with the first

visible beat of the song. This will ensure that the Phase Grid starts at the right location—you will only need

to use Tempo Anchors to fix issues where the Phase Grid drifts out of alignment.

5 Click the Edit Anchor Points button in the Toolbar. The background of the Scrolling Waveforms will turn

purple indicating that Anchor Edit is active.

6 Search through the song looking for places where the Phase Grid no longer aligns with the beats of the mu-

sic. When you find one that is out of alignment, double-click it. The line will change from grey to green in-

dicating that the grid line has been turned to a Tempo Anchor.

7 Now that the grid line has been converted to a Tempo Anchor, you can now move it left or right until it

aligns with the beat. Simply click-and-drag the Anchor to set it to a new location.

8 Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all of the tempo anomalies have been corrected. When complete, every grid line

and Tempo Anchor should visually align with the beats in the song.

9 Click the Edit Anchor Points button again to exit Anchor Edit mode. The Scrolling Waveforms will revert to

their original color.

Now, when you play the song, it will play with a constant tempo (the tempo variations will be removed).

Some will say that editing Tempo Anchors is more of an art than a science. Indeed, there are other techniques

that can be used other than the steps listed above which will give the same results. As you edit more and more

songs, you’ll learn which techniques are best for various types of music. Here are a few other methods that can

assist with Tempo Anchors:

Tap Tempo Anchors

If you use Tap Tempo when Anchor Edit is on, each tap will place a Tempo Anchor at that location. If you’re

working with a song that has lots of tempo changes (such as older music that was not recorded to a click track)

this can be very advantageous. Just tap along with the music and the Phase Grid will be pretty close to where

it needs to be. You can then manually adjust any of the Tempo Anchors that need it.

Use fewer Tempo Anchors

While you could surely turn every single grid line into a Tempo Anchor, this is usually not necessary. Often,

long sections of a song will have a consistent tempo. In these cases, it’s usually enough to place a Tempo An-

chor at the beginning and another at the end of that section. All the grid lines will distribute themselves

evenly between the Tempo Anchors.

Edit Anchor Points Button