Manipulating tempos

Being able to set the tempo for a piece of music is a fundamental aspect of music production as it allows for on-the-beat editing and certain plugins to be synced perfectly. But what happens if you’ve received tracks or a project that doesn’t have its tempo set and want to implement it?

Luckily, there are a few methods for rectifying this, and we’re going to explore two of them in this recipe.

Getting ready

For this recipe, you’ll need a Pro Tools session with a mixed song of your choosing imported into a stereo track. For simplicity’s sake, it’s best to choose one in 4/4 time (the pulse of the song goes in a 1,2,3,4 beat), though if you are comfortable with other time signatures you can choose otherwise.

You’ll also want the toolbar to show MIDI Controls. To do this, right-click anywhere on the toolbar at the top of the Pro Tools window and check MIDI Controls from the dropdown.

Make sure, in your...