Hi there, I am struggling to adjust GB's project track bpm to imported song's tempo. I need to do that, to get the project gridlines in alignment with the song, which will help me edit the song in between easily, and also record my instrument over the same bpm. When I try to change the tempo in the project's panel display, then the song's tempo also changes. Thats the problem. I tried to lock the track, but that doesn't work. I want to get the gridlines in alignment with song tempo. Any ideas / solutions? Thanks & Regards, Vijay

Hi Vijay - I'm not sure which of two approaches you're trying to implement.. There are two ways to "get the gridlines in alignment with song tempo"—change the Tempo of the song to match the Tempo of the audiofile (beat-mapping), or change the speed of the audio to match the existing song Tempo (time shifting—"Flexing" in GB/Logic). In this case, are you looking to match the GB song Tempo to the (internal) Tempo of a particular imported audiofile, or change the speed of that audiofile to match the existing GB song Tempo? When you say "adjust GB's project track bpm to imported song's tempo" it sounds like you're looking to change the Tempo of the GB song to match the Tempo of an imported audiofile? That would mean changing the song Tempo, but then you complain that "When I try to change the Tempo in the project's panel display [?], then the song's tempo also changes", which sounds like you *don't* want to change the song Tempo—there's my confusion.. (Also I'm not sure what you mean by "project's panel display"—are you referring to the GB Tempo track?) IF you know the Tempo of the audiofile you want to match, and IF you can line up the first downbeat in that file to the downbeat in the GB song, then you might be able to successfully dial up the matching song Tempo by hand. Unfortunately, GB doesn't seem to offer any automatic beatmapping function, though it does offer Flexing to go the other way around—matching the speed of an audiofile to the existing Tempo of the GB song. However, if the audiofile wasn't originally recored (& internally time-stamped) in GB, even this may require a somewhat kludgy workaround.. If you can clarify which approach you're trying to implement—changing the song Tempo or changing the speed (Tempo) of the audiofile—that would help me point you in the right direction.. I'm going to link this thread to a basic GarageBand course—maybe another GB user who's grappled with this kind of thing (with the very basic options in GB) will have some advice or suggestions.. The (relatively) new Logic "Smart Tempo" feature offers more comprehensive options for both approaches—what you see in GB is a (very) simplified version of that—but even there it can be confusing when you start to bring in outside audio and make changes in the middle of a project..

Thanks for you reply, Joe! I am actually trying to adjust project tempo to the tempo of the song I just imported. For example: I am recording my guitar solo on a backing track I downloaded from youtube, so I dragged and dropped the youtube backing track in GB and recorded my solo over it, on another audio track. Saved the project. Then I realised I had to edit few parts, so I wanted the bpm of the project to be aligned to the backing track tempo, so that the gridlines match to the backing track and I can edit easily. The project bpm shows 120 as default, and when I try to change that, my recording and backing track also change. Thats the problem. Even if I lock the tracks, they change. All I am trying to do is get the gridlines matching song tempo. How do I easily solve this problem? Kind regards, Vijay

Hi Vijay - Ok, I think I've duplicated your scenario—with the GB song Tempo at the default 120bpm, I imported an audio track [that was originally recorded at 124bpm], then overdubbed a new audio track against it [with the click off, naturally]. Then I went to adjust the song Tempo of 120bpm to match the original track's actual Tempo of 124bpm. The short answer seems to be to turn off Flex & Follow Tempo on the new track [they should already be off on the imported track] and then manually adjust the song Tempo. Flex & Follow Tempo are both found in the Edit pane [shortcut “E”]: - Select the Track, and in the Track tab in the Edit pane deselect "Enable Flex"; - Select the Region[s], and in the Region tab in the Edit pane deselect "Follow Tempo & Pitch" This should work. HOWEVER…if you've done any Region editing in the song, things may still get a bit messy [see below], even though the Regions should now be in sync and at the right Tempo. If you're interested, a fuller explanation is more than a bit tweaky, so bear with me.. Initially, when I just manually changed the song tempo [without changing any track/region settings] the timing was messed up between the two tracks [which is what I assume happened to you]. GB stamps audiofiles you record in it with the current Tempo [which was 120 in this case, even though I was playing at 124] and turns on Flex & Follow Tempo automatically [found in the Edit pane—shortcut "E"]. But the imported audiofile has no timestamp [since it was not recorded in GB] —GB does not [think it] know[s] that file's original Tempo, so it doesn't [can't] automatically enable Flex & Follow Tempo. So when you manually change the song Tempo the new recording and the imported file go out of time—the new recording is time-shifted but the other track isn't. If you turn off Flex & Follow Tempo on the new recorded track—make sure they're already off for the imported track—then the two tracks should stay in sync when you manually correct the song Tempo. BUT...if you've already cut up either/both of those tracks, apparently the Region start positions will get messed up, and you'll have to fix them manually [apparently the track lock in GB is not the same as in Logic, it's really a Freeze function, and does not help with this, so forget about it]. But if you haven't done any Region editing [cutting up and rearranging] before manually adjusting to the correct song Tempo, then everything should be in sync, after which you can edit more easily.

Wow! That answer was useful, Joe. But as you mentioned I had split some tracks in between and so, even if disabling flex and follow tempo pitch from Edit pane, the track was actually not "frozen". So the positions were getting mismatched when I change the project bpm. I think best option for me is to bounce the recorded solo track and import it back, along with backing track in another project, and then adjust the project bpm by disabling flex and follow tempo pitch from Edit pane. Best for me probably would be upgrading to Logic! Haha. Thanks a lot for your guidance! Best regards, Vijay

Hi Vijay - You're welcome! And I agree, if you've done a lot of editing, your best bet is probably to bounce down, bring the [single] audiofiles into a new Project, and set the correct Tempo there. Logic has a "SMPTE lock" feature that does actually prevent regions from moving when making Tempo adjustments, but GB's "Lock" option ain't that, unfortunately, despite the misleading name. Actually, I think most GB users—no matter how basic they feel their needs are—eventually hit a point where they come up against one of its arbitrary limitations and decide that it's worth the extra two c-notes to bump up to Logic..