Free SONAR-Compatible Tempo Map Creator Available

I've written a SONAR-compatible utility for creating tempo maps from "click tracks", something I've always wished SONAR could do a bit more capably.  It works a little like SONAR's fit-to-improv function, but it's more flexible.  It's free and available here:
 
http://www.soundbytesmagazine.com/
 
SoundBytes is a brand new free on-line computer sound magazine. From the front page, go the Tempo article.  The article explains how the utility is used and has a download link.  The download contains the Java source code for anyone interested.

Thanks!!

Something like this is certainly welcome.  I was disappointed with the limitations of Sonar's "fit to improv" feature.

looking forward to exploring this more fully. Thanks for sharing.

gswitz

I'd love to hear more about what motivated you to do it. It must have taken some time from conception to execution.

My first experience with MIDI sequencing was in the early 90s, back when the Intel 286 was state of the art.  I ran a sequencer called 64TrackPC.  It had a way to input tempo events but it was very labor intensive.  Since I worked on mainframe computer software all day, I swore I wasn’t going to do any software work at home on my newly acquired PC.  But it wasn’t long before I felt compelled to improve this function.  So I talked the author of the software to give me an exit, learned the Pascal language and I wrote a tempo editor dialog box.
 
After playing with this technology for a couple of years, I moved on to other things as career issues took precedence over musical pursuits.  Then about four years ago I had occasion to check back into what had been happening in the world of computer sound.  OMG!  The advancement in technology was staggering on all fronts: full blown digital recording, software synthesis, plug-in effects.  It was all mind-blowing.
 
SONAR seemed the right way to re-enter these waters, not least of which because of the quality of the user community here on this forum.  And while SONAR has the graphic tempo view for doing manipulation, it doesn’t have a really good way to specify tempo up front.  Granted most users are doing more pop-oriented production and don’t care all the much about powerful tempo manipulation, but for me it was very important.  In any case, I wasn't holding my breath for CW to offer significant enhancements in this area.  Then one day I just had an inspired thought as to how this could be accomplished externally to SONAR.  The coding turned out to pretty simple, courtesy of the MIDI classes immediately and freely available.  So, that’s how this all came to be.

 

Thanks David for all aspects of this project of yours. The article (free and pdf'd at that), the program and your generous sharing of them.

I'm into free flowing kinds of music and have wondered how I could make use of tempo controlled effects and instruments when there wasn't a fixed beat. This should provide me with the answer.

A tip of my hat to you.