How do i set the tempo from a midi clip?

Hi, normally i program my drum beats, but i've been recording some live midi on some pads.
I didn't use a metronome when recording and don't want to quantize the loops to the incorrect project tempo.
How can i find the tempo of the midi loop so i can then set my project tempo to it without altering the loop?
I know it's probably simple but i can't find it anywhere.
I'm using X1b producer.
 
Cheers
Steve.
 

...but you CAN record MIDI freely into Sonar ignoring the current project tempo. If that's what you've done then you will need to find that recorded MIDI's tempo - hopefully someone who knows how to do that will chime in - not at my DAW right now.

1. Drag the clip to align the first event wherever it should be in the timeline.
 
2. If that time is not 1:01:000, use Set Measure/Beat At Now (was Ctrl-M for 4 years before X1 - don't remember what they've changed it too ) to "pin" that first beat so that becomes the reference point for determining tempo.
 
3. Count out several measures listening to the clip (or go to the last event if the clip is short) set the Now time at the beginning of that event by tabbing to it, and use Ctrl-M (or whatever the new hotkey is) again to set the correct measure and beat in the timeline to the absolute time of that event.
 
4.SONAR will alter the tempo at the first point you pinned to make the timeline match the clip without altering the clip, and add a like tempo value to the beat you set as a refvererence for setting subsequent beats.
 
5. If the clip was recorded to a click, and/or was quantized, that may be all you need to do; if not, you can set additional beats every few measures or every measure, or even within measures or beats (note that beats are divided into thousandths, not 960 ticks, so 02:480 is 02.500).
 
6. If the clip didn't start at 1:01:000, go to the tempo view, and change the tempo at 1:01:000 to match the first tempo SONAR inserted.
 
That's about it. For a very long clip, I recommend setting the first point at 8 measures or so, then seeing what beat the last event should fall on, undo the 8-meausre set point, and set that last event to establish an overall average tempo, and roughly align the whole clip so that it's easy to see what beats other events should fall on in the middle of the clip, and decided how many you need to snap to tighten up the timleine match. Setting the first 8 measures is just an interim step to figure out how long the clip is without listening and counting 100+ measures or whatever it is.
 
P.S. Thank you Bakers for fixing SM/BAN in X1b!
 
 

Search for "Fit Improvisation" in the manual or the help file

 
Fit improvisation can be a quicker alternative to using Set Measure/Beat At Now, and doing it manually, but it requires having a sacrificial "guide" or "reference" track that has exactly one MIDI event on every beat, starting at 1:01:000. Creating or distilling such a reference track from the original clip can take more time than using SM/BAN, and can be difficult or impossible if the track doesn't have events on every beat. Recording a guide track can work around this, but is subject to more variation in your performance timing as you try to play along with a clip that has a really variable tempo.
 
Another approach is to render the MIDI to audio by freezing/bouncing a synth, and using AudioSnap's Set Project From Clip on that audio to set all the tempos for you. But, agian, the amount of transient marker and tempo map massaging needed to get AS to do this accurately may take as much time as using SM//BAN.
 
 

I've used brundlefly's method with success, but it often leaves a feeling of looseness that bugs me later.

 
Once you have the timeline roughly in sync with the MIDI, you can use partial quantizing and manual adjustments of the values in the tempo map to tighten up the performance as much as desired. You can even quantize it to 100% and delete all the tempo entries to get that elusive "robotic" feel that we all covet.

daveny5


MIDI clips don't have a tempo. They follow the project tempo. 

This is not true, midi clips do contain tempo information. For some bizarre reason Sonar doesn't give us the option to read the tempo from a midi file when importing it.

I have a related but opposite problem.  My project tempo with midi drum track is set at 110 but the midi keyboard performance was done in another project at 220.  I'm trying to put the midi track into the drum project but after copy/paste into the drum project (110) it slows the keyboard performance down to half speed.  I want the keyboard midi track to NOT follow the drum's project tempo.  That way if I just do a copy/paste into the drum project it should still line up.  Is there a way to have the pasted midi clip NOT follow the project's tempo?

FYI, I'm using Sonar 8.5.3 producer.