Sometimes a song will flow better if some instruments are slightly ahead of the beat while others are behind. Otherwise some of the instruments sound can like they are dragging, giving a misleading impression of the tempo being too slow.

emeraldsoul
Have you tried putting a boombox at the end of a long hallway, playing your tune on it, and starting from the other end of the hallway, running toward it at your top speed?
 
It may not tell you much but the cardio would be fantastic.  :)
 
 

Kev999
Sometimes a song will flow better if some instruments are slightly ahead of the beat while others are behind. Otherwise some of the instruments sound can like they are dragging, giving a misleading impression of the tempo being too slow.

This was going to be my suggestion as well.
Perhaps not that well explained

chris.r
My advice would go like this - start your next song at least 10% or more faster than you'd normally go. If, during making the song, you'll get the urge to slow it down by about 10% or near, then you're all fine. It's just that your final decision on the song tempo needs time to ripe. If, on the other hand, you'll feel like your song needs a crank up by 2,5%, then you have to find a good psychiatrist. Hope that helps.

I'd need a psychiatrist just for the first part of that suggestion!

emeraldsoul
Have you tried putting a boombox at the end of a long hallway, playing your tune on it, and starting from the other end of the hallway, running toward it at your top speed?
 
It may not tell you much but the cardio would be fantastic.  :)
 
 

Thanks, but I really don't think I could find a hallway that long. 
 
JB

I sometimes feel the same with some of my material, and I usually try messing around with the tempo throughout the song.
 
Try creating a tempo map to slowly speed the song up, maybe 5bpm - 10bpm over the duration of the song.
 
It might not even need to be a gradual speed up throughout the whole song: you could try a slight speed during the verse up to the first chorus, speed up a bit more during the chorus, and settle on a speed for verse 2.... or you could speed up and slow down throughout the song.
 
Take a read of Craig's article on "Nailing the Classic Rock Vibe" - you'll see that tempo changes are a pretty common occurrence:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Craig-Anderton-Series-quotNailing-The-Classic-Rock-Vibequot-at-Sweetwater-m3758954.aspx
 
 

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Another method to consider (for overall tempo variation, not before/after the beat per track as mentioned above) is to actually perform the piece (no click) on one instrument and get that tempo variation (in general).

A massive pitfall with a DAW is "snap to grid" and tempo maps have traditionally been static and hard to manage. If you work ITB exclusively, realize that can be a massive liability.

Static is boring. Dynamics come from tempo variation, volume dynamics (why squishing everything is again boring), frequency content (fading components in and out), general motion in the sound stage, and the vocal (not only inflection changes, but also the words themselves).

A litmus test I do often is play back new tracks by listening to the first couple bars, skip to 1/3 in for a few, then a couple jumps into the last 2/3 area. If those snippets all sound extremely similar, it is a good indicator of the rest.

I've done a lot of research into tempo changes of classic tracks (CbB's tempo mapping made it easy) for an article I wrote for Sweetwater's InSync magazine. It became clear that there's a pattern to tempo changes with the classis, pre-click tracks. Here's the link to the article.
 
Here's part of the summary:
 
One element most of these songs have in common is accelerating tempo up to a crucial point in the song, then decelerating during a verse or chorus. This type of change was repeated so often, in so many songs I analyzed, that it seems to be an important musical element that’s almost inherent in music played without a click track. It makes perfect sense that this would add an emotional component that could not be obtained with a constant tempo.

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Subtle tempo changes are common in all kinds of music, other than sequencer-driven electronica (though are sometimes programmed in even there).

Having said that, a big part of what makes us feel a song or tune is propelling forwards or laid back is the time location against the beat of some or all instruments/vocals.

Shifting hi-hats forward a very few milliseconds can make for a massive difference in “feel”. But so can avoiding quantising everything. I often work with a sequenced drum machine, but allow other instruments to “pull” or “push” the feel. The most recent example being something I couldn’t get to feel right - until I tried not quantising the bass guitar, which as recorded was a little sloppy. Instant massive improvement. I guess my sloppy bass playing was actually more accurate in terms of what works than the “perfect timing” of the quantised version.

As for speeding things up, I’m more likely to slow things down. A fairly boring 120-125bpm drum pattern or guitar riff can sometimes become much more powerful and interesting when slowed down.