bitflipper
SONAR's tempo map can help, though. Where I start is with very small tempo changes between each verse and chorus: up going into the chorus, halfway back down going into the next verse. Each chorus is then slightly faster than the preceding verse, each verse is slightly faster than the previous verse, and each chorus is slightly faster than the previous chorus. The overall song slowly ratchets upward in tempo until the finale is perhaps 3 bpm faster than the intro.

Tempo maps are great, and one of the reason I used Acidized files so they follow tempo changes. I'm also a big believer in the "+/- a BPM here and there" within a song, but was surprised at how such a small change could change the feel so much on the entire song.
 
However the 2% figure mentioned earlier rang a bell...back in the days of tape, I often sped up the two-track master by 2% but I didn't think it was so much about the tempo "feel" as about the timbre. In retrospect, it probably was just as much about the tempo.

 

I have a song that I wrote to be a West Coast Swing for ballroom dancing. I was told that it's just slightly slow for that dance style, so I need to speed it up. I tried a few method that were suggested in another thread, but they didn't yield acceptable results. It never occured to me to click/drag the end to shorten it. Is it simply done by holding Ctrl down while click/dragging the end to the left (shorten song), then applying bouncing-to-clips? If there are any more steps than that I would appreciate it if someone could give me that information.
 
When I first tried speeding this song up I spent quite a bit of time reading through the help files and looking through Scott Garrigus' book, but couldn't find any simple clear method for speeding up (or slowing down) a WAV file.     

Katnip
I have a song that I wrote to be a West Coast Swing for ballroom dancing. I was told that it's just slightly slow for that dance style, so I need to speed it up. I tried a few method that were suggested in another thread, but they didn't yield acceptable results. It never occured to me to click/drag the end to shorten it. Is it simply done by holding Ctrl down while click/dragging the end to the left (shorten song), then applying bouncing-to-clips?

Yes. When bouncing, make sure the correct stretch algorithm is selected as the offline algorithm in audiosnap. Note that audiosnap isn't involved in this process - it's just where you select the algorithm. It defaults to the correct Mix algorithm, so just make sure it hasn't been changed to groove clips or solo bass or whatever.

@thread title:
This is why I want easier time-stretching (like the one in S1) in Sonar. After recording all temporary guitar takes, I sometimes realize the song is a bit fast or slow. Until the day I re-record the takes (takes to be used in the mix), which is normally more than a month later, I won't be able to change the tempo of the song (because my version doesn't include Audio Snap). In S1 (any version), it onlys take a single scroll of the mouse to change the tempo of the song as well as all audio clips in it, and it produces a great result (no artifacts even if stretched heavily). 

Not to mention slowing down the tempo can make it playable!! haha. :-)
 
I'm willing to admit I sometimes try tempos faster than I can't hang with.
 
And for me, I practice with Sonar midi tracks a lot and I find it's important to adjust the tempo between different practice runs or sessions or else I get locked in to a single tempo for the tune. Then when I play it with friends I have trouble if they don't play it just so.
 
It can also be interesting to ratchet up the tempo to the point where you're having to skip phrases. This can be a handy way to practice dropping out and coming back in... as sometimes happens in a performance where you can't just call for the band to stop, RTZ and try again.
 
:-)
 
To this end, I think it would be a nice addition to make the tempo adjustment on the control bar more touchable. When I'm playing is the time I use touch the most. Being able to change the tempo with touch more easily would be a nice improvement.

Anderton
I've been working on a song that felt like it dragged a little bit. So, I bounced all the tracks to create a new track for mastering. Then, I did the "ctrl+click-drag on the end of the clip" time-stretch function and dragged leftward to shorten it a bit, thus speeding up the tempo. Surprisingly (at least to me!), shortening the song from 4:27 to 4:22 put the "feel" where it needed to be. I bounced to clip to do offline rendering for optimum fidelity, then did the mastering.
 
I would have thought that 5 seconds out of a 4:27 song would be insignificant, but that definitely wasn't the case. In fact cutting a few more seconds off it felt really rushed.
 
Seemed interesting enough to merit a post here.
 
 

 
 
There are several ways to get the right musical "feel".  One way, as Anderton points out, are slight changes and variations in tempo.  Every musical passage has a certain range of tempos in which the passage works best.  Beyond that range, the passage will sound too fast, particularly if the harmonic rhythm is quick.  Or, on the other side, too slow and it will drag.   In more sophisticated music with much orchestration and counterpoint, many tempo changes are necessary to get the best phrasing in certain instances, but not all.  Sometimes a rock solid mono-tempo is exactly what is called for, it depends on style and aesthetic awareness. 
 
Another method of getting the best musical feel is by shifting a part very slightly ahead of, or behind, the beat.  I'm talking about 10-30 ticks or so.   I finished a composition a few months back that used this technique.  I had the Z3TA-2 playing a complex ostinato in which the harmonic content was dynamically changing over time using LFOs and filters, but in a way that has a very distinct rhythmic feel.  When I was orchestrating the strings, I knew I had the right notes and the right rhythms, but something didn't feel right relative to the synth.  By moving my string lines slightly before the beat I got the exact feel I wanted.  Attack times are essentially all shifted a tiny bit early which solved the "feel" problem.  Here's the piece (1st track on player, Raga):
 
www.jerrygerber.com
 
Jerry
 
 

bitflipper
The click track has done more to harm recorded music than any other innovation short of 100% quantization and auto-tune. Here's a guy who likes to try and figure out which classic songs were and were not recorded with a click:
http://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click-track/. Here's a program that'll let you do the same thing: http://static.echonest.com/bpmexp/bpmexp.html
 

 
This is not necessarily true, although in some cases it might be, it depends on the style of music, the tempo, harmonic rhythm and orchestration. 
 
When a computer plays a sequence, it can do so with rock-solid timing (assuming the clocks and sync are all working correctly and are of sufficient quality).  This rock-solid timing often reveals weaknesses in the voice-leading, the counterpoint, and the phrasing that a less precise performance will not reveal.  When there are tempo changes, meter changes, lots of articulation, strong and weak beats, good counterpoint (meaning each musical line is good in itself, not just harmonic "filler"), these add musical interest so that a rock-solid tempo does not create a mechanical, robotic effect.   But again, there can be no rules because sometimes a rock-solid tempo is a distraction, sometimes not. 
 
JG
www.jerrygerber.com
 
 
 

bitflipper
The click track has done more to harm recorded music than any other innovation short of 100% quantization and auto-tune. 

Yeah, but you've got to admit it's also given birth to umpteen subgenres.   
 
My best bud is adamant (anal)about playing his own drum tracks on keyboards and he's damned good at it.  He quantizes at 100%.  I don't get it.
 
"Autotuning" is an art form that many botch badly but it's become so omnipresent that I'd bet we don't hear it when it's done well 90% of the time.  Besides you always subjectively put out what sounds "best" anyway, so I'd argue the worst thing about it is our ears have been so sensitized to not really hearing a live singer the same way we used to.  So I guess I'm saying Cher wasn't really responsible for destroying vocals: Russell Crowe was.
 
The click track, well I'm a guitar player and I usually edit a drum groove and record to that, but I'll admit when I'm playing keyboards I want it when recording 100% of the time unless I have pretty polished drum, bass and maybe guitar tracks done first.
 
That being the case I completely agree with everything you said. 
 
 
 

Anderton
 

"Yes. When bouncing, make sure the correct stretch algorithm is selected as the offline algorithm in audiosnap. Note that audiosnap isn't involved in this process - it's just where you select the algorithm. It defaults to the correct Mix algorithm, so just make sure it hasn't been changed to groove clips or solo bass or whatever."





Thank for clarifying that, I'll give it a try.
 
Regarding the discussion about click tracks, there's an old disco song (I think it's Lady's Night by Cool and the Gang) that sounds as though it's speeding up at a transition from one section to the other. What I think is happening is the band has fallen behind the click and is racing to catch up. The tempo doesn't increase, but it sure feels like the band is rushing in that spot.