Does anyone know the best way to sync the tempo of MIDI tracks to audio. Not just an audio clip, but a full length song. I've managed to get it very close by playing with the BPM number, but can't get it dead on.
Is there any way to do this?
Thanks,
DC

 I too would love to know if there is an easier way then adjusting the TEMPO manually?  I tried using the AUDIO SNAP feature but the tempo wasn't smooth... it would sync up every SNAP point but be off in between enough to make it useless to me... but that was a long time ago... now, it is the tedious method of matching BPM to the audio manually.
 
Jim
 

It sounds like you are trying to match midi recorded to a fixed tempo to audio recorded by a human being, who probably was not performing like clockwork. Effectively that is like trying to match a metronome to an audio recording after the fact. The "easy" way to do it is for the performer to record the audio while listening to the metronome. Human beings are much more evolved computers than well, computers. A human performance will rarely line up with a mechanical clock,  so whatever method you use to create an alignment will need to be adjusted multiple times throughout the process. In the extreme case most midi notes may need to be nudged into place manually. Algorithms can help, but you cannot expect to find a magical fixed bpm setting that will solve the problem.

Thank you slartabartfast,
I understand that human tempo, on it's own, is rarely perfect. In this case I'm trying to match MIDI tracks to a prerecorded electronic/dance song. The song was originally put together on computer so the tempo should be perfect. When I try to match up tempos, they start in sync, but slow go out of sync then back in. I guess I was hoping there was a way to mark, or tap out the tempo on the audio track and set the MIDI track to follow the markers for tempo. My goal is to trigger effects and lights in perfect sync with the song.
Is there any way to do that?

Obviously there are slight tempo changes in the song, otherwise it should line up with your midi pretty well. Can you split the song into manageable blocks and manually add your midi to each beat?

I'm doing this from time to time to transcribe music but not following the conventional Tempo matching way. Most of the time, i'm in luck as the music I'm working with are newer and it's probably done with DAW / fixed tempo.
 
After importing the audio, I would tempo tap Sonar to match as close as possible to the audio.
 
1. I set Snap on, put the now-time on bar 1 or 2 (if not already there), just for visual reference.
2. Then set Snap off, and align the audio first beat (also refers to the wave visually) to the now-time.
3. Audition the audio with the playback metronome and fine tune the tempo.
 
Repeat step 1 to 3 till I get a satisfactory / manually adjusted tempo sync. It worked most of the time for me - and I don't need to use decimal in the tempo, just showing most material I worked with have normal DAW fixed tempo usage.
 
Few times when my manual method didn't work, I follow the proper Tempo matching method, but doing the 1-3 steps first helps greatly.
 
There are a few good videos done by some members here - this one I just pull off from youtube..
http://youtu.be/is2dRlI9SaI
 

dccurrent
Thank you slartabartfast,
I understand that human tempo, on it's own, is rarely perfect. In this case I'm trying to match MIDI tracks to a prerecorded electronic/dance song. The song was originally put together on computer so the tempo should be perfect. When I try to match up tempos, they start in sync, but slow go out of sync then back in. I guess I was hoping there was a way to mark, or tap out the tempo on the audio track and set the MIDI track to follow the markers for tempo. My goal is to trigger effects and lights in perfect sync with the song.
Is there any way to do that?

 
Have you had a look at this video? That should sort it out for you.

Audio snap works great for this. If your not getting Perfect results with Audio snap, then review your audio snap settings and try again with settings more appropriate to your task at hand. 
 
I can change a tempo of a track from 50 bpm to 120 bpm with no audible loss of audio quality.
 
Cj

Thanks Biker for the video link... I may give this another go now.
 
Jim

Yup, FBB has this sorted out. I've done this following his video and it works. Thanks Fast Biker Boy!!!
 
Rocky