Detecting BPMs in Serato Scratch Live

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-- Detecting BPMs in Serato Scratch Live

Posted by keithos27 on Sep-09-2009 14:16:

Detecting BPMs in Serato Scratch Live

What's the deal with the range selections? Most of my tracks are trance and progressive... so for the most part their BPMs fall within most of the ranges offered. Does it really matter which option I choose (range) if a 128 BPM track (for example) would fall in that range?

Posted by Rippey64 on Sep-09-2009 14:21:

range is usefull if you mix slow track (hip hop, etc < 100 bpm) and fast track like dnb, hardcore etc.

for exemple, if u set range to 80-150, a 90 bpm track would be 90, a 180bpm would be 90 too.

Posted by keithos27 on Sep-10-2009 18:44:

if i'm just mixing trance/progressive/house together in the 124-140 bpm range than this doesn't matter?

not quite sure i understand your example...

Posted by PutBoy on Sep-10-2009 20:35:

Unless you frequently get 64 BPM for 128 BPM tracks, you don't need to change a thing. Why fix what isn't broken?

Posted by keithos27 on Sep-11-2009 00:27:

quote:
Originally posted by PutBoy
Unless you frequently get 64 BPM for 128 BPM tracks, you don't need to change a thing. Why fix what isn't broken?

who said anything about fixing? i'm asking what the difference/purpose is of the ranges?

Posted by PutBoy on Sep-11-2009 00:40:

Well, ok then. Let's say your program features three different ranges:

0-79
80-109
110-150

And let's say the track your calculating has an actual BPM of 128.

Had you checked the 0-79 range the program would calculate the track to 64 BPM (it can't show 128, so it shows half that, not because it really knows it's 128 but because it really sees it as 64).

If you on the other hand had chosen 80-109, the algorithm would most likely fail, and you would get some weird number, in mixmeisters BPM Analyzer it show 250.01 or something BPMs when the algorithm fails.

The correct range would obviously be the 110-150 range.

You should set the range appropriate to what kind of music you have. If you only have hiphop in my example, you would set it to 80-109, because that's where hiphop usually lies. For House, you wouldn't even need a range these days it seems, just set all your tracks to 128 and you're done. In all seriousness though, you would set it to 110-150.

On the other hand some people mix both house and hiphop, which is why most programs include multiple cross-over range option, and you would probably use something similar to 80-150.

So, in essense, think about what your lowest and highest BPMs are, and find a range that encapsulate those BPMs. For the most precise calculation you should also set an as narrow range as possible. If you're only mixing House, 110-140 is a far better option than 0-250.

Make sense?

Posted by keithos27 on Sep-11-2009 15:01:

^that does, thank you. i guess in serato the ranges are narrow, but still a few different ranges work for the type of music i'm playing. that's why i was wondering which one to choose is better, and why.