Finale’s Tempo Tap feature can be useful when writing an arrangement to fit imported audio – but sometimes, like if a track is rubato, it can be difficult to match the track exactly.
With an accurate tempo map, it’s possible to sync your writing perfectly with existing audio, sounding as if there were a conductor present in a performance of the piece.
When Tempo Tap fails, a good workaround is using Logic Pro (or some other DAW) to create a precise tempo map, then either import it into your Finale score containing the audio track, or ReWire Finale to your Logic (or other DAW) to write your score.
The basic steps are
- Create the tempo map in Logic
- Use it to create a MIDI click track
- Export the MIDI from Logic
- Export a selection of the audio file that starts on the downbeat of Bar 1 of the Logic session
- Open the MIDI file with Finale (or ReWire Finale to Logic)
- Add the Audio file in Finale (tweak the file start point if needed)
- Create a Click Track in Finale
- Refine your Tempo Map
- Write your score
- Export your Finale MIDI back into Logic Pro X for maximum mix capability.
Maybe your score is already set up, and the movie’s already in it, and you found this article out of frustration with Tempo Tap. You can copy the tempo map from one open Finale file to another using the Edit Filter set to “Tempo Changes” only and use Stack Selections for both Copy and Paste.
1. Create the Tempo Map in Logic
Open a new Logic session, adding your audio track. Select the track in the Tracks window (or “Workspace”), then click the Global Tracks button if they’re not visible already, then Right (or Option)-click in the Global Tracks Area and select “Beat Mapping” from the dropdown to show the tools.
From the “Beat Mapping” dropdown, select “Analyze Transients,” which adds transient markers. Logic uses its own algorithm to determine which to mark in an effort to identify beats. It will get most of them, but also mark some that aren’t beats while missing some important beats. You can increase/decrease the density of marks with the +/- buttons.
You may notice that your first transient is not on the downbeat of the first bar. You’ll want to be sure you know what beat the first transient occurs on, then move things around in Logic until it lines up.
You could trim your track sound file’s start boundary, or drag the left Project Start Marker (above the ruler) to the left to show negative beats
The next step is to match bar/beat tick marks at the top of the Beat Mapping lane to the transient mark that falls on the beat you want to identify. As you drag down from the tick mark to a transient marker, you’ll see a line follow your mouse and magnetically attach to it.
Missing Transient Marks
As you go through this process, you may find that a mark you need hasn’t been created by Logic’s scan. When this happens, open the Audio File Editor Window (⌘6) and put it in Transient Editor Mode (with the button at the top of the window, or ⌃T). You’ll see the existing marks, and a pencil tool you can use to create new ones (you can also move existing marks around). Scrub around in the file, or play it back and watch the waveform and see the point you want to add a beat, add it, then go back to the Beat Mapping tool in the Track Editor window and attach the beat to your new mark. Continue on through to the end of the file.
Note that in a Rubato track, you’ll get the best results if you map every beat, or even subdivisions for maximum accuracy.
2. Use your Tempo Map to Create a MIDI Click Track
Open the Mixer Window, and click the “All” tab at the top center (track view selector). You’ll see a “Click” channel strip. Right-click it and select “Create Track,” which causes a MIDI track to show up in the Track Editor window. Open the Editor window, and draw in some beats for one bar’s worth. Select your new MIDI region in the Tracks area, and find Edit>Repeat>Multiple, and repeat it out to the end of your tempo map. You can select all of the new regions and join them if you want to clean up your interface. This creates a MIDI track containing the tempo data, and MIDI notes that can be assigned to a percussion sound later on in Finale, so you can check the results of your tempo mapping in Finale before writing your score.
3. Export the MIDI from Logic or ReWire Finale to Logic
If you use ReWire, skip to Step 8. Note that you’ll need to control your Finale transport in Logic when you’re ReWired. If you prefer to work in Finale until your mockup is done, then (back in Logic) with nothing selected, select File>Export >All MIDI Tracks as MIDI File
4. Export Audio
Make a selection of the audio file that starts on the downbeat of Bar 1 of the Logic session, then export the selection to AIFF or mp3 (at 44/16 resolution), to make it easier to sync it with your tempo map and click track in Finale. Alternatively (see Step 6 below), use some other audio program (Audacity, Audition, Pro Tools) to measure the offset from the start of the file to the starting beat.
5. Open the MIDI file with Finale
Using Finale’s “Open” command, open your new tempo map MIDI file.
Any MIDI tracks present in your Logic session will appear in a new file. You can add your audio track and build out whatever instruments you’ll be using via the Score Manager.
►If you’ve already started another arrangement file in Finale, you can import the tempo data from your MIDI map file using the Edit Filter.
- In the Edit Filter, select “None,” then select “Tempo Changes,” then Edit>Select All and copy.
- Go to the other file and Edit>Select All and paste. You won’t see anything happen – but your tempo map will now be a part of your arrangement file.
- Next, copy your MIDI over to your arrangement file with the Edit Filter set to “All”.
6. Add the Audio file in Finale
Using your newly exported Audio track file from your tempo-mapped Logic session, add the audio to Finale (MIDI/Audio>Audio Track>Load Audio…).
Audio files of produced tracks tend to have some silence before the downbeat at the start. You can either
- Locate the downbeat using measurement tools in your DAW (very difficult to do in Logic, but easy in ProTools, Audacity, Audition and others), then enter the value as start offset in Finale’s MIDI/Audio>Audio Track>Audio File Attributes…>Start in Clip or
- Export a selection of the audio track beginning from Bar 1 Beat 1 (or bar -1 for a pickup bar) from Logic and use this accurately trimmed file without an offset.
7. Create a Click Track in Finale
You need to assign a sound to your click track MIDI in Finale. We’ve found it easiest to use Garritan Instruments for Finale Fusion Drum kit, then use Utilities>Transpose Percussion Notes… to assign the sound, usually to a clave sound in the Fusion Drum Kit.
► We’ve found that some Garritan instruments in Finale aren’t properly mapped by default, not sounding when you load them without a bunch of other steps to find the sample and library it’s in and edit the percussion MIDI map to trigger it.
You’ll have better luck with playback of instruments like Metronome Click or Clave in a MIDI playback environment, but we prefer AU/VST playback for better-sounding mockups.
Use the click track to check the accuracy of your tempo map. You might need to edit it, in which case you’ll do the fixes in Logic, then repeat steps 1,3 and 5 above. When you paste your fix into Finale as a Stack Selection with Tempo Changes Only selected in the Edit Filter, no matter what else is in the file, it will update your Finale file with the improved tempo map.
8. Refine your Tempo Map
Logic Pro X has really good tempo mapping tools, using its Beat Mapping and Transient analysis features. When a scan of transients doesn’t catch all of the beats, it’s possible to mark the missing beats using the Audio Editor window, then assign that new mark to your desired beat. This feature is especially handy if the performer or audio is unclear, or rushes past where a beat would be in strict time.
Finale doesn’t Handle Extreme tempo changes well
It’s also useful if changes in tempo are very sudden or extreme, because Finale seems to struggle with extreme tempo changes in a tempo map, and some “smoothing” may be necessary to get Finale to stay with it. You may be making some choices as to where to put the beats to smooth out the transitions. In the worst case scenario, you can do a time signature change for a particular bar if a beat is missing entirely, which will also keep tempo changes within a range Finale can handle. My experience tells me that it fails if the tempo change is greater than ~±15 BPM or so.
9. Write your Score
10. Export your MIDI and Import it into Logic Pro.
Here’s an example, done following this procedure. The sounds are mostly East/West Opus, with Garritan Jazz and Big Band acoustic bass, and Logic’s Drum Kit Designer. Arrangement by Jon Burr
