Questions & Answers

closed Completed 4.1: Feature Request for Tempo Automation to function the same as Track Automations

+344 votes
3,942 views
asked Dec 2, 2015 in Completed Feature Requests by Evdog (1,440 points)
closed Sep 19, 2018 by lawrencefarr
Automation tracks function with points and lines between them. Tempo automation, however, cannot be ramped gradually, but instead functions in awkward blocks. Please make the tempo automation function the same way that all other automation in Studio One does.
closed with the note: Completed in 4.1

21 Answers

+31 votes
answered Jan 17, 2016 by Funkybot (21,570 points)
edited Jun 10, 2018 by Funkybot
 
Best answer

Just to add...if we get the ability to have the tempo track function like automation, we'll also need the ability to vertically zoom in on the tempo track in order to make small changes. Without vertical zoom, minor changes would be near impossible.
 

Here's a link to a detailed forum post in the Meldoyne thread where I detail what I feel are the current weaknesses in S1's tempo track:

https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?p=83998#p83998

End conclusion in all this, there's 3 things that would really expand the tempo track functionality and workflow (from jpettit in that thread):


1) Data Zoom so you can zoom to see minor tempo changes (Like the peaks and valleys shown).
2) Change from bar to line to represent the tempo. With this new process the tempo map look excessively busy.
3) Free form line draw to simulate tempo mapping if you will.

EDIT 6/10/2018: So adding to my old answer as I've spent more time thinking about this...

1. Allow users to quickly pop out or maximize the tempo view for fast vertical zooming of resolution
2. Allow for freehand drawing of tempos using the paint tool
3. Allow for drawing of parabolas, sines, triangles, etc. using those line tools
4. Create an option for ramping up/down or jumping between two given tempo points
5. Bonus points for bezier curves, as just having two points with a bendable curve would be much cleaner and easier to edit

I think if the "behind the scenes" resolution remained at 1/64 notes with the current 3 decimal places, no one would care as that's not the issue. It's really about improving drawing/editing.

commented Dec 15, 2016 by jpettit (11,810 points)
I would add one more.

4) Right mouse click import/export tempo track data.
+7 votes
answered Dec 3, 2015 by matthewgorman (52,060 points)
Thanks for the request. Good Luck
+7 votes
answered Dec 30, 2015 by Funkybot (21,570 points)
In response to jpettit, that may work for gradual increases, but sometimes I want gradual increases/decreases, wavy tempo's, etc. If tempo drawing worked like track automation I could have my tempo look like a sine wave if I wanted to. In a more practical scenario: in my old DAW I'd draw in subtle tempo variations using the "Pencil" tool in freehand mode. Would love this functionality in S1. If you do weird stuff with tempos, you'll know S1 is very cumbersome compared to other DAWs.
+7 votes
answered May 20, 2016 by vahevahe (1,450 points)
I've been asking for this feature for the last two years! This is one of the two complaints I have for S1

 1.Tempo automations

2. better cpu performance.
+11 votes
answered Jun 10, 2016 by bailatosco (4,730 points)
Come on Presonus people!!! Are we ever going to have this?
Even making the pencil tool on the tempo track able to snap to blocks would be a HUUUUUUUGE improvement.
+16 votes
answered Apr 25, 2017 by petersalt (1,500 points)
Frankly, I'm shocked that this feature isn't in Studio One. It's about as standard as it gets. To draw and smooth ritard (or accelerando) right now takes an unbelievable amount of time. It takes me 1 second in Pro Tools or Logic. A serious omission that needs to be fixed ASAP.
+12 votes
answered Jun 28, 2017 by jdurham (2,120 points)
edited Jun 28, 2017 by jdurham
Just to add on to this -- not only do we need much better tempo track management (so I fully support this feature request), but we need it to be more *precise* as well. For example, people who do film scoring or sound design often need to start a measure on a certain frame of the film clip, and/or they need to align measures to several "hits" in the music cue, which means we need to be able to do super-accurate tempo tweaks so we can line things up to the start of a measure. Currently, Studio One is very difficult to line things up for film people, because the UI of the tempo track is not very user-friendly, but also because it is not very accurate. Additionally, Studio One only seems to support two decimal places for the tempo, which makes it hard to perfect align a measure to a specific frame.
+5 votes
answered Jul 6, 2017 by tristanbrinkman (400 points)
Bump. This is a feature we desperately need. It's a function that is very useful and is in many other DAWs like Cubase, Logic, Reason, and FL Studio.

I up-voted it and saved this to my favorites to monitor this thread.
+6 votes
answered Jul 10, 2017 by vahevahe (1,450 points)
Please please add this feature. I hate the blocks. I want to add curves to my tempo and the blocks are a pain if you mess up you have to constantly undo. This is the only complaint I have about S1. I am so happy with all other features.
+7 votes
answered Jul 31, 2017 by wltchris (1,450 points)
Studio One's current tempo track functionality is ridiculously cumbersome - to put it kindly! Trying to get a smooth and usable tempo ramp is a PITA!
+5 votes
answered Dec 12, 2017 by simonroberts5 (290 points)
The VERY first track I tried to import in the 30 day demo has a smoothly descending tempo in another DAW.

Took me a while to figure out your DAW could not do it?

Am I missing something, this seems fundamental?   Steinberg pro24... Just saying.

Not a great start.

Would love to see this and the points raised above.
+2 votes
answered Feb 1, 2018 by oraziotesta (1,450 points)
I'm testing Studio One (30 Days trial) and I was considering buying it: the music editor is smooth as butter, the mixer doesn't feel that different from Reaper's (I own a Reaper license) and it works with Notion. But the way the tempo track works is pure madness, probably I'm going to wait some more time before jumping on SO's ship because of the tempo track. On Reaper the MIDI editor isn't that great, but I can edit tempo there without stress just like automations
+2 votes
answered Mar 2, 2018 by Fer2010 (760 points)
A much needed feature indeed! Imagine the look on my face when a client sends me audio stems with a tempo change in them. He kindly provides me with the numbers of the bars where he drew automation points and to which tempo they were set. However, in Studio One this can NEVER work because there's no way to draw a straight line or anything like that. It's truly horrible.

Working on this project was a nightmare, with 80% of that song not being aligned with the grid in Studio One because of the lacking tempo track abilities.

The benefit of a regular automation track for the tempo track is that you can still pretty easily achieve the same effect as how it works right now, but the other way around it's nearly an impossible task to get let's say a gradual increase in tempo that works up over 16 bars.
+2 votes
answered Mar 4, 2018 by lutzvogelsang (1,100 points)
My impression is that varying tempo (even in Melodyne threads) is mostly thought of in conjunction with synchronizing to a session recorded without a click - all the other projects are assumed to have a fixed tempo.

But what if I want to give my midi-based song a "band feel"? This is where delicate tempo variations need to be drawn/programmed. Chorusses might be faster than verses; the whole song may accelerate; breaks may slow down and the speed up again - all this can be pretty well achieved with a good tempo track editor (vertical zoom!, free hand drawing, curves, ramps etc.).
For me the lack of this kind of editor is currently the major drawback in SO3 (which is a phantastic program in general).
0 votes
answered Mar 5, 2018 by lutzvogelsang (1,100 points)
Vertical zoom is most desperately needed.
The magic of tempo variations lies within subtle changes from - let's say - 108 bpm to 111 bpm from verse to chorus. The current tempo track editor cannot handle this.
+2 votes
answered Apr 11, 2018 by richardblewett (950 points)
Given the 64 bit nature of S1 I too am surprised that the zipper approach is alive and well in the tempo map.  Having recently migrated from Sonar, I appreciated the dialog box that asked 4 simple questions: Beginning Measure, Beginning Tempo. Ending Measure, and Ending Tempo.  The system then created a SMOOTH tempo transition as requested.  A simple and effective solution to this matter and eminently more accurate than hand drawing.
+1 vote
answered May 3, 2018 by aaronbrito (860 points)
when is this coming?
+1 vote
answered May 26, 2018 by ionian (2,110 points)
Just came here to express shock that Presonus dropped the ball on this.  Of course we got a flashy drum machine update.  But tempos?  Why would anyone need functionality with tempos when it comes to music.
+1 vote
answered Jun 9, 2018 by richardblewett (950 points)
Having come from Sonar in the recent purge, perhaps my greatest disappointment in S1 is this clunky tempo map situation.  I've had a very favorable overall experience transitioning to S1 yet improvements to this basic feature need seems totally overlooked.  Take a page from almost any other DAW and see how it's done.  Please, enough with the clever work arounds and just upgrade this feature.
0 votes
answered Sep 11, 2018 by robinjandl (520 points)
Please make it also possible to manipulate/change the tempo live/during playback or recording for example via CC!

Means in realtime while writing automation or playing in instrument parts
0 votes
answered Sep 14, 2018 by Funkybot (21,570 points)
Can someone mark this item as complete (and preferably hide it), now that it's been implemented in 4.1?
...