decimals in BPMs

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extinguish
middot
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decimals in BPMs

Post by extinguish »

Hi. This is perhaps a dumb question, but I have been producing for 5 years or so but only this year I have started DJing and I've been curious as to why many if not most tracks have BPMs with decimals.

Surely DAWs can produce a steady clock? Or is it to do with the way the BPM is calculated?

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Lost to the Void
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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by Lost to the Void »

They don't, your bpm counter is wrong.
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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by msl »

Well back in the day I made lots of tracks with non rounded bpm values because they used loops and I had no way of warping! SO you just adjusted the tempo till it matched the drum loop you were using!


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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by Ploy »

The tempo for a locked groove on a record is exactly 133 1/3 bpm. This would suggest that bpm's can be to the decimal point.

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Lost to the Void
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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by Lost to the Void »

They can be, of course, especially with vinyl.
But by the Way OP asked the question, digital music is implied, and digital bpm counters.
Most counters will read 130.1 or 126. Whatever, it means in no way that the music was produced at decimals, it's just showing up the inaccuracy of the detection algorithm.
Even when warping in ableton it will get decimals and when you know the bpm you can just type it in.
If it reads, say, 128.23 then you pretty much know it's actually just 128, and if you pick the first beat and type warp 128 from here, lo and behold it will be spot on.
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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by parents »

Lost to the Void wrote:They can be, of course, especially with vinyl.
But by the Way OP asked the question, digital music is implied, and digital bpm counters.
Most counters will read 130.1 or 126. Whatever, it means in no way that the music was produced at decimals, it's just showing up the inaccuracy of the detection algorithm.
Even when warping in ableton it will get decimals and when you know the bpm you can just type it in.
If it reads, say, 128.23 then you pretty much know it's actually just 128, and if you pick the first beat and type warp 128 from here, lo and behold it will be spot on.
Totally agree on that.

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middot
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Re: decimals in BPMs

Post by extinguish »

Ok thanks


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