Strange thing with tempo

Heinlein

Was wondering if this happens to other music makers... I'm talking about dance/electronica here, but I think this applies to all genres equally.

So, as far as I can tell our perception of the tempo may depend on our mood, mental state, whether we are on alcohol/drugs or sober, even time of day matters. I mean, dramatically, for me at least.

I made a few tunes recently (just learning FM synthesis), some on 115 bpm and some 120. At the time of making them the rythm seemed going pretty much Ok with the themes, I felt like it resonated with my internal rythms and made me want to dance, which meant the tune was Ok, serves its purpose so to say.

Then one day, be it drunk or in whatever altered state of mind, I listen to a tune just to find that the tempo is terribly wrong. Can be too slow or too fast depending on the substance I'm influenced by. "Man, how come I made it this slow/fast!" then start thinking of re-generating the audio bits and finally re-generating the track itself, which is a pain on my slow Mac Mini. Most of the time I end up not remaking it and finding next morning, for example, that the tune is in fact too slow instead of too fast, or the other way around.

The obvious explanation is it all depends on the speed of our brains. One thing is certain that alcohol slows down our minds greatly and as a result music seems too fast when you listen carefully. Some substances make your brain work so fast that any good dance rythm will seem slow and boring. There are many strange cases even in sober state, e.g. morning vs. evening. Etc etc.

Anyone experiencing this? How do you deal with it? If you are making for example dance music targeted to mostly "altered" audiences, should your decisions be made in the same state?

seannash

eh just set the tempo in your daw when you begin your track.for house do something like 126.trance and harder stuff like 130.
i think your over analyzing this and making a problem out of nothing to be honest.if your djing with the tunes you can always speed them up with the pitch control on the cdj or whatever your using

Heinlein

seannash, the tempo doesn't matter that much on the dance floor, and it probably doesn't matter for certain kinds of music. I should have explained my background probably, I listen mostly to jazz and baroque music, sometimes electronica, but really only the biggest names like Jean-Michel Jarre and Shpongle. I think these are genres (baroque in the first place) where the tempo does matter big time. But of course I may be exaggerating for the kind of music I'm making myself, that's one of the reasons I asked this question.

seannash

Heinlein wrote: »

I'm talking about dance/electronica here

eh im going by what you said,you said your talking about dance music which is destined mainly for the floor.
hope someone else can figure out what your on about coz im stumped:pac:

studiorat

Some days ya likes it fast some days you like it slow. I suppose when you are actually playing the instrument you just play it a bit brighter tempo-wise.

When you are recording the tempo, as it were. I suppose it feels fast and sometimes slow. I'd generally stick with the faster tempo unless there were lyrics involved and it made it a difficult sing for the artist, or if there was something special in the groove that only worked at a slightly slower tempo.

I always try and look for a take to have a certain something that makes you want to keep listening no matter how fast or slow it is.

Heinlein

seannash wrote: »

eh im going by what you said,you said your talking about dance music which is destined mainly for the floor.
hope someone else can figure out what your on about coz im stumped:pac:

Sorry man, just posted a link to last.fm to give you an idea, then found out last.fm turned my tracks into mono crap of lowest possible quality. This is not the only problem with Last.fm and it just sucks. If I manage to upload my stuff to myspace now will give links...