Hello everyone, I've recently been getting into drum programming, and have been trying to make midi tabs for the drums for different songs. However, I've been having a very difficult time trying to match the tempo to the songs and getting the time signatures to work out.
I have looked over many "this is how you find tempo / this is how to determine time signatures" types of posts, but it seems that reading 5 posts yields 4 different versions of "this is the correct way".
These are some links to a song that I think exemplifies a lot of the difficulties I have been having (a song with time changes, and slow, moderate, and fast sections)
Dream Theater - Panic Attack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hDs6mCVAKs
Guitar Pro tab (with drums)
http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/d/dream_theater/panic_attack_guitar_pro.htm
In browser tab (no drums)
http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/d/dream_theater/panic_attack_tab.htm
-The guitar pro tab seems right on the money, but I don't think I would have determined that there are no actual tempo changes, and I'm sure that I would have gotten at least a few of the time signature changes wrong - which would then of course throw off the final tempo count. Speaking of that, how do you know when to count a time sig. as something like 12/16 (as found in this song) as opposed to 6/8? (I know that a section played at a given tempo at either of those two time sigs ends up being the same, but when you count the beats to get bpm, wouldn't that decision have the potential to radically alter the bpm of the entire song?)
So, how would you guys approach a song like this? And do you have any resources that really helped you understand how to determine tempo and time signatures?
Thanks for reading this wall of text, I appreciate it.
Don't worry about the wall of text, because the right answer is a lot more substantial.
You've got two real issues here: one is conceptual - how to count it, and the other is notational - how to write it. They create related, but not identical problems. So first a few definitions, then the basics of meter, then the math rock issues.
METER = the distribution of accented and unaccented beats in a regular pattern. In notation, a meter becomes a measure.
TIME SIGNATURE = a notation of the meter that determines what notes will be used in the measure
TEMPO = the frequency of the beat. This is completely unrelated to either meter or notation.
All meters in music break down into units called "metric units", which are always in groups of two or three beats. Metric units can be grouped together into larger units to create a longer meter. When that happens, one stressed beat will receive more emphasis than the other. This is what makes 2/4 time different from 4/4 time - both have groups of accented/unaccented beats, but in 4/4 the first in a pair of such groups receives a stronger accent.
Beats themselves may be divided or subdivided. When beats regularly divide into 2 parts (as in two equal eighth notes per beat) it's called "simple time"; when beats regularly divide into three parts it's called "compound time".
A time signature is a means of conveying both the meter and the beat division. Two beats per measure that divide into two equal parts could be represented as 2/4, but it could also be shown as 2/2 or 2/8. Only the notation differs; the sound, and the count, is the same. If those beats divide into three parts, the signature may be 2/4, with the beat division shown as triplets, or it may be in 6/8 - when the upper number of a time signature is a multiple of 3, the music is in compound time... and the lower number of the signature is actually the division, or one third of a beat. 6/8 time is actually two beats per measure in most circumstances (like this song).
Ok, so that's enough to handle the second part of your question - how to know the difference between 12/16 and 6/8 time: 12/16 is a compound meter with four beats per measure; 6/8 time is a compound meter with only two beats per measure. If the accents are all equal, it's 6/8 (or 6/4, or 2/4 written as triplets, or any other representation that conveys compound duple meter); if every other accent is a bit stronger/weaker, it's in 12/16 (or 12/8, or 4/4 with triplets, or any other notation that indicates compound quadruple meter).
So first you figure out the beat - that gives you the tempo. Then you figure out the accents, which gives you the meter. Then you make a decision as to what time signature to use for that meter... and then you can note the tempo (as in quarter note = 128 or whatever).
Now the complications of math rock. There are three: irregular meters, changing meters, and notation.
Irregular meters are those where the accents are not evenly distributed. In 4/4 time at 60bpm there's an accent every two seconds. In 5/4 time at the same tempo, there's an accent, and another one two OR three seconds later, and another three OR two seconds after that. The spacing will always alternate between two and three seconds, or between three and two.
Figuring out the time signature means listening for the primary accent, and then counting the beats until the next one. If you get five, it's in five-over-something (or 15 over something if it's compound time).
The notation is a bit trickier, because 5/4 time can be 2 beats + 3 beats, or it could be 3 beats + 2 beats. Each will sound different, and other irregular meters are even more complicated - 7/4 can be 2+2+3 or 2+3+2 or 3+2+2. You want the musicians to interpret the music the way the writer envisions it, so there are a couple of common notation conventions:
1. Beams NEVER cross metric units. If you have three beamed eighth notes, then eight beamed sixteenths, you know the 5/4 meter is 3+2. If you have four beamed eighths, then a beam with two eighths and eight sixteenths you're in 2+3.
2. Long notes are ALWAYS split with ties at a metric unit. In 5/4, a three beat sound on beat one will be written as a dotted half if the meter is 3+2, but it will be a half note tied to a quarter note if the meter is 2+3 (Unfortunately, many musicians really don't understand proper notation, so you'll see all sorts of errors made in writing complex rhythms!)
The next problem is changing meters. If a meter changes in a constant pattern, like a measure of two beats, a measure of three beats, a measure of four beats and repeat, you can actually use just one time signature. It will either show 234 over a 4, indicating that a quarter note is always the beat, or it will show 2/4 3/4 4/4 (it varies by publisher, but both mean the same thing). The measures that follow that signature will follow the larger complex patter of ONE two ONE two three ONE two THREE* four (where THREE* is a secondary accent)
Other pieces, like the one you posted, will have meter changes that don't happen regularly. Since a single meter can be written in multiple ways, this also presents some notation issues. At measure 17 in the tab you posted the meter changes to five beats per measure. This could be written as 5/4, 5/8, or some other signature that shows quintuple meter. The main goal is keeping the notation clear so the musicians can interpret it correctly. This also illustrates what I just said about many musicians not understanding complex notation - because the tab you've posted is not correct.
The tab shows a 5/8 signature, with a dotted eighth (one and a half beats) beamed to an eighth (making two and a half beats) followed by a sixteenth beamed to an eighth (one and a half beats) followed by an eighth (one beat). Because metric units are always in twos and threes, you can't have 2-1/2 or 1-1/2 beat metric units. Listening to the tune, this segment is in a 3+2 meter, so the correct notation should be a beamed group of a dotted eighth, eighth, and sixteenth (three beats total, all on one beam) followed by a beamed group of a two eighths. [Edited to correct a typo - I was in too much of a rush this morning!]
There's another issue that this time change raises too - how far apart are the downbeats compared to how far apart they were BEFORE the change?
If you mark the downbeats, you find that at the point of the change they start occuring two and a half beats apart (compared to the downbeats that were four beats apart before the change). The convention for making this clear in the notation is to have a notational unit the same. We know the top number of the time signature must be five, because it's quintuple meter. The bottom number must be 8 - because the only way you can write 2-1/2 beats in 4/4 time is by using an eighth note for each of the five parts. An eighth note before the change should equal an eighth note after (this part the tab creator got right). If you choose 4/4 for the first section, the second section is 5/8; if you chose 4/8 for the first part, the second part must be 5/16; if you chose 4/2 for the first part, the second must be 5/4. Any of the first signatures will show you that it's quadruple meter, simple time - you could choose any one of them. But having made that decision, the second signature must follow the same logic. And if you do that, your tempo should line up throughout, unless there's a tempo change.
Things get more complicated when a change in meter coincides with a change in tempo, but I'll leave that for another time :)
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