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How to Match Beats in Sound Forge 9

Matching beats is a technique used by beatmakers and DJs to find the tempo of a sample loop or an entire song, but for each musician, the purposes differ. For a beatmaker, the tempo is used to lay samples inside a composition. If the beat of the composition differs from the beat of the sample, the music will be off-beat. For DJs, songs of the same tempos are mixed so beats and vocals of different songs can be put together. You can use Sound Forge 9, a powerful music-editing program created by Sony, to easily match beats to the exact beat per minute.

Instructions

    • 1

      Open the beat with the tempo you want to match in Sound Forge 9.

    • 2

      Click and drag on the section of the beat that you want to use as a loop to highlight that specific section. Try to pick complete bars to make some of the later steps easier.

    • 3

      Click on "Options" and a drop-menu will appear. Click on "Preferences."

    • 4

      Click on the "Toolbars" tab, click on "ACID Loop Creation Tools" and click on "OK" to open that toolbar in your main editing window.

    • 5

      Click on "Edit ACID properties ... " on the "ACID Loop Creation Tools" toolbar. It's the icon with the "A" on it.

    • 6

      Select "Loop" -- small highlighted section -- by clicking the check point next to it.

    • 7

      Click on the "Root Note for Transposing" drop-menu to select the key in which the beat that you want to match is made. If you don't know the exact key, click on "Don't Transpose."

    • 8

      Select the number of beats per bar in the beat. If you have a 4/4 beat -- four beats per measure -- then key in 4. If you have a 3/4 beat, key in 3.

    • 9

      Click on "OK" to save that information and close the window.

    • 10

      Click on "Edit Tempo" -- the button with "4/4" on it -- and the tempo-editing tool will open.

    • 11

      Enter the amount of beats your selected piece of music has in the "Selection length in beats" box. For instance, if the section you selected has four beats, enter 4 and if it has 12 beats, enter 12.

      Once you enter the number of beats, the tempo of the section -- and, most times, the entire song -- will be indicated in the "Tempo in beats per minute" box.

Digital Music

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