A Pseudo Ritard For BIAB - Anyone Interested?

[Richard Damron]

Some many months ago I worked out a method for achieving a pseudo-ritard for BIAB. If memory serves me correctly, I bounced it off of Jim Cohen and he was gracious in lauding the technique. I hesitated publishing it under Computers and/or Forum Feedback because BIAB topics seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Well, ya know what happened - I never posted it at all.

Now that we have a dedicated BIAB topic heading, I'm willing to lay it on ya if there's a show of interest. To paraphrase some comments that I made in the composition of the topic, I must tell you that this is NOT a bonafide ritard in the strictest of terms. To wit: A REAL ritard would allow all instruments to play scripted figures while the tempo is slowed. My method restricts the instruments to ensemble performance of sustained chords in decreasing tempo. It is "programmable" in that the spacing of the chords are at the whim and taste of the BIAB user. The length of the "ritard" is set by the author of the composition. You will find that, for "performance" pieces, the technique can be used in the middle of a tune and then return to the original tempo.

This will not be everyone's "dish of tea" so to speak but is effective in many applications. I use it often but not always. Such is the limitation of the technique.

I'm testing the waters here in an effort to determine a level of interest. Jump in and give me a "yay" or "nay" and I'll go from there.

Richard

[Rick Campbell]

Lay it on us. I tried setting tempo changes over several measures to acheive a ritard, but my method is crude to say the least. I'd welcome something better.

[Ken Lang]

Yay

[Doug Beaumier]

I have BIAB version 2007 and doing a "Ritard" is easy.

Just Right-click on a bar, click on "Bar Settings", and under "Tempo change to"...enter whatever tempo you want for that bar. Or you can enter a “% change in tempo”.

For example, if your song is 48 bars and the tempo is 90 bpm… and you want a 4 measure ritard at the end… go to bar 45, right click / bar settings / set the tempo for that bar to 80. Do the same for the last three bars, slower tempo each one. It couldn't get much easier!

[Andy Sandoval]

I do it pretty much like Doug described but I prefer to use the percentage box to change tempo, that way if you change the tempo of the tune the retard will change in relation to the overall tempo. Also, to change tempo say by 10%, entering just 10 increases the tempo where -10 decreases the tempo. If I want to retard say the last three measures I will enter say -5 to -10 in the percentage box for the first measure then for the next measure maybe -5 and the same for last. But experimentation is the key.

[Larry Lorows]

You guys are going to have me racking my poor old brain again, but this is great stuff. Thank You. Larry

[Doug Beaumier]

The older versions of BIAB do not have "tempo change" on each bar. I had version 11 several years ago and it did not have that, but version 2007 does.

[Jim Cohen]

... I bounced it off of Jim Cohen and he was gracious in lauding the technique.

I still have a bruise from where you bounced it offa me...

[Richard Damron]

Jimbeaux - I believe that I sent you the unadulterated and exceedingly verbose version of this. I'll send you a tube of Neosporin for the bruise.

Doug and Andy - Yes, the techniques of which you speak will work - to a degree - but there is an attendant problem. If one chooses too much of a percent change in tempo from bar to bar then a discerning ear will hear a "step" or "jerkiness" in the discrete changes. It may bother some but not others. I have done nothing more than to expand upon those techniques so as to provide a much smoother transition throughout the ritard. I requires a tad more work but the results, I think, are worth it in some applications. There is, however,one limitation which all will see shortly.

Here goes, Folks!

**The basic thinking: - If you progressively increase the time period between chords you will have created a pseudo ritard. Bear with me and do the following exercise. It's worth a thousand words. I do not want to leave anything to chance.
**For the sake of experimentation, open BIAB and choose a rather generic style such as C_ISLAND with a tempo of 100. It is found in Country Rock.

**Prepare a new and blank chord sheet.
**Highlight the first two beats of bar one.
**Go to "edit", choose "settings for current bar". There should be a "0" in the "% change in tempo" box. Change that value to "100". Click OK. You have simply doubled the tempo to 200 bpm.
**Highlight the first two beats of the succeeding 7 bars while repeating the above. You've given yourself nothing but a bunch of needed working space.
**For this example, I'll use a well-worn turnaround chord sequence. We'll be using sustained chords.
**Bar one: - Highlight the first half of the bar. Type in Em11... Highlight the second half of the measure. Type in the "comma" and then Eb7... This places the chord in the second half of the cell.
**Skip bar two.
**Bar three: - Highlight the first half of the bar. Type in Dm7...
**Skip bar four.
**Bar five: - Highlight the first half of the bar. Type in Db7b5...
**Skip bar six.
**Bar seven: - Highlight the first half of the bar. Type in the "comma" and then Cmaj7... This places the chord in the second half of the cell.

**View your handiwork. By inspection you'll see that I have arbitrarily increased the time period between chords. This is not rocket science but simple experimentation.

**Play it. There is a smooth, albeit arbitrary, slowing of the tempo. This is not engraved in stone! You're free to place the chords anywhere you choose in order to achieve your desired effect. Should you desire, you may use this in the middle of a song for the effect as long as you restore the original tempo at its' conclusion.

**The major limitation of the technique is obvious. One must used sustained chords. If not, then an instrument "noodling" within the measures will sound like a solo but at twice the tempo. NOT GOOD.

**Just for hunks: - Before the countdown ends, change the guitar part to "strings". Another instrument has just been added to the ensemble. This can also be done during playback with a judiciously timed mouse finger. I burn my tracks on an outboard machine - I can get away with such stuff and have it on my permanent CD.

**Once again: - The limitation is obvious and not to everyone's taste or needs. As stated, it can be considered as just another tool in our arsenal of effects.

Hope some of you find it interesting enough to use.

Thanks for the read.

Richard

[Richard Damron]

This didn't get bumped when I posted my reply.

BUMP NOW, DANGIT!!!!

[Andy Sandoval]

Doug and Andy - Yes, the techniques of which you speak will work - to a degree - but there is an attendant problem. If one chooses too much of a percent change in tempo from bar to bar then a discerning ear will hear a "step" or "jerkiness" in the discrete changes.

I hear what your sayin Richard. Sometimes I like to split up a measure that gets 4 beats into two 2 beat meaures that way I can assign a smaller degree of retard to each 2 beat measure making the retard a little more smoother but you have to remember that when you assign only two beats to a measure the following measures will only play two beats until you change back to 4 beats. Make any sense? It sounds kinda complicated but I've done this so many times I've learned to do it pretty fast now.

[Richard Damron]

Andy -

Makes all the sense in the world. I'm gonna have to try your scheme ASAP. This is the kind of discourse that I'd been hoping for under this heading. Looks like we're heading in the right direction.

Gave your George Wixon thread an endorsement. Got tired of visiting his site so I printed out a bunch of stuff and it's in a three ring binder. Good reference material.

Richard