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Aligning music to beats and bars
Note: A measure and a bar are the same thing. Audacity uses "bar" in places where "measure" would be too long.
To align music to the beats and bars grid, you first need to know the tempo of the song, usually measured in beats per minute (BPM).
- If you're recording music on your own, try playing to a metronome to ensure you stay in tempo.
- If you're using music downloaded from the web, try figuring out its tempo. In some cases, a web search for
song titletempois sufficient. - You also can download a bpm detection plugin. The Vamp plugin pack features several tempo detection plugins, such as:
- IBT - INESC Beat Tracker
- Simple Fixed Tempo Estimator form the Vamp SDK example library
- Tempo and Beat Tracker: Tempo from the Queen Mary University of London
Audacity is not yet able to handle midway tempo changes during a song.
Audacity will snap the beginning of the clip to the beats and bars grid, depending on your tempo and snapping setting. If your first beat doesn't start exactly at the start of the clip, you can trim the beginning of the clip. To trim a clip, simply drag the upper edge of it inwards.
When trimming a clip, you may need to turn off snapping to make finer adjustments.
Once you have everything set up and snapping enabled, simply dragging your clips will align them to the beat and bars grid.
The snapping toolbar with its dropdowns.
Last modified 1mo ago