I play the Rubato.

Or if it is quantized to grid, I record the rubato with taptempo and may edit it in the three available editors. Or also play it and adjust the tempo changes afterward to the grid.

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If I play the rubato (and the piece is largely in tempo with only slight rit. at the ends of phrases), sometimes I will go back and change the time signature of the rubato measures so that the downbeat of the next in-tempo phrase matches the downbeat of the desired measure #.

For example: a slight rit. at bar 8 in 4/4 = a 6/4 bar, then back to 4/4 at measure 9.

Most sequencers have a reclock function that will change the tempo of the sequence to line up the downbeats with certain points prioritized by the user.

Usually, I play it in without rubato and tweak the tempo track later. This gives me much more control. BTW, I am a classically trained pianist (30 years).

The glove thing sounds interesting but not very practical.

Clark

Another possibility is to use a freely drawn line in your controller data graph for tempo.

@William said:

Another possibility is to use a freely drawn line in your controller data graph for tempo.

Here's another vote for freely drawn controller data for tempo.

Alex.

Thanks everyone! I do things similar as stated above with drawing in the tempos. Clark, that's interesting, I hadn't thought to make the measures longer like you mentioned.


I was just wondering what others thought. I agree and think my idea is less practical and would have to be more of a performance (art) piece rather than a tool. I often work with high school students and am thinking maybe this idea of electronic baton (or something similar) could be used as a teaching tool so they can understand tempo and conducting and how it correlates to expression and movement and such. This would allow them to conduct a virtual orchestra. I don't know if VSL could be used in real-time with such a device though.

Here's a piece I found similar to what I was thinking, but of course not by tapping fingers together.

http://www.ericsinger.com/Glove2.mov">http://www.ericsinger.com/Glove2.mov "The performer uses his fingertips to "conduct" a music sequence. The rate of tapping controls the tempo as well as the volume of the sequence. Also, tapping on different fingers causes the sequence to play with a different timbre or instrument. The performance patch is implemented in Max and uses my SeqPlayer object for conducting."

Thanks again for you insight!

I'm afraid we are in need of a Rubato PlugIn with Frédéric Schoppeng, Franz Schubert and Alexander Skrjabin presets

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@Angelo Clematide said:

I'm afraid we are in need of a Rubato PlugIn with Frédéric Schoppeng, Franz Schubert and Alexander Skrjabin presets

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[:D]

Play the rubato without click and then Time Warp to get the beats in the correct bars.

DG

Tempo rubato (Italian stolen time), the handy method.

Slowing down the tempo:
Attach an adhesive rubberband to the monitor and mark the grid on the rubberband with a pen. Then stretch the rubberband and adjust the lenght of the recording to the stretched markings.

Slightly speeding up:
Go shopping and do not look the studio door. When you come back the time is stolen.

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You could "conduct" the piece by using the tap tempo function in most sequencers. You put the tempo track in "record" and press a key to advance the beat. You could then re-record the part and add others. The other method is to play the part in and adjust your tempo track to match it, but this is more difficult.

@synthetic said:

The other method is to play the part in and adjust your tempo track to match it, but this is more difficult.

Nah, it's just what I said; Warp it baby. I can almost do a tempo map in real time, it is so easy.... [:D]

DG