How do I adjust the tempo or BPM of a sample to match the song I'm working on?

[danbs10]

Hi, the title pretty much says it all.

I am working on a tune in audition CS6, however I am aware that audition is not intended for music production, but I already have the beat, bass line and melody laid down in a multi-track session, now I have download a few audio samples and acapellas that I want to use on my tune but do not know how to go about matching the tempo so that my audio sample fits like a glove over my original tune.

Please help.

[ryclark · Accepted solution]

Make sure you are viewing Bars and Beats in the Time Display and edit the tempo (if you haven't already done so) to match your recordings. Turn on Global Clip Stretching by clicking the little Alarm Clock button next to the Metronome button. Then you can use Global Clip Stretching to drag the top right white triangle on the sample clip to fit it to your other tracks. Your can do this in real time whilst it is playing.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

There are two things you need to know, really. The first is that when you import a clip into multitrack view, by default stretching is off. But if you grab the little triangle at either the top left or top right of a clip, you can stretch it anyway - this turns stretching for the clip on automatically. To get things right initially, you need to position the clip at the correct start point, and stretch or shrink the end point so that it finishes where you want it to. The second thing is that the 'slip' tool is sometimes useful here as well. This leaves your clip window exactly where it is, and lets you slide the clip around within it, so you can, if you want, 'push' the beat with your clip - or of course the complete opposite.

By default, clip stretching is in real time, but the chances are that when you've got it in the right place you'll want to improve the quality. So  you right-click on your clip, select the stretching options and set it to render it, rather than run in real-time mode. This takes longer, but sounds miles better.

Once you get used to it, these operations are pretty easy to carry out.