Hydrogen Drum Machine - Beat Counter, BPM & Other Tempo Tools

buckydurddle (70)in #utopian-io • 6 years ago (edited)

What Will I Learn?

You will learn how to find all Hydrogen's tempo-related tools.
You will learn how to set the tempo for an entire piece of music in Hydrogen using the BPM tool.
You will learn how to set Hydrogen to change tempo at specific points throughout a piece of music.
You will learn how to use the Beat Counter tool to tap a key in time in order to alter the tempo.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial learners will need to have the following:

The software application Hydrogen installed

Difficulty

This tutorial is at an Intermediate level. It is strongly advised that learners complete the previous tutorials in this series before attempting this tutorial.

Description

How to set the tempo using the BPM indicator

As with all music-based sound editors, Hydrogen provides a means to alter the tempo of our music. The most basic of these is the BPM indicator. This tool displays the tempo but also by clicking it it allows you to make changes to the tempo. In this tutorial I show how this can be used. The BPM indicator sets the tempo for the entire song and does not change throughout. Other tools can be used to alter tempo on the fly.

Assigning tempo changes throughout a piece of music

Hydrogen allows us to assign tempo changes throughout a piece of music. This is a very useful tool. It can be found all along the top of the Song Editor window. By clicking any point on that timeline you can enter in a tempo setting. Hydrogen will show your entry on the timeline and make the change in the playback.

To delete the entry you can click the tempo number on the time line and choose "Delete BPM Marker."

How to use the Beat Counter tempo tool

Hydrogen provides a sophisticated tool to allow us to perform the tempo we would like to use. This tool is called the Beat Counter.

Often times we will need a very specific tempo setting that needs to match a setting that is required us to tap the tempo. Beat Counter lets you tap the ',' key on your computer multiple times keyboard to set the tempo.

This tool can be very useful in numberous situations. We can even play a long with a live performance by tapping along with the performer. As the performer's tempo changes slightly we can keep in time with them with Beat Counter.

Hydrogen is an open source application, which means that it is free for everyone to use. Please consider going to the developers' website and show your support for the project - http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. If you have any specific questions for me feel free to leave it in the comments of this post and I will do my best to get back to you with an answer.

Cheers,
@buckydurddle

Video Tutorial

Curriculum

Learn Hydrogen Series

If you would like to learn how to use the open source drum machine Hydrogen, then have a look at these tutorials:
Hydrogen - UI Layout & Basics

Hydrogen - How to Make Beats

Hydrogen - Beat Shaping Tools

Hydrogen - Rhythmic Resolution

Hydrogen - Pitch Shifting

Hydrogen - Effective Beat Making

Hydrogen - Song Editor, ADSR, Importing DrumKits from Respositories

Hydrogen - Humanize (Velocity, Timing & Swing)

Hydrogen - New Instruments, Loading Samples & Multiple Sample Sounds

Learn Helm Series

helm_logo6 small.png
If you would like to learn how to use the open source software synth Helm, then have a look at these tutorials:

Helm Introduction Video

Helm 1st Oscillator Video Tutorial

Helm 2nd Oscillator Video Tutorial

Helm - Cross Modulation

Helm - Amplitude Envelope

Helm - Keyboard Response A

Learn Audacity Series

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If you would like to learn how to use the open source sound recording and editing software Audacity then have a look at these tutorials: