bpm time stretching...

iam just not understanding... how do i find the bpm of a sample...
the reason i ask is cuz.... i read the bpm or the sample in the parameters section.... i then adjust my sequencers bpm... and it never loops perfectly at all...

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secondly, after i find the correct bpm.... how do i use the timestretch feature.... i don't really understand whats going on... also when i stretch them.... they sound robotic....
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thanks for all your help.... i finally got the skills improving with more practice... now i need to focus on makin' a loop...

find the tempo by counting beats. It will never be 100% accurate, say you have a 4 bar loop and the tempo says its @ 98.7 bpm, but when you loop it in the sequence may not fit.

#1 is the loop actually looped? (as in you went into the trim section, looped it, turned looping on and it loops when you play it on a pad?) if not loop it and try again. If it is looped, you may just be calculating it wrong. adjust the tempo of the sequence until it loops, the length may have to be shorter then the 4 bars. (ie 96 * 4 * 4 = 1536 duration for 4 bars) maybe you need to set it to 1530 or 1525, play with it until it sounds good. this aint a computer that will loop it up for you, it will take work. the mpc is only accurate to tenths of a beat, compared to pc's who are accurate to 1000's of a beat. (recycle). so the mpc may say its 95.3 when it really is 95.3897 (basically 95.4). since there is no accurate way to ensure that the spaces between snare and kick are the same length (thereby getting the tempo exactly right) it takes some playing to get it to loop.


As far as the timestretching sounding robotic, maybe you are stretching it too much. Try not to add or remove more then 5 bpm or it does start to sound artificial. Maybe you can get around it by altering the pitch in tuning and then timestretching it.

I use the Tap Tempo function to get in the proximity.. record the loop.. then adjust the tempo until something works.