Skip to content

Draft: this page is unpublished and only visible on staging and in development.

In this manual

Follow tempo

Follow tempo is a clip setting: with it on, the clip stretches to match the project tempo continuously, so it tracks tempo changes mid-song, not just a single value. With it off, the clip plays at its exact original speed; nothing about the audio is altered. Imported rhythmic audio with a confidently detected BPM gets follow tempo turned on automatically.

Imported loops follow automatically

When you import rhythmic audio (a drum loop, a bounced beat), Neutral Tracks detects its tempo and enables follow tempo, so the loop lands in time with your project instead of drifting against it. You can see that it happened: the clip shows a stretched badge, and the inspector shows the detected tempo.

Detection is deliberately conservative. Sustained material (pads, drones, tones) never triggers it, so audio that isn’t rhythmic isn’t guessed at.

Getting the original speed back

Turn follow tempo off on the clip and playback returns to the file’s own speed: bit-exact, not approximately undone. The detected tempo stays in the inspector, so you can re-enable follow tempo at any time with the values already filled in.

Tempo changes, not just a tempo

A following clip tracks the whole tempo map, not one number. Because the stretch is continuous, a tempo change that lands mid-clip stretches the clip through the change. A ritardando across the clip’s middle is followed, not ignored.

Manual timing control

For surgical timing work inside a clip, the audio editor has stretch markers: pin a point in the waveform and move it, and the audio stretches between pins. That’s the tool for fixing one late hit; follow tempo is the tool for keeping the whole clip on the project’s grid.

Troubleshooting

  • An imported loop plays at a different speed than the file: its BPM was detected and follow tempo was enabled on import, so the clip is stretched to the project tempo. Turn follow tempo off for the exact original speed.
  • A pad, drone, or sustained texture didn’t follow the tempo. This is by design: detection is deliberately conservative, and sustained material never triggers it.