How to add a countdown...

[Tymophil]

Hi all,

When I train myself, I use the Tascam Bass Trainer. I play along the MP3 of the songs (with the bass removed).

My problem is that I have trouble with the songs that start rightaway with the bass...

Is there a way to add a countdown to a song ? Which software would i need to do it ? I already use Audacity to transpose songs.

Thanks.

[MarkTAW]

Reverse the song in audacity so it's playing backwards.

After checking for satanic messages, add another track if you can and tap in the tempo so that you can audibly hear the taps. Continue after the song ends (begins). Mute the click while the song is playing (delete that portion of the audio file) so that just the clicks before/after the song remain. Reverse the whole thing and export. You should end up with a count-in of weird sounding clicks.

Or to do it visually this is your song:

S O N G

First reverse it

G N O S

Then add a click to it that continues after & then go back and edit out the portion that occurs with the song so you're just left with the stuff "after" the song that will count you in.

G N O S . . .

Finally reverse the whole thing.

. . . S O N G

Though I think this is a lot of work for not a lot of gain.

[Tymophil]

I am trying your method right now...

First, I cannot find how to make sure that the clicks align with the beats on the song : there is no vertical bar that would allow to visualize the alignement. I have to try, listen, adjust, try again...

Second, I cannot reverse the whole thing. The reverse is for one track only... Do you know How I can reverse all the audio tracks together ?

Third, the last beat of the click track does not "click", so I need to add one more series of click, and then erase the three last...

Best regards.

[MarkTAW]

> First, I cannot find how to make sure that the clicks align with the beats on the song

I meant for you to do it by ear somehow - plug something in to the computer that can make sound and do it yourself and tap-tap-tap so that you can keep tapping past the beginning of the song.

> Second, I cannot reverse the whole thing. The reverse is for one track only... Do you know How I can reverse all the audio tracks together ?

You have to mix them down to a single track (export) and then re-import them and then flip to the starting position and export again.

> Third, the last beat of the click track does not "click", so I need to add one more series of click, and then erase the three last...

Yes, you should be erasing the bits that actually overlap the song.

[Psychbass]

While that method would work, it's needlessly complicated.

What I do with Garageband is to set a simple drum loop to the same beats per minute as the song and put the loop right before the AAC or MP3 file of the song.

Easy. You can then export the song as an AIFF file and burn it to CD if you want or just leave it in the computer as an AAC in iTunes.

Seth

[MarkTAW]

I used to use the sound of the mix tape starting to know when to come in...