Tempo changes in solo piano tracks

[xev]

Hi!

I have been finishing a few piano only tracks that I made a while ago for fun. I am not a pianist and a lot of the notes are programmed, not played. I am in the process of humanising them as much as possible, varying velocity, and timing.

My question is regarding slow downs/pauses (holds?) – don’t know the proper english word sorry.

Usually I use a click track for everything but in this case it sounds to me like the music would benefit a lot from little tempo changes and pauses, to make it feel more natural and try to mimic what a real pianist would play like.

Is this ok with library music? Or do most of them want music that sticks to the click to make editing easier? I would like to know your opinion before I do all this work 🙂

Thanks!

[BEATSLINGER]

I have done this a good number of times.

Here is what “I did”

Had enough of both parts to complete just about any types of Cue/Edit/Scene, etc. First part would be my main composition (somewhere around 90 seconds to 2 minutes)

Then “I would place a clear/clean break” (Shortening the reverb so there’s not a long pause between the components)

and then doing the tempo change for about another minute.

“Normally” the no-no would be going up a 1/2 step/whole step, or key changes..

[abby mettry]

I would definitely add some ‘pauses’ and ‘breaths’ otherwise it sounds robotic. My experience has been that libraries want it to sound natural.

[MichaelL]

Hi XEV,

Does your DAW have a “tap tempo” or similar feature that will allow you to “conduct” the tempo?
If so, use it to create a rubato feeling that will give your tracks a more expressive feeling.

[xev]

Thanks for the replies,

Yes, I know how to do tempo variations in my DAW, I was just wondering if it would be annoying for editors to have the tempo fluctuate. Good to know it’s not!

[Author]

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