Tempo, meter and picture

Scoring to picture means the music bends to the film. This chapter covers the tempo track and time signatures, working with a video, timecode, and the hit points you write to.

The tempo track#

The tempo track is the Tempo lane right under the bar ruler. Tempo on the time ruler shows or hides it. It holds the song's tempo changes; each change either jumps to its tempo or ramps to the next change.

• Add a tempo change: click the lane. It lands on the grid.
• Move it: drag it. Hold Shift to change the tempo in tenths of a BPM.
• Type a tempo: double-click the change.
• Ramp or delete: right-click the change.

The tempo box in the transport shows the tempo at the playhead. Changing it changes the tempo change in effect at that point.

What follows the tempo#

• Notes, MIDI containers, the locators, and the automation of instrument tracks and folders stay on their bars and beats when the tempo changes.
• Audio clips and the automation of audio tracks keep their time. (A clip set to Follows tempo, in its right-click menu, stretches with the tempo instead; see Warp.)
• Hit points keep their time: they belong to the picture.
• The bar ruler, the grid and snapping, the metronome, the MIDI and audio editors, your plugins' transport, ARA plugins and MIDI export all follow the tempo track.

To match the song's tempo to a loop, see Kilonova.

Change the time signature#

1. Right-click the tempo lane or a ruler.
2. Choose Time signature from bar N... and pick the meter: 3/4, 6/8, 7/8 and so on.

Each time signature shows as a gold chip on the tempo lane. Double-click a chip to change it; right-click it to delete it. Bars, the grid, snapping, the metronome and all positions follow the time signatures.

Work to picture#

Import a video#

Drop a video file on the arrangement, or click Import audio or video in the top bar. Blazar Core reads MP4, MOV, M4V, AVI, WMV, MKV and MTS files.

The import does three things, as one undo step:

• The picture goes into the video lane, under the tempo track and above every track.
• The sound is taken out of the video into a WAV file and placed on a new audio track at the very top, directly under the video, from the song's start. It is an ordinary audio track: mix it, mute it or delete it.
• The frame rate of the session's timecode follows the video's.

The session keeps the video by its path, and also relative to the session, so a project you move still finds its video.

The video lane#

The video lane always stays at the top, under the tempo track; it can't be moved or reordered. Its header shows the video's name, length and frame rate, and its lane shows the video's frames along the time they play.

• Move the video in time: drag it along its lane (on the grid while the magnet is on). Its sound track moves along when you let go, so picture and sound stay together, all in one undo step.
• Select it with clips: the video lane takes part in rectangle selection like any track. A rectangle drawn from the lane down over the tracks (or from the tracks up into the lane) selects the video together with the clips and containers it touches.
• Ctrl+click or Shift+click selects the video and an audio clip together, from either side. Dragging either one then moves both, in one undo step.
• Remove the video: select it and press Delete, or right-click the lane. Its sound track stays. Ctrl+Z brings the video back.
• A click on empty lane space moves the playhead.

The picture window#

The picture opens in its own window with the video. It shows the frame at the playhead, fitted to the window, with the song's timecode and bar under it. While playing, it shows the frame you hear: the playhead less your interface's output latency.

• Put it on a second screen: it opens there next time.
• The eye key in the video lane's header, or the lane's right-click menu, shows and hides it.

Two small icon keys in the middle of the band under the picture control how the window behaves. They are lit warm, with a dot under them, while on. Both are also in the video lane's right-click menu. They start on, and your choice is kept.

• On top (two stacked windows): the picture stays above Blazar Core's window while Blazar Core is in front. It never covers other programs.
• Out of the way (a window with an arrow): when the pointer goes onto the picture while it sits over Blazar Core (on its way to the browser, say), the window glides off, in about two thirds of a second, to the corner of Blazar Core's window furthest from the pointer. Head for Save in the top left and the picture moves to the bottom right. Its title bar and edges still move and size it, and right after you move it, it stays put for a moment.

In sync to the frame#

Frames are exact, and picture and sound line up to the sample. Files with B-frames and AAC sound (almost every H.264 export) carry edit lists that Windows leaves aside; Blazar Core reads them itself, so these files stay in sync too.

Video formats on Windows#

On Windows, Blazar Core decodes video with Windows' own Media Foundation, so there is nothing extra to install. It covers H.264 and HEVC in MP4 and MOV, and WMV. ProRes and DNxHD need a decoder installed for Windows.

Video is decoded and scaled on the graphics card, at the size the picture window shows it, so even 4K reference video costs little. A computer whose graphics card cannot decode the file falls back to the processor.

Timecode#

The time ruler and the transport read timecode (hh:mm:ss:ff) or minutes and seconds. Click the time ruler's name ("Timecode" or "Time"), or the time in the transport, to switch both.

Timecode counts from the session's start timecode: 01:00:00:00 at 23.976 fps unless you change it. To change it, right-click a ruler:

• Start timecode... sets the timecode at the start of the song.
• Frame rate sets the rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 48, 50, 59.94 or 60 fps.

When you import a video, the session's frame rate follows the video's.

Mark hit points#

Hit points mark the moments in the picture you write to: a cut, an impact, a title. They sit in the HITS lane at the top of the rulers.

• Add one: double-click the hit lane. It lands on the grid while the magnet is on, else on the nearest frame. You can also right-click a ruler and choose Add hit point.
• Rename it: double-click it.
• Move it: drag it. It follows the grid too.
• More: right-click it to rename it, jump to it, delete it, or set its count-in.

Hit points belong to the picture: they keep their time when bars are cut or inserted, or the tempo changes. They are saved with the session.

Give a hit a count-in#

A hit's count-in is the stretch of music leading into it, drawn as a streamer bar by bar. It is one bar at first.

• Drag the streamer's start further out for 2, 4 or more bars, up to 16.
• Or right-click the hit point and pick 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars.

The countdown#

The next hit counts down beside Find tracks in the arrangement heading:

• Ahead of its count-in it is calm: "Big Hit in 12 bars".
• Through the count-in it turns tungsten: first the bars left in big figures, then the last bar's beats, 4, 3, 2, 1, with a dot per beat.
• Its name flashes as it hits.

Click the countdown to take the playhead to the start of the count-in.

Hit points in effects#

Pulsar can use the picture's hit points as its trigger, ducking the music a moment before each hit to make room for the sound design.