Adjusting the Beats

Getting the BPM (Beats Per Minute) and first downbeat right is the key to achieving professional, perfectly synchronized visuals. This quick tutorial will show you how to identify and easily fix common beat detection errors.

Video transcript

Introduction

Today we will quickly cover how to adjust the automatically detected BPM and the first downbeat in your project, in case they are inaccurate. These are key for keeping your visuals perfectly synced to the music during editing.

BPM stands for beats per minute, and indicates the speed or tempo of a track — how many beats occur in one minute. First downbeat time marks the very start of the first strong beat, or bar, within the song. Essentially, it’s the timing for the beat grid.

Spotting the Problem

Sometimes the software might detect the BPM incorrectly — maybe it’s double or half of what it should be — or the first downbeat might be slightly off, causing misalignment of beat markers with the music.

You’ll notice this when the beat grid doesn’t match waveform peaks, or when your edits or effects feel out of sync with the track. Another easy way to detect it is by listening to the clicks using the evaluate button, as shown in the placing markers video.

Common mistakes include:

  • Tempo errors, like doubling or halving the actual BPM.
  • The downbeat marker placed before the first real downbeat, or slightly shifted.
  • Beat markers drifting over time, due to picking up the wrong tempo.

Always check these if your project involves precise audio syncing or music-reactive effects, or if something sounds rhythmically wrong. Correcting these early prevents bigger issues later on.

Fixing the BPM

There are currently two ways to adjust BPM in SoundXtract: by setting up a perfect-sounding loop, or by manually setting a value.

To use your ears and set up a perfect loop, this is what you should do:

  1. Enable the loop playback option.
  2. Click the tuning button.
  3. Create a loop of 16 beats by roughly setting the in-point on the first beat and the out-point just before the 16th beat starts.
  4. Click the play button and listen to the looping music.
  5. Shift the in and out points until you can barely feel where the loop starts and ends. The playing loop should sound natural and continuous.
  6. Finally, click the brackets icon to set the BPM according to the in and out points in the sequence.

Congrats — you are halfway to becoming a DJ.

To manually set the BPM, simply click the numeric value and set the value yourself.

Fixing the First Downbeat

To correct the first downbeat time, place the playhead on any downbeat. Just so we are on the same page: the downbeat is the first of each four beats, and it is usually the strongest. Imagine yourself tapping to the beat with your fingers — you would usually tap the strongest when the downbeat occurs.

Click the play icon to set the downbeat from the playhead. The value will then be automatically calculated by finding the corresponding first downbeat. Remember, it doesn’t have to be the time of the currently selected downbeat, because it might not be the first.

Getting your BPM and first downbeat time right will make your editing and effects much smoother and more professional.

Thanks for watching, and happy editing.

Try this workflow in your own timeline

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