Thursday, January 17, 2008

Bea tunes BPM estimate is bullshit

I have been trying to make a smart playlist in itunes that has all my upbeat songs so that they keep me awake and alert when I'm working late. But it hasn't been all that successful because not all my tracks, have BPM assigned to them. BPM, is beats per minute. Oh... that could have been a bad typo! beat sperm in LOL..

So I downloaded trial of a software called beaTunes. I was really impressed by its facility of cleaning up typos in the ID3 tags automatically, in a batch. It really helps organize your music a little better. But I wished there was a way to exclude podcasts from the search. Because a lot of podcasts keep changing the hosts or the people involved.. And I don't really care for the names etc, because they are organized by podcast anyways. 

But where this utility fell short was in the Beats per Minute category, which was my sole purpose in the first place! You see, in the analyze window, it shows you the option to 'Estimate BPM'. Instantly, I go, "Its a software, its a machine, its supposed to calculate the precise BP
M, not give me a shoddy estimate!" Actually, its best estimate would have been fine too, but where it really gets skewed, is the range drop down menu.

It gives me an option to specify an ideal range for the BPM of the selected track, or 'tracks'. First, how am I supposed to know the range of bpm? Isn't that what this software is supposed to do? Now lets say, I select a range that I 'feel' is appropriate, the software does its calculation, and gives you a BPM in that range. But there's no guarantee that its correct. If you change the range, and analyze it again, you get a totally different value! 

To test whether it gets the right value when given a correct range, I used a trial version of tangerine! to check the bpm of the song. It gave me, 157. So I set the range to 90-180 BPM and moved the quality/accuracy slider to precise. Still, the BPM I got was 98! So this whole BPM thing just blows! At least until the music distributors start mentioning bpm on cds or digital downloads/online stores. I wish there was a software that just went online and fetched the correct BPM from a database on the internet. Anyways, I guess that's my rant for today.

6 comments:

  1. 1) you are completely correct - how that "company" can continue to lie, misrepresent what is possible and continue to take money is perverted;
    2) thank you for telling everyone the truth - the greed on their part is just sick. Sorry, no software gets real bpm. It is all (very) freeware for a reason.

    I'd recommend the free METHOD and theory at http://www.meanspeed.com/method -

    Ian Schneider
    meanspeed music

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  2. Hi,

    Uh, you can exclude podcasts. Check out the other preferences. Why would you use Tangerine as the Benchmark. If you want accurate BPM you need to purchase DJ software such as DJPC by, MixMeister Studio by Numark, or TRAKTOR DJ Studio 3. They all have trial download. Although I am a DJ and I use DJPC and I have found BeaTunes to be equally accurate as DJPC.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  3. How long have you [worked] for beatunes dude?

    ias/7746

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi,

    I do not work for beaTunes, and I am certainly not a "dude." Following your logic...since I also recommended three other software products, I work for Numark, PCDJ, and TRAKTOR as well? I thought I was simply being helpful.

    Cheers

    DJJ

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is your question rhetorical? I assume that it is. If it is a real I will answer it.


    ias/7746

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is your question rhetorical? I assume that it is. If it is a real I will answer it.


    ias/7746

    ReplyDelete