Double Time

BeatBassBanger

New member
Can some explain in retard what it means? :berzerk: How does it relate to certain Genre of music? I watched a tutorial on trap, and the producer mentioned double time, I used the Metronome and now it sounds more on point. Instead of me randomly picking a BPM and letting that dictate the tempo of my song
 
Double time isn't genre-specific, it's a music theory thing. It just means that you have a part in a song that sounds like it's at double the song's regular tempo - so in an 80bpm track you'd have a part that sounds like it's at 160bpm.

But in terms of sequencers - and step sequencers (which a piano roll essentially is as well) especially - it's often used to mean that even though you're writing a song @ 80bpm, you'd set your sequencer's tempo at 160bpm, so if you'd regularly have 16 steps in a bar, you now have 32 steps, so you can make quicker hihat fills, for example. Of course your sequence also needs to be double the length as well in this scenario. This "trick" stems mainly from old hardware sequencers that had limited resolution, but of course in modern DAW piano roll environments it's not really necessary, as most piano rolls allow for practically infinite resolution for what it's worth (well, maybe not infinite...but I doubt you're going to be needing to be more precise than 1/16384th notes which is the smallest as Ableton will go, for example).
 
Normally double time means literally doubling the tempo.

Also, normally you don't double the tempo of everything, just some elements. Doubling the tempo of a drum loop is very common.

Note the best way to do this is definitely NOT going to your DAW's global tempo and just typing in twice the number.
Try writing a drum pattern on the piano roll with the grid spacing in eighth notes (quavers), then adjust the grid spacing to 16th notes (semiquavers) and copy your original pattern relative to the grid. Then you can have one section of your track with the normal drum beat and one with the double time beat (you might need to shift a couple of the drums around a little to make it flow nicely)

If you're writing at a fast tempo e.g. drum and bass, you can also put in a half-time section
 
Also, normally you don't double the tempo of everything, just some elements.

That's kind of the point - if you double everything, it's not double time, it's just a faster tempo song. Double time (and half-time) is always relative to the regular tempo of a song.
 
Yes...Perfect timing for a thread...!

Because....I am confused on a song that I really like and I think it has to deal with double time.

The song is: GTA - Red Lips (Skrillex Remix). Go listen to it.

Clearly...the 2nd drop/chorus is much 'faster' than the 1st drop/chorus.

So therefore...

1. Is this a perfect example of what 'double time' is...???

Because when I first heard this song...That 2nd drop/chorus really amazed me and was like 'wow/kool'.

So from that moment on...I wanted to try and figure out how a producer makes another part/section of the song appear to move/proceed faster.

Therefore...I thought it was some kind of method/technique that had to do with a time signature change or bpm change of some sort.

BUT...clearly (thanks scrapheaper)....its really as simple as just doubling the kick drum from 8th's to 16th notes...correct...???

Can someone 'affirm' that my decision on that GTA/skrillex song...would be a perfect example of what double time is...??? And if it is...I can rest easy because now I finally have my answer to my confusion...and that is double timing.

Thanks.
 
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Yup, that's a decent enough example of double time. Note that double time is often also called double time feel - it's not necessarily just about doubling the amount of kicks or something like that, it's just something that makes it sound like it's running at double the tempo.
 
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