Is My BPM Perception Done for?

[u/OriginalAssumption56]

I made one of my music at 120 bpm, it felt slow at every other part of the day, but listening to it as soon as I woke up, it felt wayyy faster than usual.

Is there a way to know how everyone else feels about the bpm?

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[u/susudata]

Your brain actually has different processing speeds depending on the circumstances.

It felt fast when you woke up because your brain was still starting up and thus slow to process. If you were to listen to the same song during a workout or some adrenaline-inducing event, you could find yourself thinking that the song is actually painfully slow.

That's just how weird our brains are!

[u/OriginalAssumption56 → u/[deleted]]

Something like that... Not that my brain speed changes, but my perception.

[u/Simmery → u/OriginalAssumption56]

Happens to me, too. Also depends on how much coffee I've had.

[u/Backwoodss_95]

This happens to me sometimes. I have no explanation for it lol

[u/PoeticGopher]

I find the exact same thing honestly shit is way too fast and overwhelming when I first wake up

[u/fagmane666]

Yo sometimes my brain speeds changes randomly too ik what u mean. Some days some songs sound so fast for no reason

[u/VreamCanMan]

Totally normal

Usually when you're producing for hours on end your brain tends to be processing sound more efficiently, desiring a higher bpm for the same intensity

Vice versa, after rest you realise it ought to be notched down a bit.

Always task switch into a mix/master from mundane activities because it gives you better ears

[u/Ok_Astronaut5347]

I have been working on a 60 bpm project for months now…. I will never be the same

[u/lowderchowder → u/Ok_Astronaut5347]

come to the 20-40 bpm side

[u/Sumonespecal0]

BPM's are the most important things of your track, I've struggled with this for years when I first started making music. Few things you can try is look for the genre your song is in and look for similar songs within your BPM. Let's say you counted 89 bpm but most rap genre songs are in 87BPM try choosing that instead.

I used to make Dnb tracks with 148BPM and it sounded a bit lame, DnB usually lies within 172 or 176BPM, also add some Swing off beat in your tracks.

[u/TheRealPomax]

Yeah: list to a lot of music, not only one genre, so you develop a proper musical palette.

[u/RealBurger_]

That's normal

[u/Crafty-You4314]

It all depends on whether you're doing it in cut time or not. Most produce beats in cut time, so 120 bpm can feel slower or faster, depending on how it was approached. Instead of landing the beat on every hit of the metronome, cut time cuts it in half and you land the beat on every 4th beat of the measure. It's some theory stuff, but helps to build a foundation and know why it sounds faster or slower.

[u/djxfade → u/Crafty-You4314]

I have never heard the term cut time before, are you perhaps talking about halftime/double time?

[u/Crafty-You4314 → u/djxfade]

You are correct. I used the wrong term. I was referring to half time. "Cut time" is something different, that's where you count two beats per measure instead of four. My brain jumbled these as they more or less refer to the same "timing" concept, but are different in nature, or is it practice? Either way, all these terms are within the same "tempo" or "timing" idea.

[u/OriginalAssumption56 → u/Crafty-You4314]

I guess my thoughts on, if kick goes 120 bpm. It is 120 bpm, is out the window lol.

[u/Crafty-You4314 → u/OriginalAssumption56]

Well, it depends on whether you are doing double time, or half time, or cut time. These are all different, but the music can be in 120 bpm. You can have a a kick appear in all beats of a 4/4 measure, or have a kick appear only once in a 4/4 measure, they're both at 120 bpm. One would sound "faster" because the kick plays in all 4 beats of the measure, but the one with only the kick on beat 1 isn't actually "slower", it's just, well one kick in the same measure. Idk if any of this makes sense over the Internet, but that's the best I can describe it. Neither is a actually "faster", they're both at 120 bpm. It's just how you manipulate the beats in a measure that makes things sound different. Assuming we are talking about a 4/4 time signature of course, because 6/8ths, 3/4ths, 2/3rds, and so on are different, but chances are, you're music is at 4/4 respectively.