Box5 Software Forum

Hello,
I am trying to sync up my music to the current sets that I have, a lot of what I have written have subsets within the sets. I am having issues syncing up the music. Is there something that I need to know about how to do this successfully?

Hi bdrumsanchez,

Your question is pretty vague so it's hard to tell exactly what issues you are seeing. Here's a couple tips that you might not have considered:

1. Music format: You should use an MP3 with 128 kbps bitrate. Higher bitrates cause issues with the playback timing.
2. Straight tempo: You should be syncing the music to the straight tempo of the song. For example if you have a double time set you should set the marching to double time only so the count structure remains the same.
3. Counts: The tempo for each set is calculated from the synced tempo and the number of counts in the set so make sure the counts are correct for each set and subset. i.e. an 8-count subset should be on count 8 of the production.
4. Syncing on downbeat: The correct way to sync the music is to press space bar on every count 1 of a set. I will often sync the entire production first in 32-count chunks, then adding sets in-between will automatically sync the new sets correctly.

If none of this addresses your issue then you can send me an email at contact@box5software.com with your drill and music files so I can determine what is going on.

Have a great day!

I'm going to try changing bit rate. My sample rate is 44.1 so a quick google search says that I'm at 176 kbps bitrate. Can you tell me how to convert that to 128?

If you're on Windows you can use Format Factory. It has a lot of settings and can change the bitrate of mp3s for you. Other than that I'm sure a google search will turn up plenty of options, some paid and some free, but I haven't tried any of those personally myself.

Thanks.