How to use time signatures in a DAW
For most of us working in music nowadays, using a digital audio workstation (DAW) is quintessential to our process. Time signatures help us organize the content on our timeline and make edits much more easily. We can also use time signatures at times to create space between sections by adding additional beats to the end or beginning of a section.
Most DAWs have a dedicated feature or setting where you can specify the time signature for your project. This setting allows you to choose the number of beats per measure and the note value that represents one beat (e.g., 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, etc.).
Sometimes slowing the tempo down to create a transition can be a good approach, but sometimes just adding a couple of additional beats (for example, a 3/4 measure after the last measure of a phrase that is in 4/4) can be a way to “stretch time” while maintaining the same click track-tempo in the session. This comes in handy when working with collaborators who might be working on a different DAW or if we just want to export a quick mix bounce and tell them the bpm of the session so they can have their own click track without worrying about tempo changes or midi maps.
In the context of a DAW, the “piano roll” is our playground to play with time and how notes fall in place. We can create a note or rhythm pattern, copy it, paste it, duplicate it, transpose it, expand it in time, and create all sorts of combinations stemming from an initial musical cell.
Having a clear understanding of the time signature we have chosen can facilitate the compositional process as well as speed up our editing when working with both MIDI and audio. When we take into consideration the time signature and how our musical ideas are reflected in relationship to the musical grid, we are fully in control of time and how it all gets contextualized.