Detect beats in Beat Finder with threshold value

What is Beat Finder?

The functionality in Audacity, known as the Beat Finder, distinguishes beats that are different than other audio. The task of the Beat finder is to label the louder beats compared to the normal audio surrounding those beats.

This function is a rough tool. So, it might not work properly with some pop music with variable range. However,  Beat Finder works well with soft music that doesn’t have much dynamic range.

Threshold Value

A threshold is the value of beat detection. Its value, by default, is 65%. You can change it as you need, using the slider. If the detected and labelled beats have less value, you can decrease the threshold value and get more number of labelled beats.

The threshold value defines the minimum value. This minimum value will be compared to other beats. The beats above the threshold value are the loud beats. While the beats that are below the threshold do not have any label.

So, you can change the threshold, and hence, the range from which you distinguish the beats as louder will change. This will give you a larger number of beats for a smaller value of the threshold.

Already using labelled track

If the track you are using already has a label and you use the same track for beat detection, it will cause many more labels and it will not be able to distinguish them. By using such a track you will create a large confusion for yourself. Thus, you should refer to using a track which does not contain any prior labels, to avoid being confused with the beat finder labels and other labels.

Buttons

The following buttons are present in the beat finder tool.

• The threshold percentage value is at the centre of the dialog box. You can change this threshold value by entering a number manually. Or, by moving the slider left or right.
• The left bottom contains a manage button. This is a dropdown menu that will allow you to see the settings of the beat finder tool and also allow you to see the tool’s details.
• The debug option at the bottom centre of the dialog box saves the settings made to the audio. In debug mode, the effect that you apply to the audio tests. It is quite different from the Ok button.

When you apply the effect, you can see the error messages in another window. Generally, when there are no error messages, the widow appears to be empty. The Ok button saves the changes made to the audio. The audio saves after you apply the effects.

After you save the effect for the current audio, the beat finder dialog box will close. There is also a cancel button to cancel the effect and to make no change to the audio. This will also lead to the closing of the dialog box. You can use the ‘?’ help button to study more about the beat finder.

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