I'm having trouble figuring out this irregular time signature. Can anyone figure it out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9zCFVYQXzs&fmt=18#t=49s ~0:49-1:00

Sounds like syncopated 4/4.

It is?

Ok so I just rechecked it. If I leave it at 4/4, it'll get back on track at 1:37 on the first down beat. Maybe that was just a coincidence. But it's too difficult (well... not impossible) for me to transcribe it in 4/4 from 0:49-1:37. Damn it's like having the off beat and up beat switched. It's psychologically confusing as hell @_@

To me it sounds like a 1/4 bar, followed by two 5/4 bars with ritardandos at the end and atempos at their beginings, and another 1/4 bar.

It sounds like 4/4 to me too.

Edit:

From 0:49 to 00:57 I am sure it's 4/4.

Eighth note rest, 3 eighth notes, quarter note triplet, repeat. On the first pass it skips the rest and enters on the eighth note.

You could just make a separate time signature section for those couple bars (0:49-0:57), then a transition, then back to down-beat 4/4 for the next section.

In my opinion, I wouldn't write this down in 4/4, but in 9/8, however retuning to 4/4 at 1:01.

Why? Besides also being a percussion player, and my best aural skill being in rhythmic notation... It's much too jumbled to be written down in 4/4... and I doubt a composer for a video-game would out-do Stravinsky on such a rhythm like that in 4/4... unless the composer is a world-class percussionist. It must be in, and I say that it is, 9/8.

I'd say 5/8 (or 2+3/8) triplet followed by three straight quavers.

I think it's really interesting how many different perceptions of rhythm there are...

Have a stab at it. This is how it would look like if I did not change the time signature.

If you have Finale, you'll need to shift the notes around to accommodate the new time sig.

Oddly my 4/4 does not fit with the 4/4 of Finale... I must be counting another time signature... face palm to my fail.

I asked another musicians. One said he hear it as a 5/2 and another said it is a mix of 3/8 and 3/4 then goes back to 4/4.

Actually, it is a 3/4 at the start (If you didnt notice) then in transition it modulates to a 2/4 b4 going into a 4/4 time. Thats why u had to shift notes round a lot.

Hope this helped :-)

PS: dun forget that it modulates back to 3/4 at the into theme at the middle again because of its thematic ABAB format

I think it's really interesting how many different perceptions of rhythm there are...

Exactly what I was thinking. We're all saying different things basically, and stand by them. x)

For those suggesting there are triplets, there's none that I can find. It is not a compound time signature, that I can say. It sounds like there are triplets, but what you're hearing is dotted notes everywhere giving the impression they're triplets.

I tried 3/4 (and 9/8 out of curiosity), and the notation looked inconsistent rhythmically. Only 11/8 looked consistent. I still have to play around with the transition part at 0:57 - 1:01.

I really can't think of it in any other way. It is either my original answer of 5/8 or 15/16 without triplets.

3/4 has a beat too little, 4/4 and 9/8 have a beat too much.

If there are rests, they work as shown in the lower example.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y107/Fish_Wet/rhythm-1.jpg

Final answer

Note that those few bars were most likely written separately and spliced in as audio rather than one continuous score. I'm almost certain that the tempo is altered too.

Therefore, making the sheet music easy for brncao's audience to play is more important than what's most correct. I suppose you could try to figure out what's actually correct if the song was really written in one piece, but for brncao's purposes I don't think that's necessary.


For me, it's one of these two at reduced tempo:

1. 4/4: three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet, followed by an 8th rest, repeat
(which assumes the bars come in on a down beat)

2. first repetition is 7/8: three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet
second repetition is 4/4: 8th rest, followed by three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet
(which assumes the preceding bar got cut 1 beat short i.e. 7/8 rather than 8/8)


The second one is how I experience it. First one is easier.

Sorry for the wait. I was working on another song.


I really can't think of it in any other way. It is either my original answer of 5/8 or 15/16 without triplets.

3/4 has a beat too little, 4/4 and 9/8 have a beat too much.

If there are rests, they work as shown in the lower example.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y107/Fish_Wet/rhythm-1.jpg

Final answer
I was so excited when I tried your suggestion, but after playing it side by side, the rhythm was off by a single 16th beat! :cry: The first 3 8th notes was a little too quick. Tempo is set correctly (changed from quarter to dotted 8th at 160bpm). The rhythm got back on track on the 3rd measure when it repeats the phrase again, but samething happened before; off by a 16th beat. <- I'm saying this so you don't believe it's a tempo problem.


Note that those few bars were most likely written separately and spliced in as audio rather than one continuous score. I'm almost certain that the tempo is altered too.

Therefore, making the sheet music easy for brncao's audience to play is more important than what's most correct. I suppose you could try to figure out what's actually correct if the song was really written in one piece, but for brncao's purposes I don't think that's necessary.


For me, it's one of these two at reduced tempo:

1. 4/4: three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet, followed by an 8th rest, repeat
(which assumes the bars come in on a down beat)

2. first repetition is 7/8: three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet
second repetition is 4/4: 8th rest, followed by three 8th notes, followed by a quarter note triplet
(which assumes the preceding bar got cut 1 beat short i.e. 7/8 rather than 8/8)


The second one is how I experience it. First one is easier.
The problem was with the first 3 8th notes as mentioned above.

The only time sig that worked was 11/8 for the first 2 phrases. After the second phrase (the transition), there are 19 8th beats total. Should I keep it 19/8 or divide it up?

I'm pretty set on my solution for this (sorry for the late response).

14549

(I'm pretty certain that it's a 5/4 time sig. I'm really not sure about the 8/4 measure though, which is 0:57 - 1:00 in the video.)

I doubt that the time signatures throughout this part change more than I have above - I've been counting 1.2.3 + 1.2 while listening to the track, which is the pattern consistent with the melody and the percussion in this part.