8.4. Timeline

Picture showing the Timeline above the Song Ruler.

The majority of songs consist of several parts (intro, verse, chorus ...) and often these parts will have a different tempo. Hydrogen provides an easy way to let you change the tempo at the beginning of any column. This is done by adding Tempo Markers to your song.

To add a Tempo Marker, you first need to show the Timeline by clicking the Grey button containing a black "P". button at the bottom of the Song Editor or via the View element of the Main Menu and enable it using the Grey button containing the black characters "Timeline". button.

[Note]Note

Please note that the Timeline is neither available in Pattern Mode nor in the presence of a JACK Timebase Master.

Now, simply left-click this widget in the middle or upper part and a window will pop up where you can enter the new tempo.

Dialog for entering/altering a BPM Marker. In the two text inputs in at the upper half of the dialog one can specify the "BPM" (top) and the "Bar" (below). Underneath there is a large button titled "Delete BPM Marker". At the bottom there are "Cancel" (left) and "OK" (right) buttons.

Once you have entered the new tempo and clicked OK, the tempo change will show up on the Timeline. If you click the Tempo Marker again you can edit the tempo, change the bar, or delete it.

[Note]Note

When disabling the Timeline using the Grey button containing the black characters "Timeline". button, the tempo resets to the previous value used before enabling the Timeline. This one will also be used for all parts of the song located prior to the first Tempo Marker. To indicate this behavior a special, faint Tempo Marker is shown at the first column that can not be removed by the user. You can, however, overwrite it with your custom tempo by clicking it and placing a regular Tempo Marker on top of it.