Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Syncable tempo/cadence ratios
Turns out, there are certain tempo/cadence ratios that can point you to tempos likely to sync to your cadence — or cadences likely to sync to a given tempo.
Let B = the musical tempo in bpm — preferably the one you tap out yourself without thinking. And let C = the cadence of interest in rpm. Then look for B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2 for synchronous pedaling.
The unexpected 4/3 ratio produces somewhat weaker syncs than the other two. But with very strong grooves and some practice, the syncs are still plenty strong enough to produce good melds.
At C = 90 rpm, that means music with tempos of B = 90, 120, and 180 bpm. Lots of music I like out there with these tempos — especially near 120 bpm.
But nothing magic about 90 rpm. If your preferred cadence C = 80 rpm, then look for B = 80, 107, or 160 bpm music to sync with it. Not a lot of music I like at 80 or 160 bpm out there, but a good bit near 107 bpm.
Conversely, if you find a tune you love with a really strong groove at 130 bpm (fairly common), a cadence of 130 rpm is probably out of the question, but you still might be able to sync with it at 65 or 98 rpm.
Another way to go about finding syncable music is to specify an acceptable cadence band and then map out the corresponding tempo bands at B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2.
This is the band map for my low-torque cadence band at 80-100 rpm, here shown in orange. Cadence C is on the horizontal axis, tempo B on the vertical.
The red, blue, and green lines correspond to B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2, respectively. The red horizontal tempo band covers all the tempos my cadence band can sync to at B/C = 1. Ditto for the blue tempo band at B/C = 4/3, and the green tempo band at B/C = 2.
There's a narrow tempo band gap at B = 100-110 bpm and a wider one at B = 130-160 bpm. But this map shows that most tempos from 80 to 200 bpm are syncable from a cadence band of C = 80-100 rpm.
Turns out, there are certain tempo/cadence ratios that can point you to tempos likely to sync to your cadence — or cadences likely to sync to a given tempo.
Let B = the musical tempo in bpm — preferably the one you tap out yourself without thinking. And let C = the cadence of interest in rpm. Then look for B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2 for synchronous pedaling.
The unexpected 4/3 ratio produces somewhat weaker syncs than the other two. But with very strong grooves and some practice, the syncs are still plenty strong enough to produce good melds.
At C = 90 rpm, that means music with tempos of B = 90, 120, and 180 bpm. Lots of music I like out there with these tempos — especially near 120 bpm.
But nothing magic about 90 rpm. If your preferred cadence C = 80 rpm, then look for B = 80, 107, or 160 bpm music to sync with it. Not a lot of music I like at 80 or 160 bpm out there, but a good bit near 107 bpm.
Conversely, if you find a tune you love with a really strong groove at 130 bpm (fairly common), a cadence of 130 rpm is probably out of the question, but you still might be able to sync with it at 65 or 98 rpm.
Another way to go about finding syncable music is to specify an acceptable cadence band and then map out the corresponding tempo bands at B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2.
This is the band map for my low-torque cadence band at 80-100 rpm, here shown in orange. Cadence C is on the horizontal axis, tempo B on the vertical.
The red, blue, and green lines correspond to B/C ratios of 1, 4/3, and 2, respectively. The red horizontal tempo band covers all the tempos my cadence band can sync to at B/C = 1. Ditto for the blue tempo band at B/C = 4/3, and the green tempo band at B/C = 2.
There's a narrow tempo band gap at B = 100-110 bpm and a wider one at B = 130-160 bpm. But this map shows that most tempos from 80 to 200 bpm are syncable from a cadence band of C = 80-100 rpm.
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