I don't understand how to use "Project Tempo" correctly

[FluMusic]

So when I'm composing, I don't start a song by immediately setting the project tempo/bpm before I even start recording anything. That would make no sense. I sit down, I play something on the piano, and that clip is the foundation of the song.

At some point, when I need the metronome, I attempt to set the project tempo/metronome to the accurate bpm of my song. I do this by finding the songs bpm, usually on the free sites where you tap the spacebar to get an accurate bpm.

However, I cannot figure out how to change the project tempo without also altering the tempo of all the clips in the project!

As soon as I change the project tempo, ALL the recorded clips change along with it to some bizarre tempo. It's like the program attempts to match the clips to your "new" project tempo. I can't figure out how to set the project tempo/metronome independent of my clips, how to delink or decouple the clips from the project tempo. Even if I copy all the clips, the way they are, before changing the project tempo, as soon as I paste the clips they are all altered to some strange new tempo.

How do I use the project tempo setting correctly, I just want to set the project tempo to match my song's tempo and not mess everything up in the process. Also, it seems the metronome cannot be set to an alternate bpm than that of the project tempo. This would be a nice feature to have.

Thank you for all the help

[TrevsAudio]

I assume you have established the tempo required (bpm)?

In that case, just hit Ctrl A to select everything in your project, go to the sound tab and select 'Use Project Tempo'. That way all will conform even if you change the project tempo.
Hope this helps.

[vizionheiry]

As soon as I change the project tempo, ALL the recorded clips change along with it to some bizarre tempo. It's like the program attempts to match the clips to your "new" project tempo.

Under the Mix Menu, in the fourth section, uncheck Auto Beatmatch. Also you can uncheck Project Tempo in the sound tab. This makes your audio clip independent of the project bpm. Also you can tap the tempo in project to get a bpm. You can also see the bpm of your file on the Sound tab then set as your project's tempo.

[Acoustica Greg]

In general, just pay attention to how an audio clip is set on the sound tab. Is it set to "Use Project Tempo"? Is that what you want? If you don't want it to try to use the project tempo, select Time Stretch instead and leave that setting at 100% for no tempo change to the clip. If that's what you want.

The tricky part about "Use Project Tempo" is that some sounds don't have any tempo data stored in them, or the tempo is hard to detect, in which case you'll have to figure it out on your own. You can hold down the Ctrl key and drag the end of a clip to manually time stretch it.