Understanding the Difference Between Music Time and Absolute Time in Cakewalk Next

When working in Cakewalk Next, understanding how your clips respond to tempo changes can save you a ton of headaches down the line. This is where the Time Base setting comes in; it’s all about whether your clips follow the beat of your music or stick to the real-world clock.

What Is Time Base?

Each clip in your project has a Time Base property that determines how it behaves when you change the project tempo. There are two types:

Musical Time

• Measured in: Measures, Beats, and Ticks (M:B:T)
• What it follows: The musical grid of your project

If you change the tempo, clips set to Musical Time will move faster or slower depending on the tempo you've set, but they’ll stay in the same musical position — like "beat 3 of bar 10."

Best for: Loops, MIDI, and anything that should stay in sync with the rhythm of the music.

Absolute Time

• Measured in: Hours, Minutes, and Seconds
• How it works: The clip stays locked to its absolute position in time.
• If you change the tempo: The clip’s musical position (M:B:T) will move, but its location in minutes and seconds will stay put.

Use this when your clip needs to stay in place no matter what. Great for sound effects, voiceovers, or field recordings that don’t need to follow the project tempo.

Let’s say you have a voiceover at exactly 0:30 into your project:

• If it’s set to Absolute Time, and you speed up the tempo — the voiceover will still play at 0:30. Perfect!
• But if it’s set to Music Time, that same voiceover might now play earlier or later depending on the tempo change. Not ideal for narration or synced audio cues!

Now imagine you’ve got a MIDI drum loop sitting on bar 5:

• Set it to Music Time, and no matter how fast or slow you go, that loop will always hit at bar 5. That’s exactly what you want for musical parts.

How to Switch Between Music Time and Absolute Time

To change a clip’s Time Base in Cakewalk Next:

1. Select the clip you want to adjust.
2. Right-click on the clip to open the context menu.
3. In the menu, you’ll see an option that says either “Set to Musical Time” or “Set to Absolute Time”, depending on the clip’s current setting.