Things You'll Need:
- drum machine
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Step 1
Look for the a knob, wheel, slider, or buttons labeled "tempo" on your drum machine. Most drum machines have a wheel that can be turned clockwise or counter-clockwise to adjust tempo. Another common way for a drum machine to adjust tempo is through a set of two buttons, one button will be marked with an arrow pointing up, the other will be marked with a button pointing down.
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Step 2
Decide what kind of song you want to make. Is your song going to be slow or fast? What style of music are you making? Here are some general guidelines. Hip-hop music is generally between 80-100 BPM. A slow ballad may be 60-90 BPM. House music is often 128 BPM, while speedcore exceeds 200 BPM! Remember these are just guidelines for BPM and not hard and fast rules.
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Step 3
Set your tempo. Move the wheel, slider, or push the appropriate buttons to move the tempo up and down. The tempo will normally move in increments of 1 BPM.
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Step 4
Experiment with adjusting your tempo as your song develops. As you develop your song you may realize that you need to up or lower the tempo by a few beats from where you originally set it. As a general rule try to set your tempo as fast as possible without making the music lose it's original feel. For example, if your song started at 80 BPM, try pushing to maybe 85. If the song starts sounding too fast lower it back down. You don't want your song to be so slow that it is agonizing for the lister to get through.
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Step 5
Listen to other songs in the same genre as the song you are working on. It's always a good idea to listen to songs you like. Try to match your tempo to be similar in feel to the style you are trying to emulate. That's all there is to it. Now you know how to adjust the tempo on your drum machine!
