While Pitch change is represented in +/- semitone steps, Speed change is represented in % which isn't quite as 'musicical' a context.
On the assumption that the BPM has been set (manually or via a tag on import) for a song in the Song Information in ST, would it be possible to have an option to have Speed change represented in BPM?
The scenario I often encounter is that I'll bring a new backing track to rehearsal, and we might decide that it needs to be a few bpm faster/slower. I would then re-cut the backing track at a different BPM from my DAW.
With ST3 as it is now, while I can speed up/down by X%, ultimately, when I go to re-cut the backing track at the desired tempo, I still have to then calculate X% change from the original tempo, enter that into the DAW, potentially round it to a more sensible whole number BPM value just for neatness, then re-cut the backing track.
What would be nice is if there was an option in ST to reflect the Speed change slider in BPM increments (or 0.1, or 0.5, or some sensible gradation) of a BPM, where the center point (i.e. "0" point) is the current tempo in BPM. The scale could either be reletive (i.e. -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5) or it could take the BPM from the song information panel and show it on the slider so you are choosing specific BPM values (e.g. my song is as 120bpm so slider shows, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125).
This way, if I have to test different tempos, we're talking in BPM values which the rest of the musicians would better comprehend as compared to "this one is 3% faster". When we then find the tempo we agree on, I have an actual tempo in BPM that I can then just plug into my DAW and then re-cut my backing track.
Not a ground breaking feature request, just a small quality of life refinement 🙂