# Bars and Beats

Capo's built-in beat detection engine can detect the beats and bars of your music, helping you quickly set regions for looping and practice.

Capo's beat detection is able to correctly identify the downbeat (i.e. the location of the 1st beat in each bar) for most songs, even with some drift in the tempo over the course of the song. When it doesn't, Capo provides some controls to help you adjust Capo's detected results.

## Time Signature

#### Change the time signature

- Reveal the Song Settings sidebar
- Select the Beats tab
- Choose from the list of time signatures

Note: Selecting a different time signature will change the bars and beats displayed on the timeline immediately. You can undo this operation (and other beat-modifying operations) if you make a mistake.

## Adjusting the downbeat

When Capo fails to identify the downbeat correctly in your song, you can shift it left or right in eighth note increments.

#### Shift the downbeat

- Choose Beats > Shift Downbeat Left, or choose Beats > Shift Downbeat Right as needed
- You can also press the `[` and `]` (left or right square brackets) while holding the command key to do the same

# Related Topics

- Using Regions
- Looping
- Metronome and Count-in