# Passing the "Beat" of a song to a parameter in UE4

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097>\
**Category:** Unreal Engine\
**Created:** [April 22, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097 "2021-04-22T20:16:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SonikSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@SonikSky](https://qa.fmod.com/u/SonikSky)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097/1 "2021-04-22T20:16:18Z")

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Hi,

I’m trying to think of a way I could cause a pulse in animation by reading beat of the music via FMOD. The music isn’t procedural, so I was thinking that I could at least make some type of low-end gate that sends a callback whenever it is over the threshold.

Is there a reliable way to do this in FMOD? I know I could just code in the BPM for each song manually… But it would be cool to just kinda use the music to alter things in the game slightly.

I haven’t set anything like this up before so any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you,

Jeremy

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**Author:** ![Alcibiade](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/alcibiade/32/4284_2.png) [@Alcibiade](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Alcibiade)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097/2 "2021-04-22T21:19:10Z")

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Hi!  
You should check [this doc chapter](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-ue4?version=2.0&page=user-guide.html#callbacks).  
Is that what you’re looking for?

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**Author:** ![Eskal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f08c70/32.png) [@Eskal](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Eskal)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097/3 "2021-04-29T14:33:04Z")

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Hey,  
You can Bind Event to On Timeline Beat, which gives access to Beats, but also Bar, Position, Tempo and Time Signature.

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**Author:** ![SonikSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@SonikSky](https://qa.fmod.com/u/SonikSky)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2021, 3:31am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097/4 "2021-04-30T03:31:01Z")

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Hi,

That kind of helps. I believe the beat has to be written in the timeline or does FMOD intelligently read it like a BPM counter?

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**Author:** ![Alcibiade](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/alcibiade/32/4284_2.png) [@Alcibiade](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Alcibiade)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2021, 7:03am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/passing-the-beat-of-a-song-to-a-parameter-in-ue4/17097/5 "2021-04-30T07:03:35Z")

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FMOD gives the correct beat without having anything more to do, as far as the tempo marker is correct.