Ableton Forum

I’m making a track with music, combined with spoken word. I want the spoken word audio clips not to change tempo, so I need to unwarp them. In my arrangement I have many different tempos, and when I move my unwarped audio clips across them, the time length of these audio clips change. So let’s say in 120 bpm I set the length to 0:04, and when I move that clip to another tempo, the time changes to 0:02:800. So my audio is cropped, and I can start over again with selecting which part of the clip I want to use… This doesn’t make sense, right? If I set the time of an unwarped clip to 0:04, I mean 0:04, right? No matter what kind of tempo it’s in! It’s so annoying… I have looked everywhere for a setting that does something like “keep fixed time length”, but no luck. Am I missing something? Or does anyone know a workaround for this?

KayleighBeard wrote:I’m making a track with music, combined with spoken word. I want the spoken word audio clips not to change tempo, so I need to unwarp them. In my arrangement I have many different tempos, and when I move my unwarped audio clips across them, the time length of these audio clips change. So let’s say in 120 bpm I set the length to 0:04, and when I move that clip to another tempo, the time changes to 0:02:800. So my audio is cropped, and I can start over again with selecting which part of the clip I want to use… This doesn’t make sense, right? If I set the time of an unwarped clip to 0:04, I mean 0:04, right? No matter what kind of tempo it’s in! It’s so annoying… I have looked everywhere for a setting that does something like “keep fixed time length”, but no luck. Am I missing something? Or does anyone know a workaround for this?

I don't know of a good workaround, but I think you need to understand the clip in itself is indeed unaffected by tempo changes when unwarped. It's the resulting placement on the timeline that adapts to the tempo, not the clip. Understanding this may guide you towards a workaround.

I'm sympathetic to what you want to achieve here, but that's all I have for now.

One could try to remove as much silence and unnecessary words as possible from the speech clip when working in the faster parts of the arrangement. That'd be my approach to a workaround.

Possible FYI...You can extend out the clip edge to re-expose the ends of the clips audio wave, once it has been moved to the area where the tempo is faster.

IIRC in arrangement view, the unwarped clips count in bars does not change when moved, just the amount of time the clip plays as determined by beats per minute at that specific tempo.

KayleighBeard wrote:So let’s say in 120 bpm I set the length to 0:04, and when I move that clip to another tempo, the time changes to 0:02:800. So my audio is cropped,

I can't find a full solution for the moment, but I did find something interesting that could help you half the time.

What you describe only happens when moving an unwarped clip from a lower bpm zone to a higher bpm zone - for example 120 bpm to 200 bpm. If you move a clip from a higher bpm zone to a lower bpm zone - for example from 120 bpm to 60 bpm - the clip stays the same time length.

Da hand wrote: What you describe only happens when moving an unwarped clip from a lower bpm zone to a higher bpm zone - for example 120 bpm to 200 bpm. If you move a clip from a higher bpm zone to a lower bpm zone - for example from 120 bpm to 60 bpm - the clip stays the same time length.

Ok, I've just tried that as it sounded weird. You're only half-right. What you describe only happens if you reselect the clip.
But If you select your clip, move it from 200 to 120 bpm, keep the selection as it is, and move it back to 200bpm, you get the same length as when started.
So here the "translated" length is not the clip's length per se, but the selection's length. Not the most straightforward thing, I reckon.