Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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therealthing89
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Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:05 pm

Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Post by therealthing89 » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:13 pm

My apologies for the novice post here; I'm a long-time other-platform user who's digging in to working with Ableton Live 10 for the first time. I'm programming a band's playback audio (backing tracks) and MIDI commands for lighting (sending to LightKey), and I've run into one issue (so far) that I'm struggling to solve:

I imported stems from a song. The BPM is variable and changes every bar (nothing overly intentional that counts as a "tempo change", just typical human drifting). I already have a click track that I created elsewhere reflecting the original album version's drum track. I believe I understand how to warp this audio in Ableton to fit a constant BPM, but I actually want to do the opposite: keep the original tempo fluctuations from the record (as reflected in that click track I mentioned) and make Ableton follow that.
How can I make Ableton's grid (and host metronome) reflect this click track with its variable BPM?

Is there a Beat Detective-like function in Ableton that can automate this? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here, so please go easy on me if that's the case :)
Thank you!

pottering
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Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 am

Re: Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Post by pottering » Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:56 pm

You warp the audio so it fits a constant BPM (seems you already did this), then you set that Clip as Tempo Leader.

https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/audio ... r-follower

It will actually play unwarped, with the whole Set following its tempo changes (you can see the changes as Automation in the Master Track in Arrangement View).

(EDIT: To warp the audio for that, I just select the whole Clip, add Warp Markers to all auto-detected transients, then quantize 100% to the grid division that feels appropriate.)
♥♥♥

therealthing89
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:05 pm

Re: Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Post by therealthing89 » Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:36 am

Thanks so much for your helpful reply- I really appreciate that!

I tried to follow what you recommended:
1) Dragged the original click track in (which already has the tempo fluctuations reflected in it) and have it set to Warp & Leader
2) I manually double-clicked on all transients where there were printed clicks to create Warp Markers on the transients I wanted
3) I highlighted (beat-by-beat) and deleted any transient markers that I didn't use as Warp Markers (meaning any transient markers that didn't line up with a printed click on the imported track)
4) I selected all and quantized to quarter note at 100%.

What I have now is the audio file playing back at its original tempo as imported- no changes there. However, visually, the printed clicks in my audio file and the grid don't line up, and there's a bunch of space between a lot of the printed clicks. When I try to insert MIDI notes on all quarters, my printed click and those MIDI notes don't line up, either.

Does anyone have an idea of where I'm going wrong here and why I'm having such a hard time creating a custom tempo map based on the audio I'm importing and its warp markers? Am I REALLY missing the entire point of using Ableton by trying so hard to get the grid and all other tracks to follow this variable-BPM imported track? Should I just warp this variable-BPM track to a constant BPM/locked grid to make life easier?
Thanks in advance for any further assistance :)

siliconarc
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Re: Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Post by siliconarc » Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:48 am

Seems as though you’re missing the important first step: Warp the tempo-drifting guide track so that it plays quantized (no variations in tempo, locked to grid). Once your audio's start and end points are on-grid, select the audio and right-click > Quantize. Should get you fairly close without having to manually alter all warp markers. Once you've adjusted any incorrectly warped makers, change the clip to Leader.

therealthing89
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:05 pm

Re: Help getting Ableton's grid/metronome to follow a track with variable tempo

Post by therealthing89 » Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:22 pm

Thank you so much for pointing that out to me! You're right, I was misinterpreting that step; I just hadn't been able to wrap my brain around the idea of working to get it quantized to the existing grid FIRST and THEN switching over to "Leader". It makes sense to me now within the context of Ableton. I'm sure it seems simple to regular Ableton users, but I'd never have thought to quantize to an incorrect tempo first and then "fix" it with one tap of the Leader button. Understanding this process has actually helped me grasp Ableton a little better overall :)
Thanks again to both of you for your help.

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