Can tempo bending be assigned to a mod wheel?

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charlottevoice
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:15 pm

Can tempo bending be assigned to a mod wheel?

Post by charlottevoice » Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:32 pm

Hey there,

I am a classical composer running Live 11 on a Mac with OS 10.15.7. Unlike most other styles of music, classical music often utilizes the bending of tempo as a means of musical expression... Classical music doesn't just change tempo at different points in the music (which it does), but also bends the tempo for effect - for example it may get much slower during the end of a climactic phrase to stretch out a high note, and then start accelerating again. For the way I write music, building musical scenes in Ableton Live has always been a great way to work for me, but I have never figured out if there is a way to automate tempo bending to pull the tempo in these ways. The ideal way for me to do this would be the same way one might bend pitch with a mod wheel... drag the wheel down to slow the tempo up, push it up to make it accelerate. Does anyone know if there is any way to configure Live to do this, and if so how I might accomplish it?

Thanks in advance.

Roberto

pottering
Posts: 1802
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 am

Re: Can tempo bending be assigned to a mod wheel?

Post by pottering » Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:42 pm

There are 2 Nudge tempo buttons, up and down, you can MIDI or key assign them to mod wheel, but it acts like a on/off switch (when it is above the middle it is "on"), probably better to assign 2 buttons to those.

Right-clicking the BPM in the top left should show a menu with Automation, MIDI assign and Key Assign options, it is definitely possible to MIDI assign CC1 (mod wheel) to the BPM, it is direct, absolute automation though, not relative "bending".

In MIDI/Key Map mode (ctrl/cmd+M or ctrl/cmd+K) there are actually 2 boxes you can assign, Fine and Coarse, maybe Fine works better for "bending".

You can stretch recorded MIDI or Audio by dragging in the top of the Clips, in the area below Scrub Area.

With Audio that is usually called "Warping", which is pretty well-known for Live, but seems many people don't notice you can do the same with MIDI Clips, even with the "empty time" selections between notes.

https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/editi ... te-stretch

Note that it can behave differently if you select notes or just "empty" time.

There is also "Tap Tempo", which is also MIDI/Key assignable.

There is "Tempo Follower", but that needs an audio input, not MIDI/key assignable, probably not what you want.
♥♥♥

charlottevoice
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:15 pm

Re: Can tempo bending be assigned to a mod wheel?

Post by charlottevoice » Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:35 am

Ok, thank you for your reply.

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