I'm not new to Ableton Live, but I'm new to using it as a DJ platform. This warping/beatmatching thing has me a bit perplexed. I think I've got a handle on warping a basic dance tune with a consistent tempo with minimal effort.
But what's the best method for dealing with a track that has a tempo change (mid-song)?
As a particular example, I'm looking at the Black Eyed Peas "Imma Be" which starts at 92 bpm then ramps up to 122 bpm. Doing what I've been doing, I warp it and it's working fine at 92 bpm, then of course while playing it back at 92 bpm it sounds great... until the tempo is supposed to increase. The song just stays slow, and I can of course manipulate the tempo manually and hope I get it "about right". Is there a better method? Some way to automate the tempo change within the track's warp markers or something else I'm not getting?
I do know that I could split the second half of the song into another clip, and automate a tempo change via the Master track, but that gives me an abrupt 92 -> 122 change, and I'd like it to ramp up gradually as it is supposed to in the original recording.
Perhaps I've had my head too deep into this warping thing and I'm missing something obvious. Live's warping and time stretching ability is amazing, but why am I so troubled about playing this clip as it's "supposed" to sound? I'd love it if I just played the clip and Live's tempo adjusted accordingly. Is this possible?
Thanks for your feedback.
dj warping a song with tempo change
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sublimelite
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:19 am
- Location: Hilton Head Island, SC
dj warping a song with tempo change
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sublimelite™
sublimelite™
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
I've been curious about gradual tempo changes myself. But I did just think of something.
You could divide it into 3 clips.
Clip 1. default tempo
Clip 2. warp marker (but pay no attention to where it is lining up to the song) from the beginning of the tempo change, to the end, using only a beginning warp marker. Make sure that the end marker is on a bar (of the ableton grid) so that you will be quantized, you may have to drag back and forth a bit. but it should be a nice even length, the tempo actually won't matter. You then set that tempo on the Scene trigger. This will cause that clip to play at its default unwarped tempo, even though you have the warp markers there.
Clip 3. Tempo of last part of track -> Change Scene tempo.
The hard part is, making sure you remember to hit the Scene trigger at the exact moment that the first section ends (or you could have the first section on loop, so you could hit the Scene trigger whenever you want to).
Then your tempo raising part will play. Then hit the next Scene launch button for the 3rd part to play, once again timing is critical.
It should all play out. the only problem is if you intended to have anything mix With that part that raises in tempo.
I'd be more than happy for you to consider all of that and then completely change it to your own liking
In the end it comes down to what makes most sense for you.
You could divide it into 3 clips.
Clip 1. default tempo
Clip 2. warp marker (but pay no attention to where it is lining up to the song) from the beginning of the tempo change, to the end, using only a beginning warp marker. Make sure that the end marker is on a bar (of the ableton grid) so that you will be quantized, you may have to drag back and forth a bit. but it should be a nice even length, the tempo actually won't matter. You then set that tempo on the Scene trigger. This will cause that clip to play at its default unwarped tempo, even though you have the warp markers there.
Clip 3. Tempo of last part of track -> Change Scene tempo.
The hard part is, making sure you remember to hit the Scene trigger at the exact moment that the first section ends (or you could have the first section on loop, so you could hit the Scene trigger whenever you want to).
Then your tempo raising part will play. Then hit the next Scene launch button for the 3rd part to play, once again timing is critical.
It should all play out. the only problem is if you intended to have anything mix With that part that raises in tempo.
I'd be more than happy for you to consider all of that and then completely change it to your own liking
In the end it comes down to what makes most sense for you.-
pepezabala
- Posts: 3503
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:29 pm
- Location: In Berlin, finally
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
If I had to play the whole song, the I would just not warp it. There is music that is not supposed to get beatmatched.
If you want to use parts of the song, then warp them into several clips and mix them with other stuff. If you just want to play the whole song, don't beatmatch it. Fade in - fade out, that should be enough.
If you want to use parts of the song, then warp them into several clips and mix them with other stuff. If you just want to play the whole song, don't beatmatch it. Fade in - fade out, that should be enough.
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pepezabala
- Posts: 3503
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:29 pm
- Location: In Berlin, finally
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
Or another possibility: warp it, and play it from arrangement. There you can set the clip to "master", then the global tempo will follow the tempo changes of the song. You can then have other clips playing along. It might require to put a lot of warp markers (on every bar or even every beat) during the tempo change to get it playing smoothly.
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sublimelite
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:19 am
- Location: Hilton Head Island, SC
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
First off, thanks for the replies and good ideas!
Shortly after I posted, I got to thinking about yur2die4's approach of splitting into three sections. I "unwarped" the middle section so that it played correctly, and set the tempo on the first and last sections by the scene. (92 bpm on the first, 122 bpm on the last) The challenge is indeed launching the scenes at the right moment, and I'm really looking for a more automated approach. I fooled around with Follow Actions, but ran into difficulty with timing the transition from the 2nd (unwarped) clip to the 3rd (warped 122bpm) clip. One problem was the transition wouldn't happen at the exact moment I needed, and the other issue was the 3rd clip wouldn't jump to 122bpm because it wasn't using the Scene trigger to launch it.
If there were a way to better sync the Follow Action from section 2->3, that would be good, and maybe if I follow yur2die4's recommendation to quantize the clip, that solves one problem. But there still seems to be no way to have the section 3 clip affect the master tempo, at least in Session View, without me doing a manual trigger of the Scene clip.
That's where I like pepezabala's idea of using the Arrangement View and a "master" clip. As someone who uses Session view 99.999% of the time, I'd not even thought about this. I'll have to experiment a bit more and see how this fits into my workflow, but I think it should work.
Thanks for the help!
Shortly after I posted, I got to thinking about yur2die4's approach of splitting into three sections. I "unwarped" the middle section so that it played correctly, and set the tempo on the first and last sections by the scene. (92 bpm on the first, 122 bpm on the last) The challenge is indeed launching the scenes at the right moment, and I'm really looking for a more automated approach. I fooled around with Follow Actions, but ran into difficulty with timing the transition from the 2nd (unwarped) clip to the 3rd (warped 122bpm) clip. One problem was the transition wouldn't happen at the exact moment I needed, and the other issue was the 3rd clip wouldn't jump to 122bpm because it wasn't using the Scene trigger to launch it.
If there were a way to better sync the Follow Action from section 2->3, that would be good, and maybe if I follow yur2die4's recommendation to quantize the clip, that solves one problem. But there still seems to be no way to have the section 3 clip affect the master tempo, at least in Session View, without me doing a manual trigger of the Scene clip.
That's where I like pepezabala's idea of using the Arrangement View and a "master" clip. As someone who uses Session view 99.999% of the time, I'd not even thought about this. I'll have to experiment a bit more and see how this fits into my workflow, but I think it should work.
Thanks for the help!
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sublimelite™
sublimelite™
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
Hey, I'd really like to know what you ended up doing in this case.
I've just recently started DJing with Live and have been wondering how this could be done in session view (or even how while playing a set in session view one could switch to arrangement view and do it that way)... Let me know what you came up with if you would brother thanks!
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I've just recently started DJing with Live and have been wondering how this could be done in session view (or even how while playing a set in session view one could switch to arrangement view and do it that way)... Let me know what you came up with if you would brother thanks!
$
Re: dj warping a song with tempo change
If you are in arrangement view, warp your the whole song at 92bpm. then go to the bottom of the arrengement view window and click on the little arrow that says "Master",then click on "Mixer", then click on "Song Tempo". That will put a redline on the bottom of the arrangement view window. That red line is where you can change the tempo of the song. Just double click on the red line where you want the tempo to change and it will add a little red dot. You can then drag that little red dot up or down so you can speed it up or slow it down. Add more red dots to speed up or slow down the song like the original version. It is just like adjusting the volume except you are adjusting the bpm. When you are done, go to the top of the screen and click on "file" and export audio, that will save your warped song with the bpm changes.