How to prepare tracks with BPM variences for live sets?

[Kieranh]

I've decided to switch from cd mixing to using Live with macbook apc40 ipad etc. for my dj sets. Whilst preparing and warping tracks to the correct bpms I came across the following problem.

I was loading a track (Dada Life - Happy Violence ) where at the end of the second breakdown the bpm slows down. This makes using the track near to impossible without slicing it up or buggering up the track by re-warping a major part of the track making it sound lame. Has anyone come across this issue before and managed to find a workable solution?

[Rabalder]

Be creative!

[agent314]

MIDI map the tempo control, warp the tracks appropriately and do it by hand?

[Warrior Bob]

MIDI map the tempo control, warp the tracks appropriately and do it by hand?

This is what I do in my little DJing experiments. It has worked surprisingly well, although the warping artifacts can be a bit much on some songs.

[benoit-1842]

Me what I do when I have two songs with different BPM is the song that will play next I put the warp to off so the song is playing at is native bpm. And to pass from a song to another to make it more clean I put a little effect like auto-filter in between song or one that I have created with M4l.

[Kieranh]

Thanks for your ideas! I'm going to play around with it and will let you know if I come up with something cool

[FrankieP]

Back in the day, tracks with 2 different tempos (starts out at the original BPM and slows down at the breakdown) were a Godsend especially for seamlessly going from a house set to a hiphop/rap/r&b set. I used to separate these from the other vinyl so I could easily whip them out if I wanted to slow things down a bit. I remember a couple of remix services do these edits regularly (DMC, Hot Tracks, Ultimix, Discotech to name a few). It just makes me wonder why, in today's digital world and technological advancement, it actually creates a problem for a DJ. Automatic beatmatching? Then learn to ride the pitch faders manually I always say.

Speaking of DMC and tracks which slows down at the breakdown, is anybody here old enough to remember that classic remake of "Pump Up The Volume" by Greed? It was a mashup of that horn riff from The Nightcrawler's "Push The Feeling On" and Reel 2 Real's "The New Anthem" bassline. That breakdown still sends shivers down my spine like it did way back in '94.

[Fullofkittens]

I encountered the same problem today.

My solution:
-find the moment where the track starts to slow down (I figure it's the beginning of bar 101 in "Happy Violence (Original Mix)", or maybe bar 105.)
-put a warp marker on the downbeat of that bar.
-find the moment where the song returns to its original tempo (in the case of "Happy Violence" it's a series of 4 synth chords leading into the drop.) Put a warp marker where that starts.
-drag that warp marker to the downbeat of the bar closest to where it would be if the song were not warped at all (in this case, bar 114).
-delete all the transients (ctrl-shift-del) between those two spots so no warping is going on during the tempo change.

After that you can warp the rest of the song normally. The song isn't *exactly* right during the tempo change (because it's a fraction of a second longer or shorter than it would have been during the tempo-changing region) but it's not something anyone is going to notice.

[kcordy824]

Thats funny i just noticed this today i was trying to mix that song into an ableton dj set and after the second choirs the tempo just shot up and it played the track really fast