Tap Tempo and Warping?

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Matt_Quinn
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Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:47 pm

Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:20 pm

I've been delving into warping a bit more lately, but for the life of me I don't understand how tap tempo figures into the equation. The relevant manual section says:

Warp From Here (Start At ...) directs Auto-Warp to use the current Live Set’s tempo as
a starting point for tempo tracking. The strategy here is as follows:
1. Deactivate the Warp switch for the clip so that it plays unwarped;
2. Use the Control Bar’s Tap Tempo button to tap along, thereby setting the
Live Set’s tempo to match that of the clip;
3. Turn warping on again and use the Warp From Here (Start At ...) command
to tell Auto-Warp to use your tapped tempo as a reference.



...which all makes sense, except when I try to do it, the playback of the song I'm trying to warp jumps all over the place making it impossible to accurately tap the tempo out. I can play back the tune I'm trying to warp in iTunes or Winamp separately while I tap the tempo to Live, but I feel like I must be doing something wrong to not be able to get it to work right in Ableton. Advice? Thanks in advance.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

Warrior Bob
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Location: Central Coast, California
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Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Warrior Bob » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:30 pm

Yep, you most likely are! If your clip is changing speed as the project's tempo changes, then it's still got its warp switch enabled. That'll be the "WARP" button on the Sample tab in the Clip View. I usually do this all with Session View clips rather than in the Arrangement View since I think it's cleaner.

With warp disabled, the clip will play at its original speed regardless of what the set is doing around it - just like if you were playing it in Winamp. So you can change the set's tempo to match the clip until you're pretty sure you have it right, then you re-engage the warp engine and use the new tempo you've found. You're close, you just need to make sure that warping is truly disabled while you're playing the clip back and finding the correct tempo.

In addition to tap tempo, I also like to engage the metronome and try to beatmatch the set to the playing clip, DJ-style. I've found this gets me the closest to the correct time, and then it's usually only a few warp markers away from finished.

Best of luck! Hopefully this clarified it a bit.

prebentious
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Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by prebentious » Wed Aug 15, 2012 12:25 am

Make sure the clip is playing in session view, not arrange

boderekstits
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Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by boderekstits » Wed Aug 15, 2012 4:22 am

prebentious wrote:Make sure the clip is playing in session view, not arrange
this. it must be in session view to work properly.

Matt_Quinn
Posts: 521
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:47 pm

Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Wed Aug 15, 2012 1:51 pm

boderekstits wrote:
prebentious wrote:Make sure the clip is playing in session view, not arrange
this. it must be in session view to work properly.


Huh. This must be the issue because I'm always working in the arrangement window when doing this. I like to see how the whole song sits on the timeline. Why the heck doesn't it work in arrangement? Oh well, at least I'm not crazy, can't wait to get home & try it out. Thanks guys.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

Matt_Quinn
Posts: 521
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:47 pm

Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:33 pm

So that worked perfectly, thanks everyone. Life just got a lot simpler.

Am I crazy, or does it not mention this in the manual? I fell like I've read that thing top to bottom about a million times.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

Warrior Bob
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Location: Central Coast, California
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Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Warrior Bob » Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:47 pm

I also though this worked in Arrangement! I could have sworn I used to disable warping for Arrangement clips and move the timeline around them, but I have to have been mistaken.

Glad it got figured out though, thanks to everyone who posted.

Tennor
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Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:19 pm

Re: Tap Tempo and Warping?

Post by Tennor » Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:22 pm

I have the same problem and I'm in "session view" and "warp" is off. I have just noticed that lives "hard disc overload indicator" flashes when I scroll the tempo which makes no sense because I'm only playing one track of audio.

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