Syncing strings in 4/4 time at 174bpm

[Spechal]

First, forgive me for my lack of music theory knowledge and terminology. I just started making music with Ableton 3 weeks ago.

I've got a Cello WAV file (called cello C3.wav) that I load into simpler and I play the notes that I'd like, C3, D3, E3, etc...

The problem is that to get the perfect sound I cannot use the grid. I get the perfect sound when the notes are about 1.4 in the bar counter.

Do you know of any techniques to stretch the notes or a trick to figure out what time signature to change this clip to? Does this make any sense?

http://i49.tinypic.com/20fpxy0.png

Thanks for any advice.

[sounddevisor]

I'm going to guess that you are having this problem because the attack on your cello sample is fairly slow. This is common for bowed instruments - cello, violin, viola, etc.

Because of the slow attack, what you are finding is that you have to anticipate quite a lot in order to have the note actually sound where you want it - so if you want a note to sound on the downbeat, you have to play it early, and it actually shows up, in your sequencer, near the end of the previous bar instead of on the downbeat where it really "belongs."

Other than learning to anticipate the timing, I don't think there's a lot you can do about this. You could edit the beginning of the sample so that the sound starts sooner, but it's going to sound very unnatural.

If you really need to use the grid (i.e., quantize what you have played) you might be able to do it like this:
quantize all your cello notes so they start "on the grid" - now they all look like they are "in time" but sound late. Now select all the notes and slide them earlier - with luck you will be able to find the right spot where they sound "in time," even though they will look wrong in the sequencer.

Hope this helps!

[Spechal]

You're probably right. Attack, Release, Decay ... all of which I need to learn more about.

Here is a screenshot of the waveform in Simpler ... I'll tweak things and see if I can get it right.



Thanks for your input!

[Spechal]

I ended up finding a better clip and going from there. Everything snaps to the grid making things a lot easier on me; since I am a nub and all.



Thanks a lot for your information.

[sounddevisor]

Good work, glad you fixed your problem. The screenshot of your new clip looks better, but if you are finding that the attack is now too abrupt, you can always use the envelope controls in Simpler to soften the attack a little.

[Vios]

Compression can help a lot by taking the dynamics out of your sample and helping it be audible much earlier in the sample. A good starting point might be 3ms attack, 75ms release, 6db knee, and a ratio of 2:1. Turn off makeup and bring down the threshold on the compressor until you're getting ~6dbs of compression. Then turn up the volume on the compressor 6db. See if the notes are punching through more clearly and are apparent earlier.

[Mage2k]

Turn off makeup and bring down the threshold on the compressor until you're getting ~6dbs of compression. Then turn up the volume on the compressor 6db.

If you're tweaking to 6db compression and then pushing the output up 6db how is that any different from leaving the makeup gain on and not manually messing with the output gain?