How to use Ableton without tempo?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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Dobebop
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Joined: Sat May 03, 2014 10:48 am

How to use Ableton without tempo?

Post by Dobebop » Sat May 03, 2014 10:55 am

Hello,

I'm french. I have search a lot of about that but I don't find the answer.

How to use Ableton without tempo?

I just whant to star record with one clik and stop when I feel that's the good time with another clik.
I don'tt know the tempo before I create music :)

After that I whant to know if it's possible to choice the quantity of mesurements of this record to Ableton calculate the tempo himself?

Is it possible?

Thanks.

yur2die4
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Location: Menasha, Wisconsin
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Re: How to use Ableton without tempo?

Post by yur2die4 » Sat May 03, 2014 11:11 am

Closest options are either to play with the Looper device or, for midi clips someone made a max4live device that kinda does that too.

Thing is, a longer sequence can fluctuate in so many ways it'd be difficult for Live to make sense of it. So usually you'd have to set a tempo somehow with something shorter first.


liverick
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 11:13 am

Re: How to use Ableton without tempo?

Post by liverick » Sat May 03, 2014 12:45 pm

This might not be quite the same thing you're talking about, but here goes:
Just record (either with or without a click).

Then, set your recorded clip as the master tempo (in the clip properties).

Now, you can go back and warp your recording to the grid. This can be a little bit tedious, but once you get good at it, it doesn't take that long. And if you miss, you can tweak it later.
If you played to sheet music, I highly recommend numbering the bars on the sheet music to match what you recorded. This means, if there's two verses, number the bars for both verses. Matching up Ableton's bar numbers and your music's makes life a lot easier.

Now, Ableton will play anything else (MIDI clips, etc) in time with what you recorded. What you recorded will not change tempo from the way you recorded it. Everything else will follow along.

This is a great way to record something, and then add further virtual instrumentation to your recording.

You can even set up the virtual arrangement first, then record to it, and then do the steps above to match up the virtual instruments to the exact way you played.

Another thing I've found is that having a lower-latency (no more than say 12ms) playback really helps. It's very hard to warp when the cursor on the waveform is visually (roughly) a beat ahead of what you're hearing.

I have used this technique to record my wife playing the piano, and then make it sound as if she's on a concert stage with an orchestra behind her.

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