HOW TO: BPM changing on scene launch

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
helixx
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 8:46 pm

HOW TO: BPM changing on scene launch

Post by helixx » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:05 am

i looked around and didn't see a thread on this already so i thought i'd write one up real quick.

there's a pretty easy way to change the tempo of your track at a scene level without fiddling with the tempo control in the upper left.

for the scene name in the master track, hit cmd+R and rename the track to "xxxbpm" and, when the scene is launched, that bpm is automatically selected.

for instance, if i have a tune playing at 109bpm, i can launch a clip that's an atmospheric pad, some sort of ambient transition clip. the next scene would have the scene title "136bpm" and contain a hi hit and duplicate clip of the pad above. as i launch the next scene, the bpm jumps to 136, the hi hat starts ticking away at that beat rate, laying perfectly over the pad sound and away i go mixing in the next song at 136.

weee!

hope this helps somebody.
1.65ghz powerbook 15" | 1.5gb RAM | Ableton Live 6.0.10 | Operator | Korg Zero 4 | Logic Pro 8 | Korg Kontrol49 | Behringer BCF2000 | Alesis Multimix8 Firewire

Clearscreen
Posts: 1743
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2004 5:07 am
Location: Melbourne AU
Contact:

Post by Clearscreen » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:52 am

AWESOME tip!! i love how theres so many things i can keep learning about this program!! it's the gift that keeps on giving :D
Hp Elitebook 2.8Ghz. Live 7.0.14 & Live 8.1.5, XP Pro. and stuff...

Pitch Black
Posts: 6722
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:18 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Post by Pitch Black » Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:02 am

As a further refinement of this trick, if you have your ambient pad clip set to Unwarped and remove the slot button below it, the pad will continue seamlessly instead of restarting as the hihats kick in.

:D
MBP M1Max | Sonoma 14.7 | Live 12.1 | Babyface Pro FS | Push 3T | clump of controllers
Soundcloud
Ableton Certified Trainer

helixx
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 8:46 pm

Post by helixx » Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:32 am

good add, pitch black!

(i bought your cd by the way :) )
1.65ghz powerbook 15" | 1.5gb RAM | Ableton Live 6.0.10 | Operator | Korg Zero 4 | Logic Pro 8 | Korg Kontrol49 | Behringer BCF2000 | Alesis Multimix8 Firewire

Pitch Black
Posts: 6722
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:18 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Post by Pitch Black » Wed Aug 24, 2005 2:21 am

Thanks helixx!! We need all the hard foreign currency we can get!

Didja like it?

helixx
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 8:46 pm

Post by helixx » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:26 pm

hmm... my post got eaten (or i never posted it. oop. its been a busy day).

i like it a lot. i used track 2 in a mix i dj'ed last thursday. i'll probably put one of them in this week too. keep it up man!
1.65ghz powerbook 15" | 1.5gb RAM | Ableton Live 6.0.10 | Operator | Korg Zero 4 | Logic Pro 8 | Korg Kontrol49 | Behringer BCF2000 | Alesis Multimix8 Firewire

brianroche
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Wow, this tip is awesome but ...

Post by brianroche » Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:47 pm

... it does't work for me. I just opened live and tried to do the quick keys, when I'm viewing the clips the CTRL + R combo brings up the render to disk option.

And CTRL + E brings up the remove clip stop option.

Does anyone know why I'm not seeing the same results? I have Live 4 and the manual that came with live says that it should be possible to change the clip name as well. Anyone have any ideas why it's not working for me?

Thanks
Bri ...

robtronik
Posts: 1185
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:16 am
Location: City Of Angels
Contact:

Post by robtronik » Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:54 pm

isn't this specific to Live5?

rob.

brianroche
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Post by brianroche » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:00 pm

Oh my bad sorry. I though it was applicable to Live 4 as well. That would explain why I can't get it to work.
Bri...

brianroche
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Post by brianroche » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:02 pm

Actually, maybe not, I just checked the version of the manual that I have and it says Live 4. The manual talks about this being possible so there must be some setting or something in my scene view that's not on ...

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:15 pm

It works in Live 4 too. Without a doubt :wink:

brianroche
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Post by brianroche » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:26 pm

any ideas why it wouldn't be working for me?

hambone1
Posts: 5346
Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:31 pm
Location: Abu Dhabi

Post by hambone1 » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:54 pm

Confirm that in session view, you're clicking on the required scene number in the master track, then either selecting 'Edit Rename' from the menu, Cmd-R, or Ctrl-mouse click 'Rename', then typing in the desired tempo with bpm at the end and no spaces between the number and the letters: 136bpm and then launching the scene with the triangle next to 136bpm.

Image

If that doesn't launch the clip and set 136bpm, I'm not sure what's going on. It's always worked for me, both in 4 and 5.

brianroche
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Location: Boston
Contact:

Post by brianroche » Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:23 pm

Thanks for all the info guys. I FINALLY figured it out. This is going to be huge for me. I'm going to be playing some ecletic sets where large tempo jumps will be needed. As I'll more than likely just cut between tracks rather than doing some kind of mixing where tempo differences are sometimes 40 bpm in the difference.

Great tip! Thanks to everyone for the info!

Bri...

www.brianrochemusic.com

hambone1
Posts: 5346
Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:31 pm
Location: Abu Dhabi

Post by hambone1 » Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:50 pm

I do both. Sometimes I cut from one track to the next without cross-fading. That works well with big tempo jumps, especially if the first track has an abrupt ending and the second an abrupt start. If I want to fade from one into the next, I try to pick tracks with similar tempos, so when you launch the second track, the first track doesn't speed up or slow down noticeably. Or, if the tempos vary and I want to cross-fade, I fade out the first track into a loop, ramp the tempo up or down with a MIDI controller to the required tempo, launch the second track, and fade it in. Sometimes while playing live percussion along with the loop as it speeds up or slows down.

It's all good! :D

Post Reply