Question about moving transients

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MoonSage
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 28, 2019 7:37 am

Question about moving transients

Post by MoonSage » Tue May 28, 2019 7:46 am

Hi! This is my first post here so forgive me if this is the wrong place or a dumb question.

I'm pretty new to Ableton, last night I recorded and mixed a project on it for the first time. It was four songs comprising of just two acoustic guitars. Some parts needed to be quantized and I found it super useful to use the warp markers and snap things right into place, but it made me wonder about the possibilities. If I wanted to, for example, move a transient so that it starts exactly 10ms ahead or behind the grid...is that possible? It seemed to only let me snap things right into the grid, or leave them wherever the quantization placed it. It wouldn't let me just move them willy nilly. But I hadn't tried leaving it unquantized and seeing if it would let me move them that way. I would try to figure this out through experimenting, but my computer is at my bandmate's house and I only get to access Ableton roughly once a week.

If anybody has any insight it would be much appreciated!

jlgrimes
Posts: 1773
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:55 am
Location: Atlanta, Ga

Re: Question about moving transients

Post by jlgrimes » Tue May 28, 2019 2:08 pm

MoonSage wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 7:46 am
Hi! This is my first post here so forgive me if this is the wrong place or a dumb question.

I'm pretty new to Ableton, last night I recorded and mixed a project on it for the first time. It was four songs comprising of just two acoustic guitars. Some parts needed to be quantized and I found it super useful to use the warp markers and snap things right into place, but it made me wonder about the possibilities. If I wanted to, for example, move a transient so that it starts exactly 10ms ahead or behind the grid...is that possible? It seemed to only let me snap things right into the grid, or leave them wherever the quantization placed it. It wouldn't let me just move them willy nilly. But I hadn't tried leaving it unquantized and seeing if it would let me move them that way. I would try to figure this out through experimenting, but my computer is at my bandmate's house and I only get to access Ableton roughly once a week.

If anybody has any insight it would be much appreciated!

Ableton's warping takes a little practice to get the hang of fully.


I am assuming you are referring to Warp Markers. I hardly ever mess with transients (only except for sampling an old album or something). For an instrumental track, Ableton probably will guess the transient correctly. But when double clicking on a transient will create a warp marker (which is a brightly colored marker). I usually move those, and yes you can make stuff behind the beat if needed. Turn off your grid and adjust (or set grid to a very fine resolution like 1/512 or something and move).

MoonSage
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 28, 2019 7:37 am

Re: Question about moving transients

Post by MoonSage » Thu Jun 06, 2019 3:33 am

jlgrimes wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 2:08 pm
MoonSage wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 7:46 am
Hi! This is my first post here so forgive me if this is the wrong place or a dumb question.

I'm pretty new to Ableton, last night I recorded and mixed a project on it for the first time. It was four songs comprising of just two acoustic guitars. Some parts needed to be quantized and I found it super useful to use the warp markers and snap things right into place, but it made me wonder about the possibilities. If I wanted to, for example, move a transient so that it starts exactly 10ms ahead or behind the grid...is that possible? It seemed to only let me snap things right into the grid, or leave them wherever the quantization placed it. It wouldn't let me just move them willy nilly. But I hadn't tried leaving it unquantized and seeing if it would let me move them that way. I would try to figure this out through experimenting, but my computer is at my bandmate's house and I only get to access Ableton roughly once a week.

If anybody has any insight it would be much appreciated!

Ableton's warping takes a little practice to get the hang of fully.


I am assuming you are referring to Warp Markers. I hardly ever mess with transients (only except for sampling an old album or something). For an instrumental track, Ableton probably will guess the transient correctly. But when double clicking on a transient will create a warp marker (which is a brightly colored marker). I usually move those, and yes you can make stuff behind the beat if needed. Turn off your grid and adjust (or set grid to a very fine resolution like 1/512 or something and move).
Thank you so much! I totally didn’t understand the snapping/unsnapping to grid thing yet. That’s gonna help a ton. I also just figured out how the track delay works and I think that’s actually what I was looking for to set my drum grooves behind/ahead of the beat.

zsazsa
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:31 pm
Location: Deventer

Re: Question about moving transients

Post by zsazsa » Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:33 am

or hold ALT on the keyboard whilst dragging your markers, then you override the grid.

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