Ableton File Browser Preview Tempo. How does Ableton decide?

[i-made-that]

When previewing loops that are substantially different than the project BPM, how does Ableton decide whether to speed the loop up or slow it down?

Current example: Project BPM is 90. When previewing a 125BPM loop Ableton speeds it up to 180 rather than slowing it down to 90.

180 is 55 away from 125 while 90 is only 35 away.

Given this, why is Ableton making the decision to play back at the more distant tempo? What's the line and why?

More importantly, is there a way to change this behavior?

[jestermgee]

Good question and I don't have an answer myself but at a guess it could be not so much "which is closer" to the current BPM, but more which would sound "sonically more better" or something. Maybe there is some kind of calculation that if a sample needs to be slowed down by > x% even if that would be closer it would mean it would sound worse than if sped up by xx%. Obviously there is no actual analysis of the file and which would actually be better but almost always when a drum loop is auto-locked to the projects BPM when clicking through the browser, I would prefer to hear it slowed down over sped up any day.

[i-made-that]

Hmm... that's an interesting theory. While I also prefer my loops slower it's very true that degradation and artifacts become much more apparent compared to sped up loops.

I would totally understand if this were Ableton's rationale. But also... I wish I could control the behavior one way or another in preferences