Moving to Ableton, help pls with some features

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
UKMark
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2021 1:08 pm

Moving to Ableton, help pls with some features

Post by UKMark » Fri Mar 24, 2023 6:56 am

Hi
I use Ableton for live playback of tracks for our covers/tribute band. I currently use Studio 1 to prepare and mix the stems we use for our tracks, then load the prepared stems into Ableton for live playback. But this is very time consuming if the tracks need ‘tweaking’, requiring multiple round trips of edit, reload in Ableton etc.
So I am hoping to use Ableton as the DAW for edit as well as playback.
One function I use all the time in S1 and really hope Ableton can do something similar, is to adjust the tempo track to match tracks that have not been played to a click and thus the tempo varies. Usually just a bit, sometimes more. But for playback, we need our tracks to be on the grid at whatever tempo the song is set to. This is for syncing to other things during playback. Plus the band like the grove to be tight.
In S1 I can adjust the downbeat of each bar in the tempo track to line up with the downbeat of the tracks (there is usually a click track supplied with the stems, even if it is not consistent in tempo). This results in a playback tempo in the DAW (and thus the DAW metronome) that varies in time with the variation the stems. There is no editing of the actual audio files, no warping etc. Just the tempo track varies in sympathy with the audio.
If I then bounce the stems, the new, variable tempo map is burned into the audio file.
I can then set all the tracks to ‘timestretch’ mode and remove all the tempo track markers, leaving just one at the start which is the tempo I want the tracks to play at. The result is a set of tracks that play on the grid, in time with the single new tempo.
If I bounce again, the stems again have the new, single and consistent tempo burned into them.
At this point I load them into Ableton.

Question is, can Ableton do anything similar to this? Not warping and adjusting the audio files directly, but making them ‘follow’ a marked up tempo track? Then bouncing them to contain the new tempo info. Then making them timestretch (warp?) so the variations in tempo can be removed and they play at one tempo.
Sorry for such a long post. Hope that’s all clear.

Thank in advance
Mark

RobrechtV
Posts: 74
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2017 1:32 pm

Re: Moving to Ableton, help pls with some features

Post by RobrechtV » Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:18 am

Not 100% sure about this as I haven't used it myself, but next to the "Warp" button in clip view is a button labeled "Follow". When you click it, it changes to "Lead".

You need to have Warp enabled for the clip in question. Then, according to the Info View pane, "When set to Leader, the clip plays at its natural tempo (as if Warp was off), and the Set's tempo is adjusted to match the clip." This sounds like what you're looking for, no?

I think in your workflow, after bouncing the stems the first time, you would turn "Lead" off again for the original clip, so that without a Leader clip, the whole Set would use a consistent tempo again, which all warped clips will then follow.

UKMark
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2021 1:08 pm

Re: Moving to Ableton, help pls with some features

Post by UKMark » Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:54 pm

Hey there RobrechtV
Thanks for that. It sure sounds promising! If that works it will be way quicker and easier than having to create a bar-by-bar tempo map first (which I do in S1).
I am going to test it out right now!
I will feedback later
Thank you
Mark

Post Reply