Acapellas in Ableton

[dspi23]

I am having problems getting acapellas in synch with my beats when doing remixes. Ableton seems to change their rhythm structure so the rhymes come at the wrong places and everything is out of whack. It seems to happen with every acapella i use and the only way i can see to fix it is trawl through the whole thing and fix up each mistake as it happen which takes ages. Does anyone know of a quicker way to fix this?

[Rokko]

Ableton aint much good at auto-warping accapellas. I find the easiest way is to use the metronome.
Listen out for where your first beat should be, move the first marker to that point, rightclick and do 'warp from here straight.' This might put it in time, but you'll probably have to mess around with it a bit. I tend to focus on the first few bars of the song - work out which words lie on the first beat of each bar and make sure the appropriate markers line up with them. Once you've done the first few bars the rest should line up automatically, just check further into the song and make sure that the approriate words still sit at the start of each bar. Chances are most acapellas will stay in time, so don't actually use any warp markers unless you're sure that the tempo isn't constant - just move the grid. If you have an acapella that goes out of time you will have to go through the whole song and add in warp markers every time it goes out of time.
Another thing that can help is using a bpm calculator that allows you to tap the tempo in. Tap along with your acapella to get the rough tempo. Then make sure your first marker is on the first beat, do warp from here straight (to get rid of any warp markers) and change the clips tempo - this should put it roughly in time, you'll probably just have to do a small amount of fine tuning.
Hope that helps a bit. It's easy in practice, but not so easy to explain.

Rokko

[ahlstrominfo]

When I use acapellas I often through in the original song and warp that.
Then I add the acapella so it syncs with the original then remove the original.

[5dots]

When I use acapellas I often through in the original song and warp that.
Then I add the acapella so it syncs with the original then remove the original.

I do the same thing. Here's a quick how-to:
Find the first vocal noise in your a cappella, and set 1.1.1 there. Move the start arrow on the original track to that same point (or close, and then adjust the 1.1.1 marker on the a cappella so it looks like it's the same distance away). Tell Live to warp the a cappella "straight", and then play the two together, adjusting the a cappella as they play. Then just adjust the start arrow so it's on the downbeat again.

[DeadlyKungFu]

With Live 6 you'll be able to warp the original tune along with the acapella. You select them both but the original on the bottom, as you warp it, the acapella will also warp.

Not much help for now, just sayin...

What's the song? What style? Most modern tunes are recorded to a click track and are pretty stready. Maybe you could post it and someone could warp it for you.

[John Sweet]

Damn, DKF, that's hot. I really regret not chasing that beta now. I have 150+ unwarped acapellas staring at me. I had heard about the group warping, but hadn't thought to use it that way yet. Good news.

& dspi23 -- warping them against the original song is the way to go. In a track with no tempo fluctuation you just line up both beginnings, grab the end warp marker of the acapella, & move it until you hear them phasing against each other. Then just make fine adjustments.

If you have to warp an acapella to an old song with messy timing, sometimes you can download a MIDI version & drag it into Live. Assign instruments to each track & if whoever made it did a good job, then you've got an easier start + the beginning of the remix.

[mickdelaney]

what sources do you guys use for ur accapellas... a mate of mine gave me a few cd's of varied styles. but none have the original with them. is there a good source where i can buy/download them???

cheers!!!

[supster]

I am having problems getting acapellas in synch with my beats when doing remixes. Ableton seems to change their rhythm structure so the rhymes come at the wrong places and everything is out of whack. It seems to happen with every acapella i use and the only way i can see to fix it is trawl through the whole thing and fix up each mistake as it happen which takes ages. Does anyone know of a quicker way to fix this?

the only way to make an acapella properly beatmatched so that you can pull it in over a variety of material at different tempos and pitch is to manually edit on the arrangement grid and reconsolidate/render to a new file.

this can be a simple fix or an involved one depending on the material. Live has all the tools for the job, but you will need to know how to audio edit and restructure the acapella over the beat

.

[TekMonki]

I've had the same issue. Lately I find it quickest to copy the clip several times and warp verse /chorus /verse seperately.

Clip 1 - loop points set to first verse
Clip 2 - loop points set to chorus
Clip 3 - loop points set to second verse

etc.