Ableton Forum

Well, im fairly new to Live. Ive been getting used to it and its not to different from many of the other sequencers ive used. My problem right now tho is finding a way to match the Tempos of a vocal cut a friend sent me, and matching it to my pre-recorded beat.

I noticed Live seams to automatically snyc them together, but it doesnt seem prefect. I watched that video in that other relatively new thread and it sorta helped but its not what im looking for.

See, when i dump my beat into Live for example - i kno i made the beat 86bpm. So why is it that when i dump to Live it always shows 120 by default!?.....I thought i read everywhere that it determines what your bpm is in the warp window?.....This is wrong im assuming tho?

So on top a that, i kno that my beat is at 86 so then i open my buddies Acc. The acc basically matches up, but theres someting about it that doesnt feel right....It seems to be on beat, but then its off too>?....I dunno if theres a easier way, but it seems like if i could find the original BPM of the Accapella as well that would make a world of a difference.....Im normally all by ear when it comes to this stuff, but theres something about this acc that is difficult....Maybe he goes off timing a bit in the beginning, im not sure......ALso, i noticed that if u warp a sound too much - it tends to sound like crap!.....


Fweeehhhhh!!!!!

OK, so after that novel - anybody think they got a solution, or use Live for the same purposes?


Thanks,

STEEZ

if the pella's from a commercial tune, get that and find it's bpm. you should also then be able to work out where the beats are in relation to the vocal.
alternatively if your mate recorded it himself he must have some idea of the bpm, why not just ask him?

alternatively, I use tons of pellas as I generally remix tracks so I may be able to help, pm me and we'll go from there.

Thanks ill do that.

I use the following method in finding the BPM of an acapella...

When listening to an acapella you have to use your ears to determine the tempo and the imaginary beat behind it. Try tapping your foot with the beat to see if you can definitely keep up and recognize the "bars" of the acapella.

Find a spot where you think the acapella falls exactly on the beat on the bar. Tap along for 4 or 8 or 16 bars...

Try to pick an ending point now, so that the acapella loops perfectly. In other words, create a perfect loop inside of the acapella - it doesn't have to be the entire thing, just a piece in the middle, beginning or the end - 4 bars will be enough - but make sure it sounds perfectly looping and going with the beat (in your head)...

Now, what you need to do is export that little looped piece as a separate sample. I'm not sure what the easiest way of doing that in Live - I usually use an external editor to chop away the beginning and the end, and leave the middle piece perfectly looping. I think in Live you can just record the looped sample to some channel, but make sure it's not warped or looped when you record it - just a one shot deal. Then save it as a separate sample...

Anyway, when you attempt to bring that individual sample back into Live, it will try to guess at what its overall BPM is. When it does that, it may be pretty close, like 119.48 or something. Looking at that you can pretty much be sure it's 120 or something more whole.

Play around just with the looped portion inside your overall track. If everything sounds great, congratulations! You can be sure the entire acapella is recorded at the same BPM. You can load back the original sample now, and force it to be that 120BPM. Adjust the beginning and the end for the sample, and voilà (or violin!)... er

enjoy
-mike

p.s. to identify BPM of an acapella I usually work entirely in Sound Forge. You can specify how many bars you think the perfectly looped sample is, and it will tell you what the BPM is. You can then adjust it to a whole number, and use original sample in Live with the same BPM...

Ig

on this topic, i'd note that recordings are always going to be a little less clean timing-wise than a synth or a drum machine, depening on good the musician is . . . for example, i can usually get guitars reasonably in sync off the bat but my few embarassing attempts at vocals are just off beat

my vocal stuff i always throw away asap, but if i need to tweak a guitar a little i usually play a little with the warp markers and loop points. works well enough, though it's a bit time consuming, and it definately sounds a little processed.