Ableton Forum

Does anyone have any idea why it might be that when I load samples into Ableton (mp3 files of beats or spoken word at sensible levels that don't fade in) Ableton completely ignores the first 250ms or so? It extremely annoying to have to load them into a seperate editor to insert silence at the beginning in order to get the complete audio file into Ableton.

e2a Win7/i5/6GB/Live 8.2.1

I think I had the same problem, Try fixing it in the prefrences, I think I saw something like that there.
Or put the MP3 file in Audicity and extend the beginning by that much time so it starts on time.

It could be that you have automatic warping enabled in your preferences. Probably set to 'beats'.
Have a look at the waveform of the file after loading. Do you see a bunch of warp markers on the clip?

The Philosopher King wrote:It could be that you have automatic warping enabled in your preferences. Probably set to 'beats'.
Have a look at the waveform of the file after loading. Do you see a bunch of warp markers on the clip?

You're quite right - I did have auto warping on, but the sample I'm trying to import right now is spoken word so there was just one warp marker at what Ablton thinks is the beginning of the clip, when in fact there's a word missing.

So I switched off warping & got identical results. Sent the same mp3 file to a friend who is using the same version of Live as me & he doesn't have any problem with it. So I'm guessing it has to be a settings problem. Shame I've no idea where.

Off hand, I'd be thinking: Drag the Start Marker (of the clip) all the way to the left hand side.
Now the entire file should play.

The Philosopher King wrote:Off hand, I'd be thinking: Drag the Start Marker (of the clip) all the way to the left hand side.
Now the entire file should play.

Yes, tried that too. No dice sadly, it's just not loaded fully. Thanks for your ideas though, much appreciated.

How are you 'loading' these files?
There might be another clue there.

The Philosopher King wrote:How are you 'loading' these files?
There might be another clue there.

Dragging from the Ableton browser, or Windows explorer, or even pasting the file into arrangement view gives the same result.

I fail to see what significance this statement has:

''mp3 files of beats or spoken word at sensible levels that don't fade in''

If you grab any WAV or MP3 file and drop it into an Arrangement, it should arrive intact.

The only obvious exception would be (as already stated) if you had Auto-Time-Warp enabled. In that case, the beginning of the file could be missed by the detection algorithm but that is easily remedied.

I've just now dragged an MP3 and experienced no problems. I'm on Windows (if that makes any difference).

Perhaps it's time to contact Ableton Support. Sorry I couldn't have been more help myself.

The Philosopher King wrote:I fail to see what significance this statement has:

''mp3 files of beats or spoken word at sensible levels that don't fade in''

I didn't know if it was significant, but I thought there might be a possibility that Ableton tries to auto-crop samples with silence at the front & might get it wrong with quiet audio or fade-ins.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas, I appreciate it.