Ableton Forum

Hey all,

Today I came up with some cool one-shot kind of things on a track that was 120 BPM (master BPM). There were warped audio clips and I had them laid out on my launchpad so I could jam on them.

Later I opened a different project that is at 82 BPM. I went to the library and dragged those same samples into a new audio track because I was going to use them for a solo. The sounded different and I found that it's because the master temp is 82. If I turn it up to 120 they sound 'normal'.

My question, is how do I preserve these samples so that the master time does not affect them in any way? I want them to sound the same no matter what project I'm in.

Thanks,
Andy

In preferences under Record/Warp/Launch is 'auto-warp long samples' on? I'm not sure what defines a 'long sample' but it's definitely auto warping your samples

Alternatively, can't you just deactivate the warp when you import the audio clip from your library?

I know what you're asking though. You want to save a warped sample so that every time you open it, it stays at the tempo you originally warped it to (120 bpm) without having to do anything to it first. Someone more experienced will have to tell you (and me) how to do that.

There is no way to completely preserve the "clean" sound of an audio clip that is changed from its original tempo. In analog audio, the only option was to record it to a medium like a record or tape, and then play it faster/slower: like playing a 33RPM record at 43. This can result in chipmunk like vocals, etc. Otherwise you had to rerecord if you wanted the original sound at a different tempo.

Live offers a variety of options to help get around this. Look at your warp settings. Underneath the Seg. BPM box, there's a box that changes how Live warps the audio. 'Beats' is usually good for drum loops. 'Complex' is usually good for full audio clips. Try 'Complex Pro' as well. 'Repitch' directly changes the speed at which the clip is played, like would be done with an analog record. Play with these and learn what works for different audio types. Each of these is algorithm based and sometimes(often) the algorithm doesn't sound good for the audio you're using. For large transpositions in BPM, there's often not a good solution that keeps the clip sounding good and clean.

Hope this offers help.
-V