Ableton Forum

Hi all,

I recently converted from Logic to Ableton as my DAW and am having a great time!

However, on the DJ'ing side of things, I am finding some things infuriating.

Particularly, I feel I understand how the warping of tracks works, but the behavior is so choppy and inconsistent that I turn it off by default.

What happens is this:
- In Traktor, I can grab a setlist I have built ahead of time in iTunes (I just drag and drop this into Ableton, splitting it into 4 channels)
- I can "sync" tracks to a designated master track in Traktor to tracks that are close together in BPM (as indicated by Traktor)
- I can also grab tracks from my library on the fly based on their BPM (if I used them before in Traktor, I know this really isn't possible with Ableton)

Here are my issues:
- Ableton's "warp" feature just makes tracks sound jumpy and choppy instead of just time-stretching the track
- With the warp turned off by default, turning it on for a per track basis doesn't work! It just gives me 1 warp marker at the start of the track
- There doesn't seem to be a way to designate a channel / track as a master (instead of changing the ableton clock)
- There doesn't seem to be a way to map warp to a midi controller and just turn it on / off on the fly for a whole channel (or even for 1 track)

All in all, this makes DJ'ing with ableton a huge pain, with all the effects being great, but requiring basically a boring pre-determed set instead of something emergent.

Any solutions to these problems? Maybe some settings to tweak the warp behavior? Some input on mapping the warp button?

FYI I'm using a launchpad, APC40, and Traktor S4 for my midi controllers.

Hello, and welcome to Ableton.
Just as syncing tracks with Traktor has its quirks, and requires you to understand the concept of beatgridding, the same of course holds true in Live.

What you are experiencing sounds like a lack of knowledge in what the warping function actually does.

Once you understand how warping works, you can usually get almost any modern dance song to be in perfect sync, and sound great, just as fast as setting the beat grid in Traktor, even on the fly.

Keep in mind:
- Live is used for more than just DJing, so different warp modes are used for different things. It sounds like you are using Beats warping mode. For warping full songs, you should typically use repitch, or complex/pro. Beats warping mode separates your clip into smaller pieces and plays the smaller slices in time-excellent for drums, terrible for full songs (unless you are trying to achieve a certain Justice effect).

- There is no concept of a clip acting as a master tempo (not entirely true, but for DJing, assume it is). All of your music will be locking to the master tempo live is set to.

- Warping is a skill learned like any other. If I opened up Logic, I wouldn't be able to wrap my head around making the simplest beat, because I haven't put the time in with it. The same holds true in Live. Warping is an essential skill, and one of the main concepts that all of Live revolves around. Once you are familiar with it, specifically how it works, and how it processes the sound to match said tempo, you will find Live a very friendly tool.

- for DJing, warping turned on is a requirement at all times if you want your tracks to play in time. Set your default to warp complex mode. You mention using midi to toggle warp on and off, you don't want to do this, and if for some reason you did, you would simply use another clip to do it.


An excellent resource for learning to DJ using Ableton Live is at http://www.abletonlivedj.com
Definitely follow tutorials that teach you proper warping techniques, it's imperative.