Ableton Forum

Coming from DAW:s like ProTools and Cubase I have now switched to Ableton. There is one thing that irks me, however. Let's say I have a rather long audio file. For various reasons I have cut this audio file into chunks, using CTRL + E. I have not moved or altered the separate parts, though. I have just spliced the audio file into pieces. Now I want to "heal" the audio file, i.e. I want to remove the splits so that the audio file appears as it was when I first imported it. I haven't been able to find a way to do this apart from hitting ctrl + J, thus consolidating the file. Here's my question... If I consolidate, Live will create a new audio file, right? Thereby creating a copy of the audio file that I do not want! I just want to remove the splits.

Is this possible somehow?

And I have already thought of dragging the end of one of the chunks all the way to the right. This would do the trick in the cases I want to remove all of the splits, but what about when I just want to remove some of them? It is so easy in ProTools and Cubase, but I have been unable to find a similar solution in Live.

ctrl+J.

It just works.

Galt wrote:ctrl+J.

It just works.

Well, I guess it does the trick, but as far as I understand it creates a new audio file. Or am I mistaken? If so it's really not what I am after. Surely there must be a way to remove splits? After all, they are just graphical as long as you don't move the audio around.

Consolidate does indeed make a new file, and it's a destructive edit.
The only way to do it non-destructively is you re-drag edges of the clip to it's original length.

battiman wrote:And I have already thought of dragging the end of one of the chunks all the way to the right. This would do the trick in the cases I want to remove all of the splits, but what about when I just want to remove some of them? It is so easy in ProTools and Cubase, but I have been unable to find a similar solution in Live.

Not sure what it is you are after exactly... If you drag the clips where you want to cover the splits and you do not drag where you don't want to cover the splits, wouldn't that do what you want?

So, I'll try and explain...

Here's screenshot of an audio file I have cut up. The higlighted part is an edit I want to keep. To the left there's another edit I want to remove.



If I drag the end of the unwanted edit I have to meet the other edit exactly. Otherwise I end up with something like this:



If all the edits are done by the grid, I am fine. But if I'm not, then I have a problem. I am amazed that it is not possible to simply remove the splits. Also, I am suprised that no one else seems to think that this is a problem. How would you heal the audio file and remove the unwanted edits?

bump

...

The Finn wrote:...

Hmmm.... OK...?

battiman wrote:If all the edits are done by the grid, I am fine. But if I'm not, then I have a problem. I am amazed that it is not possible to simply remove the splits. Also, I am suprised that no one else seems to think that this is a problem. How would you heal the audio file and remove the unwanted edits?

Yes, I too requested non-destructive consolidate in a wish list for Live 9 but it has never been implemented.

Kind regards,
Andrejs

+ 1

battiman wrote:

The Finn wrote:...

Hmmm.... OK...?

inane comment redacted

agreed, it makes no sense that you can't easily heal a split.

apart from the fact that it creates a new file, consolidating is not a neutral operation, so it isn't necessarily a good substitute. from the Live 9 manual:

When operating on audio clips, Consolidate actually creates a new sample for every track in the selection. The new samples are essentially recordings of the time-warping engine’s audio output, prior to processing in the track’s effects chain and mixer. Hence, the new sample incorporates the effects of in-clip attenuation, time-warping and pitch shifting, and of the respective clip envelopes (page 267); however, it does not incorporate the effects.

Well, now I know I'm not alone in finding this frustrating. That's always something

Has this been implemented? Haven't updated for a while!