Ableton Forum

Hey peeps.

Let's say you have started a session in Live, but want to move it to Cubase or Logic because a collaborator is on another platform.
I have already established that I can export only one MIDI track at a time. I create a clip with a single note at the top of the track then consolidate all the midi to one single continuous clip and export it.

I can kinda live with that (even tho it's time consuming and a bit archaic), but my main issue is not being able to export the tempo map.
If I'm doing soundtrack work, tempo might ramp up and down to follow the movie, so it would be nice to be able to export the tempo map and BPM count (which I know for a fact you can't do in Live, because it doesn't embed that kinda info in the MIDI export)

Do you guys have a specific strategy? My best guess would be to have a track doing a 4 on the floor kick figure all the way through, then export that as audio and have Cubase map that, then re write the time sig changes. Never tried that, tho

Any ideas?

trtzbass wrote: Do you guys have a specific strategy? My best guess would be to have a track doing a 4 on the floor kick figure all the way through, then export that as audio and have Cubase map that, then re write the time sig changes. Never tried that, tho

Any ideas?

I never had to do this. How about copying the tempo automation and pasting it into a MIDI CC that should survive export/import?

Stromkraft wrote:

trtzbass wrote: Do you guys have a specific strategy? My best guess would be to have a track doing a 4 on the floor kick figure all the way through, then export that as audio and have Cubase map that, then re write the time sig changes. Never tried that, tho

Any ideas?

I never had to do this. How about copying the tempo automation and pasting it into a MIDI CC that should survive export/import?

Oooo interesting. I had no idea you could do that.
Thanks!

trtzbass wrote: Oooo interesting. I had no idea you could do that.
Thanks!

No guarantees, but I'd assume this would be possible. Never tried as I said.

Stromkraft wrote:
No guarantees, but I'd assume this would be possible. Never tried as I said.

Yeah I tried that but didn't manage. It was worth the shot tho.

i had this same issue with a track that we had slow down to a crawl at the very end of it. obviously that scenario is much easier to deal with than what you have... what we did at the time was export the stems with instructions on where the arc was on the timeline;


at 3:31 tempo = x
at 3:33 tempo = x
at 3:35 tempo = x

... and so forth.

DAWs don't seem to want you to leave them unless it's the final mixdown.

i read another poster recently started using Reaper for this kind of collab. that way everything would change hands as it was saved with the music intact. the logic behind using Reaper was that it's cheap so everyone involved could be on the same page. the problem with this for you is that you would still have to manually make those tempo changes again after you're done in Live.... but the advantage is that the recipient does not have to make them - so your work maintains its integrity.

trtzbass wrote:

Stromkraft wrote:
No guarantees, but I'd assume this would be possible. Never tried as I said.

Yeah I tried that but didn't manage. It was worth the shot tho.

Hmm, I suppose tempo changes are sent out with the synchronization signals. Maybe recording this directly is the best way? This is how I move MIDI as export of MIDI clips is limited to 96PPQ.

H20nly wrote:i had this same issue with a track that we had slow down to a crawl at the very end of it. obviously that scenario is much easier to deal with than what you have... what we did at the time was export the stems with instructions on where the arc was on the timeline;


at 3:31 tempo = x
at 3:33 tempo = x
at 3:35 tempo = x

... and so forth.

DAWs don't seem to want you to leave them unless it's the final mixdown.

i read another poster recently started using Reaper for this kind of collab. that way everything would change hands as it was saved with the music intact. the logic behind using Reaper was that it's cheap so everyone involved could be on the same page. the problem with this for you is that you would still have to manually make those tempo changes again after you're done in Live.... but the advantage is that the recipient does not have to make them - so your work maintains its integrity.

Yes I did try just writing down the tempo changes, but when you are using slopes and curves to do rallentandos they never come out prscise on the other DAW, leaving me with sync issues and stuff.
Besides, when you are racing the clock to deliver a product, you want to use a reliable way to do that. I write my orchestra arrangements in Cubase's score editor and being able to export my tempo map is fundamental. I can't even rewire slave Ableton because then it would not dictate the sync.
I know that Live is more of a performanc instrument - turned - DAW (against its own will?) so I'm not expecting it to be where Logic is in terms of flexibility, but it just seems to me that a reliable MIDI export procedure would be a basic feature.

Stromkraft wrote:

trtzbass wrote:

Stromkraft wrote:
No guarantees, but I'd assume this would be possible. Never tried as I said.

Yeah I tried that but didn't manage. It was worth the shot tho.

Hmm, I suppose tempo changes are sent out with the synchronization signals. Maybe recording this directly is the best way? This is how I move MIDI as export of MIDI clips is limited to 96PPQ.

I am afraid that lies just outide my technical competence. I'll be researching that.