Ableton Forum

Hi folks,

I'm mainly a Cubase user but for some styles of music i think Ableton is actually the better choice of DAW, so i'm trying to expand my knowledge and use of it.

There's one thing that really has me baffled though: is there any easy way to move audio samples or midi notes by tiny amounts? I mean amounts that have nothing to do with the grid / quantize settings.

In Cubase it's really easy as you have an "info" line where , among other things, you have a numerical start position indicated which you can alter by tiny increments.

But in Ableton it seems that you can only do this by zooming right in, but seems quite tedious.

Also the lack of any fine grained numerical indication of the start position of audio samples or midi notes in Ableton is also strange to me. But perhaps it's somewhere there and i'm just not seeing.

Any pointers would be appreciated........thanks!

Alt+ drag and Alt+left/right.
Ctrl(cmd)+4 toggles the grid.
The Status Bar in the bottom should display time info for the selected notes (or Clips in Arrangement).

Thanks, that helps a bit, but the amount of movement is still dependent on the zoom setting, which feels a bit clunky.

And there is no position info as far as i can see for midi notes.

Oh well, i guess i'll have to put these missing features down to Ableton's "keep it simple" ethos and just live with it!

Holding ALT and using the Left/Right arrows as suggested will move whatever is selected in the piano roll by a tiny amount independant of any grid. That not working?

To move small amounts follow this following list in order:

1. Left click and HOLD on the clip you want to move. Do not let go of the left-click button, it should be pressed down.
2. Hold in the Alt key.
3. Move the clip to where you want.

Alternatively as previously stated, hold the Alt key down and press the Right or Left arrow keys.