Ableton Forum

What determines how warping is applied when dropping a sample onto an audio track?

I have a sample - a little drum break from the intro of a song. As it stands, there's a bit of empty space at the top of the sample, then a four bar break, then the vocals come in. So, the break is topped and tailed with audio that (eventually) will be discarded. But... I just want to see what Ableton does with it. I've heard that it can do all sorts of clever things...

What I assume will happen is, given that the sample has some pretty clear rhythmic material, Ableton should be able to detect the tempo and alter the bpm of the song. Either that, or it will warp the sample to match the tempo. (It's a new set - 120bpm, and this is the first thing im doing.) The thing is, im not sure what should happen. Both options seem useful. I figure it'll get at least one of them right... (and I'm in session view fwiw)

What actually happens is, the bpm changes to 136 - but this still doesn't match the sample. (the original tempo is about 106)

After this, I added a few warp markers to the 1 of each bar of the break and dragged them onto the grid. The break now matches the bpm of the song, which is still 136. (the vocal bit at the end is still weird)

So now I have a song and a sample which have both changed, neither of which seem to be what I expected. Is this because the break had extraneous audio surrounding it? What is it that I'm not quite getting about warping? And why doesn't the bpm of the set change again when I subsequently drop another sample down. I mean, it changed it the first time, and I didn't set the first (warped) sample as a tempo leader.

Thanks for reading.

I can’t imagine Live changing the Global tempo after dropping in a second clip. It might do it after dropping the first one in, just as an assumption of context. But once that’s established, it wouldn’t make sense to establish a new tempo.

As for the warping. I don’t count on Live to guess for me if it’s important. Occasionally I might let Live take a stab at it and work with what I’ve got. But usually I’d rather there be No warping info to start off with, then I can warp explicitly how I believe the material would best suit the intended use.

If you are warping a clip, chances are that there’s a Somewhat consistent tempo throughout the clip. Ballpark consistent.

In your case, it sounds like warp markers were already present and then you kinda tried ‘fixing’ it. And that works in parts where there is a clearly defined beat. But if there are warp markers already in place to the Right of what you’re working on, then everything to the Right will be perpetually untouched and unfixed until you make your way through that. If the beat goes away for a part of the track, to the right, it’s nicer if the work up to that point will have it close to the tempo to a degree.

I’d remove / delete all warp markers. Start 1.1.1 on the first downbeat. And try to do every other bar or every four bars to get a ‘rough’ idea of the tempo throughout.

Then go back through and add markers between those markers to tidy things up a little, especially adding a marker in a spot where it most deviates from the grid. As long as the count is right for the surrounding markers, you should be okay.

The tempo it shows might seem to fluctuate a bit. The Segment Tempo will only reflect the tempo of whatever marker you have selected. Ideally you’ll be selecting a marker that is to the Left of a section that is well warped, and fixed to the grid. If you have a marker to the right of the absolute very end, you could in theory have that last marker be ANY tempo, no matter how fast or slow, and it wouldn’t have any effect or point. That last marker is there just to establish the end point of whatever marker comes before it.... to tell Live how many bars or whatever that amount of time of audio entails, thus creating the bpm info.

Hope that gives you a few things to think about.

Thanks yeah that's useful. It's gradually making sense...