Ableton Forum

Hi everyone!

I wonder what the most efficient workflow is when you have recorded a longer MIDI track.

I like to record long improvisations from my MIDI keyboard. Naturally, it happens that I get out of sync with Live's timing and I also slow down or speed up my playing. Sometimes I change the time signature.

I admit, playing straight along to a MIDI click inhibits my creativity and the interpretation also feels somehow "dead" to me.

How could I align Live's tempo and time signature to my MIDI recording in the most simple way? I guess, afterwards it's easy to quantize the flaws of the interpretation by aligning the notes to the MIDI grid...

Thanks in advance!

Here is what I did, but it didn't work as expected:

1. Copy the MIDI track.
2. Bounce in Place the new MIDI track to create an audio track.
3. Set Warp and Lead for the audio track.
4. Create warp markers within the audio track to create an implicit tempo map.

Yet, the notes in the MIDI track don't move along with the tempo map I created at [4].

(Audio tracks move along with the changes if they have warp disabled and follow enabled. But there is no option to disable warp and enable follow for a MIDI track.)

During recording you might do it in Arrangement View as it might allow you to add markers along the way.

Or after something nice, just launch a new clip to record in session… but most of this would probably be easier to hash out in arrangement.

If you have a few nice parts of clips, copy just those sections and bring them to a new area individually. As each of them will probably be quite unique.

Then find some of the easier ‘steady’ ones. The nice thing is that since these are all duplicates and take minimal storage (being midi) you can have at it with editing them. I’d take advantage of ‘stretching’ midi… with steady easy ones you can count the number of bars, find the start point and a clear and point. Put a New midi note (unless one is already at that spot) at the Start of the very very end (basically outside of the clip), as this will make it easy to drag it while preserving everything within the clip’s relative timing.

If you’ve counted the bars, you should be able to do the math and have the start of the first bar align at one spot, and the end note align the appropriate number of bars down.

With some practice you can get good at selecting the ideal notes and nudging, pushing, stretching. Can always start over if it gets too messy by making another duplicate. Might help to bring all the necessary notes of this duplicate over to 1.1.1
(After removing all the before and after notes)

It’d be good practice for sure. And could potentially bring some of your ideas out that were created while you were in your flow. But it also would show why it’s so common to sort of jam in time for convenience heheh.

One last thing to consider. In session view you can just explore and play with the set Stopped. And then hit Capture after something you like. Hit stop again and play some more. And just hit Capture every time you like what you just did. I think it might just keep adding new clips to the session that you can come back to later. And Live kind of attempts to put them in a timing, as long as your session was Stopped.

Thank you! These are very good tips!

Though, regarding the tempo, I need it the other way around.

I don't want to change the MIDI notes to fit the tempo grid. I want to change the tempo to fit all speed changes of the MIDI track.
(Doing this manually is an incredibly tedious task. Actually, I don't know how to do this precisely.)

I need something like Beat Mapping in Logic Pro for MIDI or at least for the bounced track. But when I use the bounced track as tempo leader and move warp markers inside of it, it has no effect on the MIDI track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iFgDAvJeOQ&t=315s

I understand that the other way around is preferable, but in the current moment, you’ll have to be resourceful, but also keep your eyes peeled for updates and exploits. Doing the best with what you have at your disposal at least won’t stop you in your tracks entirely.

Have you played around with the Capture idea?

Maybe I'm just doing things wrong. Because when I set the audio track to "lead", the original MIDI track above becomes longer. (The audio track is the bounced MIDI track.)

Is there any button I have missed?

I tried segmented recording processes in the past, but they didn't work for me, since they always pulled me out of the flow.

Midi positions at the moment are always relative to their spot in the timeline. As if they are warped no matter what. Audio has the option to turn ‘warp’ off.

Would be nice / fun if they offered an option for untethered midi. Also the ability to loop unwarped clips

Yeah, I wrote a feature request where I suggested a Follow button for MIDI clips etc. If you want, you can support it here:
viewtopic.php?t=253019