Ableton/Live/UG/09 Audio Clips Tempo and Warping
- Tempo, Warp Markers and warp modes for fitting audio to the song's tempo.
- Live 11 notes: Ableton/Manual/09
- Setting, tapping and nudging the Set's tempo, and letting Arrangement clips lead it.
- The Control Bar's tempo field sets the playback tempo, in whole BPM and hundredths, each separately key or MIDI mappable. Tempo can be automated for gradual or sudden changes.
- Live can lead or follow external gear over MIDI Clock or Link, or follow an audio source with Tempo Follower. See Ableton/Live/UG/37 Sync with Link Tempo Follower and MIDI.
- Click Tap Tempo on every beat to set the tempo; the more taps, the more accurate.
- To tap with a key: turn on the Key switch, select Tap Tempo, press the key, and turn the Key switch off. MIDI Map Mode assigns a note or controller, such as a footswitch.
- With Start Playback with Tap Tempo on in Record, Warp & Launch Settings, tapping starts playback: four taps in 4/4. Link-connected apps start in phase.
- For sources not locked to one tempo, such as live players or turntables, the Phase Nudge Up and Down buttons briefly speed up or slow down Live to stay aligned. They can be key or MIDI mapped.
- Warped clips follow the Set's tempo by default. In Arrangement View, the Lead/Follow toggle in Audio Utilities makes a clip a tempo leader: the Set follows the clip's Warp Markers and the tempo field is disabled.
- Many clips can lead, but only one sets the tempo at a time: the playing clip on the lowest track.
- Live writes read-only tempo automation on the Main track, which moves with the leader clips. Unfollow Tempo Automation in the tempo field's context menu turns all leaders into followers and makes the automation editable.
- Leader automation overrides Tempo Follower. With EXT on, Lead/Follow is disabled.
- Warping plays any sample in sync with the chosen tempo, for beat matching, rhythmic experiments and sound design. Its controls are in the Clip View's Audio Utilities panel.
- With Warp off, the sample plays at its own tempo, right for one-shots, textures, effects and speech. Turn it on for loops and whole songs.
- Live 11 notes: Ableton/Manual/09.
- Record, Warp & Launch Settings decide how new samples load, depending on whether Live judges them short or long:
- Loop/Warp Short Samples: Unwarped One Shot, Warped One Shot, Warped Loop, or Auto (the default), which picks the best fit.
- Auto-Warp Long Samples, on by default, warps long samples on load with a Warp Marker on each bar's first beat; off, they load unwarped.
- Default Warp Mode: the stretching algorithm for newly warped samples, Beats at first.
- Drag samples in from your folders, or with an audio track selected use Create → Import Audio File… for MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg FLAC or FLAC; it lands at the insert marker or in the selected slot.
- A file is analyzed on first import and can't be played or edited until that finishes; afterwards it's usually already in sync.
- An Ableton/Warp/Marker pins a point in the sample, such as a transient, to a place on the timeline, to map the audio's timing or change its rhythm. Import adds some; add as many as you need.
- Double-click the upper half of the Sample Editor to add one, or press
Cmd+I (Mac) / Ctrl+I (Win) to add one at the insert marker. Move markers with the arrow keys or by dragging. - With a marker selected,
Shift-drag moves the waveform under it to fine-tune the start point. - Double-click a marker, or select its time and press
Delete (Mac) / Backspace (Win), to remove it. - Ableton/Live/UI/Control Bar/Switch/Follow scrolls the editor during playback; it pauses on edits.
9.2.3.1 Transients and Pseudo-Warp Markers
- Live finds Ableton/Transients on load: amplitude peaks where notes or beats begin, shown as small gray markers at the top of the editor, and usually good spots for Warp Markers.
- Add or remove transients from the Create menu, or with
Cmd+Shift+I and Cmd+Shift+Delete (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+I and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace (Win). Reset Transients removes the ones you added. - With a time selection, Insert Warp Markers,
Cmd+I (Mac) / Ctrl+I (Win), puts a marker on every transient in it, or at its ends if there are none. - Hovering a transient shows a gray Ableton/Warp/Marker/Pseudo. Double-click or drag it to make a real marker; if no marker follows, the clip's tempo changes.
Cmd (Mac) / Ctrl (Win) also makes markers at the neighbouring transients; Shift-drag moves the transient itself.
9.2.3.2 Saving Warp Markers with a Sample File
- Warp Markers save with the Set. The Save button in the clip's title bar also stores them with the sample, so they return whenever the file is used. Only your own samples, not Core Library or Pack content.
- A sample saved with markers isn't auto-warped, though the Warp From… commands still run Auto-Warp by hand.
- These cases assume Loop/Warp Short Samples warps new samples, the default.
9.2.4.1 Even-Length Loops
- Live assumes a cleanly cut loop of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars, sets the tempo to match, and places markers at both ends.
- The estimated tempo shows in the BPM field; type the real one, or
Shift-drag for fine steps. In Arrangement View, Shift-drag a clip's edge to stretch it. - ×2 and ÷2 fix a tempo guessed at double or half speed.
9.2.4.2 Odd-Length Loops
- Loops with an odd number of bars play out of sync, since Live assumes an even number. Put a marker at the right bar line, for example the start of bar eight in a nine-bar loop.
- If Live guessed too short, say eight bars for nine, drag the end marker right until the missing bar shows.
9.2.4.3 Uneven-Length Loops
- For samples not cut to loop or without a clear beat, put the insert marker on the first downbeat and choose Set 1.1.1 Here, then Warp From Here. A marker before trailing silence trims it from the loop.
9.2.4.4 Multi-Clip Warping
- With several clips of equal length selected, marker edits on one apply to all, for example to fix timing across a multitrack recording.
- These cases assume Auto-Warp Long Samples is on, the default.
9.2.5.1 Adjusting Auto-Warp Results
- Auto-Warp usually gets the tempo right. Turn on the metronome while correcting it.
- If the downbeat is wrong:
Shift-drag from a marker to slide the waveform; or put the insert marker on the downbeat and choose Set 1.1.1 Here; or zoom in, add a marker on the downbeat, and drag it to bar 1. - Warp Sample as… fits an already-looped sample to a suggested loop length. Warp Selection as… auto-warps a selected part, such as a break inside a song, setting loop markers to fit.
- For tight control, warp section by section from left to right, pinning each good section with markers;
Cmd-click (Mac) / Ctrl-click (Win) selects several markers to move together. - The Warp From Here… commands reset markers to the right of a point and leave those to the left alone:
- Warp From Here: runs Auto-Warp from that point.
- Warp From Here (Start At …): uses the Set's tempo as the starting guess. Unwarp the clip, tap the tempo to match it, rewarp, then run this.
- Warp From Here (Straight): one marker using the estimated original BPM, for material with steady tempo.
- Warp … BPM From Here: one marker assuming the clip matches the Set's tempo; type the known BPM first.
- Markers can also bend rhythm on purpose: pin a late transient and drag it onto the beat, pinning its neighbours so the change stays local. Combined with grooves this becomes a creative technique.
- Quantize moves each transient to the nearest grid line. Click in the Sample Editor, then use Edit → Quantize or
Cmd+U (Mac) / Ctrl+U (Win). - The Quantize panel sets the grid size or a specific division, triplets included. Amount moves markers only part of the way for a subtler result.
- Warp Modes stretch time with granular techniques, repeating or skipping small segments called grains. Each mode chooses, overlaps and crossfades grains differently, so each suits different material, and each can be used creatively.
- For material with a strong rhythm, such as drum loops and most dance music; it keeps transients intact.
- Preserve: Transients for percussive material, or a grid division to keep fixed beat divisions. Large divisions with transposition give rhythmic artifacts.
- Transient Loop Mode, for the end of each segment between transients:
- Loop Off: plays to its end, then silence until the next transient.
- Loop Forward: jumps back to a zero-crossing near the segment's middle and loops until the next transient.
- Loop Back-and-Forth: plays back and forth from a zero-crossing near the middle until the next transient; with preserved transients this often sounds best, especially at slow tempos.
- Transient Envelope: the fade on each segment. 100 means no fade; lower values decay faster, from smoothing clicks to gating effects.
- For audio with a clear pitch: vocals, monophonic instruments, basslines.
- Grain Size sets the average grain size, adjusted by how clear the pitch changes are. Small grains suit distinct pitch movement; large ones reduce noise but can add artifacts.
- For sounds without a clear pitch: polyphonic orchestral music, pads, noise, drones, and sound design.
- Grain Size ignores pitch here. Fluctuation adds randomness; higher values vary more.
- Changes playback speed so pitch moves with tempo, like a turntable or an old sampler: double speed is an octave up. Transposition controls are disabled.
- For mixed material such as whole songs. Complex Pro is a variant that can sound better on polyphonic textures and full mixes.
- Formants: at 100%, transposition keeps the original formants, the tone's resonances. No effect without transposition.
- Envelope, default 128: lower for high-pitched material, higher for low-pitched.
- Both can use more CPU; freeze or resample tracks to save it.