Ableton/Live/UG/09 Audio Clips Tempo and Warping/02 Warping
- 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.