Ableton/Live/UG/09 Audio Clips Tempo and Warping/03 Warp Modes
- 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.