Ableton Live: Beatmatching tips #2

That was quick, innit?

So, you drop a track into Ableton, one you know has a rock-solid BPM all the way through, cuz lets face it, what electronic music doesn’t? That’s pretty much the time signature hallmark OF electronic music. But Ableton puts all these crazy warp markers all over the place, and you’re like damn, how do I get rid of all this shit?

click for larger version

click for larger version

You used to be able to click the Warp button twice and Ableton would ask if you’d like to keep the warp markers or start from zero. Not anymore. So what do you do? You zoom into the very first warp marker and right-click on it (ctrl-click for you unfortunate Mac owners who use Apple mice or laptops) and choose “Warp from here (straight).”

Yeah, it’s as easy as that. All the rest are gone. Then go through and tweak accordingly so the beats line up with the measure markers inside the clip view. But, ohnoes, you have the following situation when you zoom in:

click for larger version

click for larger version

So you could double click the transient on measure -1.1.1 to set a warp point, then double click on the warp marker on 1.1.1 to destroy it, then move the -1.1.1 marker to 1.1.1 …. OR you can right-click on the -1.1.1 marker and choose “Set 1.1.1 here” – if you’ve already done the above process Live will automagically delete the warp marker that was at 1.1.1 and replace it with the new one.

Ableton Live – it makes your life easier so you can get around to tackling the really hard jobs, like not sounding like everyone else while you sound enough like everyone else so people don’t hate your music.

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