Warping in Ableton 8

[DannyBlack]

Ok, Just playing with an APC40 and it seems to have ballsed up the way you can zoom into a waveform in clip view with my mouse.. Also its done some weird things to the warping, I cant get anything to play in time with the metronome.

As you can tell this isnt ideal!! Anyone else had this problem?

I've tried reinstalling but it didnt help, Also this problem has only emerged since mapping the APC40 :/

Thanks for any help..


Anyone using ableton got any pointers?

[SlavikSvensk]

odd. what kind of system does this person have?

[The_Laughing_Man]

Anyone using ableton got any pointers?

Maybe try getting the latest update of both ableton 8 (assuming they are using a legit copy) and the latest apc40 software.

If they are using a crack then they are ****ed.

I`ve not heard anyone else talk of these problems.

[SlavikSvensk]

i've heard there are still a few glitches when using ableton on snow leopard or windows 7, not with the apc though.

[The_Laughing_Man]

yeah this sounds more like a problem with the mapping version.

[The_Laughing_Man]

The ableton forums are always the best place to answer these kind of problems, it`s quick and reliable.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

They seem to have completely changed warping. I've been playing around with it, but still really ****ing hate it. To zoom in you have to do it above the waveform, unlike previous versions, and the actual method seems to be totally flipped on its head. The best way I can describe it is, before you had to drag the grid to fit the track, now it seems you have to drag the track to fit the grid. Like I say, I'm still working it out and its extremely frustrating, but it seems that putting a warp marker at the start of a beat and dragging it to the right spot sorts out that beat, but to drag that beat and the rest of the track you have to hold shift whilst dragging. Hope thats helpful and not counterproductive, but thats how far I've gotten with it anyway. Would love to hear from anyone who has it sussed as its driving me mad. So far I think its in line for the "worst update ever" prize.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Makes much more sense now, you fit the beats to the grid, which opens up a much simpler way of mangling and reordering your audio.
All you do is find the start of the beat, right click - warp from here.
If you then find the beat slipping, just hone in every 32 bars or whatever, click in a new warp point and bring the beat back in line with the grid.
Easy.

This makes it so easy to change the groove of your audio now, just click a point and shift it around in the grid. fantasic.

[SlavikSvensk]

i love the new warping...i mean, i didn't have ableton 7 for very long, so i never got really set in my ways, but i find the new system incredibly intuitive and using the quantize settings function (setting to 60-80%) means you can warp the tracks in almost no time at all.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Right, it seems I am definately missing something then! I didnt realize there was a quantize settings function, I'm gonna have a look at that. I've read a few places that if you stick with this new warping system, it is definately better, but I'm still at the "why the **** would they fix something that aint broken" stage.

[SlavikSvensk]

okay, you can do it really, really quick. basically set your first warp point, then select all, then choose "quantize settings" and set it to 16th notes and somewhere between 60-80% (depending on the type of track), and this will work great for djing purposes.

if you are really deconstructing the track you might want to do it the old-fashioned way.

[The_Laughing_Man]

I think it`s better to try just warping and then grabbing a beat right near the end, adding a marker and shifting it in.
If you can`t get it, then try the quantise. The quantise isn`t always your best bet for stuff with awkward beats, or stuff where the kick and bass share similar energy, or stuff taken from vinyl as sometimes it gets the transients wrong, or slightly off..
Mostly it works ok though.

[SlavikSvensk]

quantize works amazingly well, given the right kind of track. for most techno, it's all you will ever need. but yeah, it's not adequate for things with complex kick patterns or off-meter stuff.

[The_Laughing_Man]

quantize works amazingly well, given the right kind of track. for most techno, it's all you will ever need. but yeah, it's not adequate for things with complex kick patterns or off-meter stuff.

Yeah I`ve had problems with it on more interesting techno and minimal, especially when the bass has the same energy and the kick.
Plus it strips out swing grooves and the like on dubstep, makes things too rigid, it`s not really meant for generic use in warping tracks.

[SlavikSvensk]

i find if you set quantize to 60%, you retain most shuffles, swings and other grooves. but i generally warp manually if i have a broken beat.

however, it makes it easy to just pull in a track and set it up on on the fly. and for the vast majority of techno or house, it's all you would ever need.

[Francisco Scaramanga]

Cheers guys, this sounds mucho helpful, I wont have much time to spend on ableton till the weekend, but when I give it a go I'll report back, hopefully all happy and refreshed that the update was in fact worth it! I got it cause I got a free novation launchpad which is made for version 8, and it appears to be the bomb so I cant wait to get it all going.

[SlavikSvensk]

Yeah I`ve had problems with it on more interesting techno and minimal, especially when the bass has the same energy and the kick.
Plus it strips out swing grooves and the like on dubstep, makes things too rigid, it`s not really meant for generic use in warping tracks.

i've also noticed that quantize sometimes screws up the track if you play it back >15bpm over its original tempo.