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Ez guys!

Quick question about warping acapellas in Ableton Live 7.

I dont know if its me being a complete and utter tool but im finding this impossible.

I new quite new to Ableton (usually an FL & Reason user) and im struggling with it... as in i cant do it.

Ive mastered the art of warping regular tracks, its a piece of piss but without a beat to work to its so hard.

Ill explain my process:

If i dont have the original or am familiar with the original, i hit youtube up, search for the track and listen to where the vocals drop so i can place the 1:1:1 marker down in the right place. Once ive done this and set the tempo to roughly what the original is, i right click the 1:1:1 marker and select (ive actually forgotten which option it is, as im sitting at work but i know its the right one). I find the it sticks in time for the first few bars but then, out of nowhere, it swaggas off to some other tempo, its such a mad change.

Im assuming this is happening because ableton is trying to predict what tempo the tune is and place the markers "correctly".

I might go back to adjusting the tempo of acapellas in ACID.

Anyone have any tips??

Mucho apreciado.

Is it hitting a new warp marker? I don't use Live regularly so I can't use the proper terminology, but basically the warp markers above the track can be used to stretch sections of audio independently, you essentially show Live where the bars (or groups of 2 bars, or 4, or whatever resolution you feel you need to use) of the acapella are, so it can stretch to fit your beat. This allows you to keep a long sample like a 'pella in time for a whole track rather than having to chop it up and rejig it all manually.

Anyway, look up warp markers in the manual or on the interwebs

yeah, i know what your going on about.

ive tried that but it goes so out of time that its nearly impossible to rearange the markers to snap it back in time.

i think i just need to keep at it and spend a while moving each marker seperatly until its in time. looong

djacroama wrote:yeah, i know what your going on about.

ive tried that but it goes so out of time that its nearly impossible to rearange the markers to snap it back in time.

i think i just need to keep at it and spend a while moving each marker seperatly until its in time. looong

worth it imo

Soundcloud

did this tonight, its basically what ur talking about

create/move the warp markers to the words hit on the snare and the beats a little

its a labor of love

dont rearrange the pre-existing ones btw, right click and warp from here (straight)

delete them all and make new ones by hand

thats for variable tempo obviously (human drummer)

if they sang to a electronic beat, just timestretch the whole thing

I'd say layering with the original is the best way... rip it from youtube even, any quality would work.

Or sing it in your head, takes a while though

Jason

big up on the responce. wasnt expecting to get alot. will give it a try tonight!

got 2 remixes im doing, 1 breaks (Twista - Tattoo), 1 dubstep (T.I - What You Know) and was about to abandon them but will get back at them tonight.

have the metronome going in the background and make it sound right. working w/ acapellas can be really really challenging.

find the original song and then find the exact tempo from that

then all you need is a start point

if the empty space at the beginning doesnt actually start from the beginning of the track this can be tough. listen to the original track again and see if the vocals "lead in" to the downbeat

then make two clips

one on the downbeat through the whole song

and the intro lead in clip that you can just paste before the downbeat. then you can join them together, and add exact space before the lead in so you can trigger it on the fly if thats your plan

hurlingdervish wrote:find the original song and then find the exact tempo from that

then all you need is a start point

if the empty space at the beginning doesnt actually start from the beginning of the track this can be tough. listen to the original track again and see if the vocals "lead in" to the downbeat

then make two clips

one on the downbeat through the whole song

and the intro lead in clip that you can just paste before the downbeat. then you can join them together, and add exact space before the lead in so you can trigger it on the fly if thats your plan

not sure what you mean by downbeat...? i don't really understand your explanation either..

anyway, here's what i do... works very well for me, albeit a bit of a pain in the ass

for vox that rhyme... what i do is listen to the original so i can make a simple mock beat imitating the original (just for the purpose of warping) or a 2 to 4 bar cut of the original (without any vox going). next, ill listen to the original and try to identify where some of the snare/kick hits are relative to the vox. now that i have a base to work (looped) with and an understanding of where the pella should line up, i'll start warping. i always start out 2 bars at a time. have these looped and just make sure the rhyming word is hitting on the same spot of the grid. (usually the rhyming word will have a bit larger wave form). this will take a bit of time, but just keep your head down and your ears open... you will get it.

for vox that don't rhyme... (im talking like the gladys knight, marvin gaye type shit)things are a bit more difficult. i'll typically just cut the segment of the vox i want, keep the beat loop going and just experiment with where the warp markers are (and start time flag) until i get it sounding good.

do you follow?

BTW, i forgot to mention... some people don't realize this but there is an easy way to get rid of all the warp markers (that may already be on your pella) quickly. click the first one, then shift click the very last one and press delete. this should clear all the warp markers where you can start out fresh.