Ableton dj - How to change tempo?

[yamaz]

I'm learning to dj with ableton and wondering what tricks people use to change to a different tempo, like say from dubstep to glitch hop (90bpm). The best way I've found so far was to set master tempo to 70 instead of 140 to play dubstep, slowly increase to 75 and then mix a song in that's normally 80 bpm and slowly increase tempo of that to 80 from 75. Rinse and repeat till I get to 90.

I cant do this if I keep master tempo for dubstep at 140 as there is too much time to span down to 90.

I'm wondering if I'm doing this right and if there are any better methods...like doing using a vinyl rewind into a different tempo or some other beat mangling technique like perhaps a beat repeat at high resolution then drop into new track at diff tempo.

[Disco Nutter]

Speed up to 180, don't go down to 90.

Jason

[contakt321]

A couple of ideas for you:

1. Midi map a knob or slider on your midi controller for tempo - you can set the range for a minimum and maximum too. Then in your set, adjust up or down as you go.
2. On each clip, you can have the tempo read halftime or double time. For example - you can change a Dubstep clip to be interpreted as 70 bpm. Look at the middle of the clip, there should be a ratio section. Adjust.
3. You can set it so launch a scene (the far right) automatically changes the tempo by changing the name of the scene to the desired BPM. You could have song w/ a crazy drum fill, then launch the new scene in a new tempo on beat and probably have it sound good.

[ianks]

a fun trick if you wanna jump quickly is to find a a good place to loop, throw a ping pong delay with a nice feedback on it, maybe some reverb, whateverelsy effects, and increase the tempo to 90 over the course of an 8 bar loop, drop the next track and mix.

[yamaz]

ya I would like the transition to be smooth and transparent bt if need be I'm ok with drastic change as long as it sounds good and leaves people dancing and not jolted off the dance floor...

Maybe find a song with some pad or atmosphere that trails off end of song that I can speed up or slow down to be in time with new track tempo?

I've also thought about making a song or longer loop that does this transition and mix with that as the bridge...

[Wabberjocky]

anything with delay is good at covering up huge changes in tempo, like from 90 to 140

also stick with 140 bpm, don't go to 70.

[narcissus]

a fun trick if you wanna jump quickly is to find a a good place to loop, throw a ping pong delay with a nice feedback on it, maybe some reverb, whateverelsy effects, and increase the tempo to 90 over the course of an 8 bar loop, drop the next track and mix.

word! come to think of it, i've heard DJ's use this to good effect.. if the dance floor is dragging, sometimes it can really help to just get a new groove

[yamaz]

thats the 2nd person who has said don't play at 70 bpm but 140bm instead.....but why? I don't see the difference if my clips are all set at 2x speed? And a 20bpm change is easier than 50bpm right? Also music would be speeding up into a faster tempo rather than slowing down to get to 90bpm...

I do like the idea of washing I all over with heavuly reverb/delay....any particular setting good for delay like 3/16 or 3/4? Or should I stay with even divisions.

[Disco Nutter]

thats the 2nd person who has said don't play at 70 bpm but 140bm instead.....but why? I don't see the difference if my clips are all set at 2x speed? And a 20bpm change is easier than 50bpm right? Also music would be speeding up into a faster tempo rather than slowing down to get to 90bpm...

I do like the idea of washing I all over with heavuly reverb/delay....any particular setting good for delay like 3/16 or 3/4? Or should I stay with even divisions.

Actually slowing down from 140 half step to 90 is like slowing down from 70 to 45.
Speeding up from 140 half step to 180 half step is like speeding up from 70 to 90.

You tell me now which one would sound better.

Jason

[jibberish]

I like having a few ambient tracks, full of building noise (Tim Hecker, Sunn ((0)), or even some of the less beat driven Burial), and I just don't warp them. Fade into them, and then you can adjust the temp to whatever you need, and come in blazing.

Also, you could craft a "utility track" that starts with a 90 bpm beat and then transitions to a 140 bpm beat. That song "Nike" by Mosca does this. It starts with dance hall in ends up a faster funky beat. perhaps more useful for someone playing vinyl, but you get the idea. at least this way it automated and precise, and you can concentrate on things like effects or cuing up other stuff.

Finally, in the far right hand side of the screen, in the "Scene" listings, if you list tempos, Live will read them and adjust the tempo when you play the scene. This is a way to make an abrupt change, rather than a gradual fade. Similarly, you can make certain tracks "masters" that will drive the tempo of other tracks that are playing.

[yamaz]

thats the 2nd person who has said don't play at 70 bpm but 140bm instead.....but why? I don't see the difference if my clips are all set at 2x speed? And a 20bpm change is easier than 50bpm right? Also music would be speeding up into a faster tempo rather than slowing down to get to 90bpm...

I do like the idea of washing I all over with heavuly reverb/delay....any particular setting good for delay like 3/16 or 3/4? Or should I stay with even divisions.

Actually slowing down from 140 half step to 90 is like slowing down from 70 to 45.
Speeding up from 140 half step to 180 half step is like speeding up from 70 to 90.

You tell me now which one would sound better.

Jason

Well either way I would either need to half time my 140bpm dubstep or double time my 90bpm glitch hop to make this work well....and seeing how dubstep is already half time, I would think to save each track as such and bring down master tempo to 70bpm to match.

[yamaz]

Maybe ill just mix in some sexy moaning and gradually speed that up to almost climax then fade into a different bpm that way

[Dog Hands]

thats the 2nd person who has said don't play at 70 bpm but 140bm instead.....but why? I don't see the difference if my clips are all set at 2x speed? And a 20bpm change is easier than 50bpm right? Also music would be speeding up into a faster tempo rather than slowing down to get to 90bpm...

I do like the idea of washing I all over with heavuly reverb/delay....any particular setting good for delay like 3/16 or 3/4? Or should I stay with even divisions.

Actually slowing down from 140 half step to 90 is like slowing down from 70 to 45.
Speeding up from 140 half step to 180 half step is like speeding up from 70 to 90.

You tell me now which one would sound better.

Jason

Well either way I would either need to half time my 140bpm dubstep or double time my 90bpm glitch hop to make this work well....and seeing how dubstep is already half time, I would think to save each track as such and bring down master tempo to 70bpm to match.

I don't want to be rude or anything, but this is getting a bit frustrating to watch. Your mistake here is in thinking that dubstep is in 140, and that glitch hop is in 90. Due to the half- and double-time rhythms, it can get confusing, but the easiest way to think about it is that dubstep is in 70/140, and that glitch hop is in 90/180. Your logic that "a 20bpm change is easier than 50bpm" is fundamentally flawed. A 40 bpm change = 20 bpm change if you are playing in half-time. Now, when going from 70/140 to 90/180, you have a few options, not all of which are viable. You can go 70 -> 90, 70 -> 180, 140 -> 90, or 140 -> 180. It actually creates kind of a cool effect to drop somewhat dramatically from 140 to 90. Maybe loop the end of the dubstep track, glitch it out live with a beat repeat, and use a mapped fader to bring the tempo down in a bar or two, dropping right into a fat glitch beat. Going up in tempo is a lot harder to pull off without sounding totally cheesy, but is another very viable option.

BPM's are almost more like ratios, once you get into double-, half-, quarter-time, etc. You could drown it in reverb and speed up your dubstep track to 720 and then hp filter it out and then drop a 90/180 beat, with your DAWs tempo still reading 720 if you wanted. It would simply be playing in a higher tempo.resolution.

[yamaz]

Ah thank you Dog hands! That makes a bit a sense but lemme see..If I wanted to say, go from dubstep to glitch hop and back again to dub step, could I do this by starting at 70/140bpm uptempo dubstep, slow down to 90bpm glitch hop for awhile, then slow down further to 70bpm dubstep and end it out that way? So master tempo is 140bpm, dubstep track clips set at 140bpm, glitch hop set at 90bpm. Then in order to slow down to 70bpm dubstep, I would need to have some dubstep tracks saved at 70(edit:fixed) bpm instead of 140 to play and pull this off?

Fuck. Me.

[narcissus]

yeah, dude, you got the idea.. except those dubstep tracks after the glitch hop bit would be saved at 70 bpm, lol...
but dude, why don't you keep it simple at just keep your glitch hop sets to glitch hop, and dubstep sets to dubstep?

not that i don't understand wanting to merge those genres, but if it's creating this much of a problem...

[jsills]

maybe get a little creative with it. why not whip up a few tracks that has the tempo changes built in and use it in transition? ableton is a lot more powerful than mixing A with B. id be inclined to build my own transitions.

[yamaz]

Yes I've been thinking of making a transitioning track to do this and probably will but wondering about alternate methoda as I have a show tomorrow id like to experiment. I've got a lot of tracks at 80 and 90bpm so I may try to do a slow transition over a few tracks...