Adjusting cued track bpm in ableton with APC40
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 13
  1. #1
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default Adjusting cued track bpm in ableton with APC40

    Hi,

    Essentially, what I want to be able to do is adjust the bpm of the song that I have cued, ready to mix into the song that's already playing out. I.e just like a turntable/cdj, adjust the bpm of the tune that I'm mixing in but without that bpm adjustment affecting the tune that's already playing out.

    I can assign a knob to control the master tempo and I can change the bpms throughout the set by typing the bpms I want in each row in master tempo in clip on the right hand side, but these methods only allow me to change the tempo of everything that is playing out through the speakers, rather than change the tempo of the cued track which is what I want to do.

    Or if this isn't possible, is there a way for Ableton just to bring in each new tune at a bpm that I've specified? Will I have to warp them at the bpm that I want to mix them in? Rather than just warping them at their native one?

    Many thanks for reading and your time,

    bobcat

  2. #2
    Tech Guru deevey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    From Ireland Living in Manila: Philippines :D
    Posts
    3,667

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bobcat View Post

    Or if this isn't possible, is there a way for Ableton just to bring in each new tune at a bpm that I've specified?
    You need to warp all tracks to DJ in live - once thats done every track will be in the time of the master tempo.

    Will I have to warp them at the bpm that I want to mix them in? Rather than just warping them at their native one?
    A Warp means you can play the tracks at any BPM and a track can be warped live regardless of the master BPM.

    Autowarp works fine for house tracks 99.9% of the time, other genre's can get messy, once you have the start beat indicated "warp from here" - choosing the warp method is the trickier part as they all have pros and cons (unless you use re-pitch).

    I tend to have a pitch bend button mapped just in case things drift slightly.

  3. #3
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Hi thanks,

    I've seen people use APC 40s by just clip launching everything, how are the beats being matched there? The only way i can seem to match beats throughout a set is by changing the master tempo on the right hand side by typing in the BPM i want each scene to move to and pressing the scene launch to launch each clip. (the set lists that ive been making variate between 120 and 140 bpm)
    Last edited by bobcat; 12-28-2012 at 02:08 PM.

  4. #4
    Tech Guru deevey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    From Ireland Living in Manila: Philippines :D
    Posts
    3,667

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bobcat View Post
    Hi thanks,

    I've seen people use APC 40s by just clip launching everything, how are the beats being matched there? The only way i can seem to match beats throughout a set is by changing the master tempo on the right hand side by typing in the BPM i want each scene to move to and pressing the scene launch to launch each clip
    Once again - Learn about Warping - google, youtube it theres a million tutorials.

    Warping will take those 120 / 140 BPM tracks and "sync" them all to exactly the same BPM (maybe 130)

    There is no beat matching involved from track to track and no need to adjust the master tempo unless you are intending to beatmatch to an external source like a turntable or CDJ ?

    Where (and why) are you typing the master tempo ? .. in the clip properties ?

  5. #5
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Here's what I'm doing - I've skipped to the relevant part of the video


    the embedded player didnt let me skip its 4mins 15 seconds

  6. #6
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default

    For me even when the tracks are warped, ableton doesnt speed or slow them up according to what bpm the current/next track is, it just syncs them straight to whatever the master tempo is.

    Say for example the tune playing out is 128BPM, and im going to bring in a tune thats 126 BPM, ableton wont change the BPM of the tune im bringing in to 128 to compensate or change both to 127 , it will just change the tune to whatever the master tempo is set to. If the master tempo was set to 100 BPM then it will play both tunes at 100 BPM. If the Master tempo was set to 130 BPM then it will play both the tunes at 130 BPM.
    Last edited by bobcat; 12-28-2012 at 04:30 PM.

  7. #7
    Tech Guru deevey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    From Ireland Living in Manila: Philippines :D
    Posts
    3,667

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bobcat View Post
    Here's what I'm doing - I've skipped to the relevant part of the video


    the embedded player didnt let me skip its 4mins 15 seconds
    You can really ignore setting Ableton's tempo before warping for the Majority of Tracks IMHO and just do a "warp from here - Straight" unless you are making massive jumps in tempo.

    Then Just rename the Scene to xxxBPM or right click the Scene Cell and "Edit Launch Tempo".

    Everything is explained pretty well in the video though (with the exception of right click).

  8. #8
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default

    ah many thanks, i didnt see that right click, now i can launch clips in the scene and they come in at the tempo that is set from the master, was just missing out the semi colon in front!

    is there any way to assign the pitch control to a fader on the APC? since they start at the zero mark at the bottom maybe i could assign pitch + to one fader and pitch - to another? or is this not possible?

  9. #9
    Tech Guru deevey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    From Ireland Living in Manila: Philippines :D
    Posts
    3,667

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bobcat View Post
    ah many thanks, i didnt see that right click, now i can launch clips in the scene and they come in at the tempo that is set from the master, was just missing out the semi colon in front!

    is there any way to assign the pitch control to a fader on the APC? since they start at the zero mark at the bottom maybe i could assign pitch + to one fader and pitch - to another? or is this not possible?
    Attaching to a Fader is not really Accurate Enough TBH, just a 20BPM range only adjusts in .3% jumps which isnt exactly great,

    The Other Bad news is the encoder is the only thing on the board that can control the pitch finely enough.

    Why would you need a manual pitch anyhoo if you are using BPM marked launches which will override it anyhows though. ?

  10. #10
    Tech Convert
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by deevey View Post
    Attaching to a Fader is not really Accurate Enough TBH, just a 20BPM range only adjusts in .3% jumps which isnt exactly great,

    The Other Bad news is the encoder is the only thing on the board that can control the pitch finely enough.

    Why would you need a manual pitch anyhoo if you are using BPM marked launches which will override it anyhows though. ?
    Ah, would there be such a thing as a VST to control the pitch, and so I could be able to assign a fader to that? I'll have a look around now.

    Yeah your'e right about not needing a pitch fader if I'm using the BPM marked launches, I just wanted to see if I could actually beat match in Ableton with my APC40 lol.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •