Warping Tunes for Live Sets with Ableton Live
Dec 17th in Ableton Live, Mixing & Mastering by Mo Volans
Ableton is fast becoming the tool of choice for the digital DJ and has just about every tool you could ask for when putting together a live show or DJ set. One of the most important parts of getting things right on the night is syncing individual beats or entire tracks and if you want to get things 100% locked down the best strategy is to warp your files before the show.
Warp markers are small flags that Ableton uses to cut audio into small portions, these portions can then be shifted back and forth as the tempo of your project is changed. This basically means that the audio takes on an elastic nature and can be played back at any tempo without suffering from the degradation and anomalies related to traditional time stretching.
Mo Volans has been releasing tracks for well over a decade with many of the world's top electronic labels. Having worked with a long list of high profile artists, he has enjoyed top ten success on numerous of occasions. Mo records under the names MoHawk, Twisted Air, and Openair and also writes music for TV and film.
Mo is also a prolific writer and journalist writing for publications such as Music Tech, Remix mag and EQ.
There are undoubtedly a few ways to do this but this is the method I have found to be the quickest and most accurate when working with entire tracks. I had to warp around 200 tunes between Detroit airport and the MGM Grand a while back for a load of shows in the US, and this method proved to be the one that got me through the list the quickest. Of course it is advisable to do this well before the gig, rather than on the road but when it came to it the process didn’t let me down.
Although there is no audio during the tutorial the Ableton project is available for download in the Play Pack, including the tune used for warping. Please note the markers maybe slightly different from those shown in the screenshots, as the project was recreated using a high quality mp3 for download purposes, but the technique remains the same.
Step 1
Before you start it’s a good idea to inspect the files you will be working with in Ableton. Open the track in your favorite external audio editor so that you get a good a view of the whole thing. You’re really looking for clipping, areas of excessive noise, phase issues, etc. When you’re working through a large list of tracks you may only get a chance to listen to a small portion of each song, so this is an ideal way of getting a quick ‘second opinion’ on the file’s integrity.
You might also want to trim any silence from the start and end of the tracks. I would often go as far as removing long intros from tunes, as in reality these won’t get used in most DJ sets and you will probably start warping from the first major transient event, which in a lot of electronic music is the first kick drum. Of course if you intend to use the intro as part of your set leave it in there.
If you feel that a track needs a boost in volume, you can always apply some brick-wall limiting here but be careful. If you go overboard you can destroy the tune’s dynamic signature. You may find this technique useful when a song is recorded from vinyl or other analogue medium and perceived volume has been lost in the process.
Step 2
Once you are happy with the condition of the files you wish to use in your set, open Ableton Live and a suitable set to import your audio into. Here I am using a very simple set with two ‘decks’ or tracks and a basic crossfader set up. This configuration allows you to not only audition your music for warping but you can also try a quick mix if needed.
You can use an even simpler set up if you prefer as all you really need is one track to audition the track while you perform the warping technique.
Step 3
Next locate the track you want to process on your drive and import it into the first available slot on the nearest track in your set. You may be able to see that here I have used an AIFF file, this is because the track is one of my own. You may not have access to larger files (as opposed to MP3s) but it is always advisable to use the highest quality files you can. As you will only be playing back around 3 or 4 files at any one time during a DJ set, using larger files shouldn’t impose too much strain on the average computer and the extra quality will be a bonus on any system.
Step 4
Once imported you can double click on the clip and the waveform will appear in the lower area of Live’s interface. You will notice at this point that Ableton has already calculated its own warp markers and that warp mode is switched on. You can turn this auto warping for longer files on and off in Ableton’s preferences.
You will also notice that the warping mode that’s used by default is 1/16th and ‘Beats’. This is perfect for most electronic material, that is predominantly drum based but you might want to try experimenting with other modes here if you are using tracks that are more instrumental in nature.
Unless you are very lucky the markers that Ableton initially places are usually not in the correct place and will need altering. If you want to get a good overview of your track here and need inspect or edit specific parts, then you can turn off warp mode and you should see a clear representation of your track. It should look almost identical to the file you loaded at the start.
Step 5
The first and most important step to achieving a good warp is finding the first transient in the track you want to use. In this case (and in most cases) it is the initial kick drum and it was residing just after a small intro.
Once this transient is located, move the first warp marker (labelled ‘1’) so that it is dead on the start of the sound. Zoom right in here if you need to and make sure you spend enough time getting this part right.
Step 6
Now when you zoom out and view the entire track you should be able to see that even this small adjustment has brought things into line. Obviously the warping process isn’t finished yet but even this small amount of work will have brought you much closer to a track that is easily synced in your sets.
You may be lucky with some productions and find that this is all you need to do and if this is the case on moving through the next steps you’ll find you don’t have to perform any more alterations. This is always great when it happens but more often than not, there is more work to be done.
Step 7
Now zoom into a region right at the end of the track where the drum track is still playing. It is likely that you will see warp markers that are slightly off. Grab any one of these markers and move it to the start of the transient, preferably onto the same sound or beat that you used at the start of the process.
Now on zooming back into an area at the start of your track you should see that these markers are still in the right place. If this is the case it’s likely that your tune has a very uniform timing and a tight clock was used in its creation and most importantly no cut and paste edits were made in post production. Your tune should now be ready to go and you can move on to the next one, comfortable in the knowledge you will be able to mix this one into your set in a live situation.
Of course not every tune will play ball and fall into place this easily. If you find that the warp markers are still out all over the track then take a deep breath, count to ten and move on to the next step.
Step 8
Looking at the whole waveform you can see that at this point we have only used one ‘locked’ warp marker at the very start of the track. This is represented by the marker being highlighted yellow or green. If markers are falling out of place in different places throughout the tune, it’s likely there is a discrepancy in the timing caused by some of the issues mentioned in the previous step.
The only way we can rectify this is by taking a more dynamic approach to placing warp markers. Start by zooming in on an area where you know the markers are off and create a locked marker by double clicking on it, until it is highlighted. Now place this new marker in the correct position.
Repeat this process, placing these markers at key areas of the track. Splitting the track into sections of more or less the same size in your mind and placing markers at these points should help get things working. You will find that as you progress things will fall into line and that on zooming into new areas the markers are closer and closer to their correct position.
The amount of times you have to repeat this process will depend entirely on the timing of the track. From experience some tracks using heavy shuffle, strange timings or that have recorded from vinyl or manually edited may need some time spending on them before they behave.
Step 9
Once you’re happy you can save the overview and markers for that specific track by hitting the save button in the parameter area, just left of the warp mode box. It is good to be aware of the fact that this data is stored in an accompanying .asd file that will live next to the original. Now when Ableton loads this file into any project this data will come with it, allowing you to import the track into your set live with all the markers preserved.
User Comments
( ADD YOURS )scott December 17th
this really is a crummy way to dj, it take away some of the fundamental skills that lead to a dj being creative as there skills progress. I think it works really well if your going to be creative with it and mix parts of tracks with parts of other tracks. (you really need to mix audio tracks to do that) using ableton to mix to tracks together and maybe a sample or two is fast becoming a club performance no no. people don’t want to book a dj that just uses ableton right now. Unless your deadmau5 and even then lots of people can stand the way he mixes, and the fact he has no traditional skill set makes all his sets sound like a carbon copy of the last.
( )Like watching someone check there email all nice and browse around on myspace. What is the point of going to see a dj if all there doing is letting a computer do all the work and then not using the rest of the time to be creative? That is what sets djs apart.
Just my 2 cents
KHS December 17th
I think watching any boring DJ with or without a laptop is roughly the same.
( )mr. tunes December 17th
just a little tip here, it’s really helpful to know the bpm before you start to warp.
also you can turn warping off, press “tap tempo” to set the project tempo to that of the track. then set bar 1 on to the first beat and “warp from here”.
that helps with the more challenging problems with warping when the system is all confused it gets really hectic.
as for scott’s comments – this post is about teaching a skill. whether or not like where that skill ends up is another story. but you can also use warping to make remixes, right?
( )Mo Volans December 17th
@ Mr Tunes… yep good point, actually left this section out (my bad) also can be very useful to use the metronome at the start and possibly throughout as a reference to the markers that you place. If you prefer you can use a simple percussion loop.
… and yep, this is more about a technique than it is about which form of djing i prefer
i think if it is done creatively and with passion there should be no rules on how a set is performed… ive seen good and bad sets using all sorts of kit, for me its more about what you play and when you play it.
( )Cynet-Tokyo December 17th
Great Tutorial!
@Scott – I have to disagree with your comments. I have personally been a DJ playing out internationally for 15+years and I know a lot of people who are frequently booked at the biggest shows on the planet who are either using Ableton or a DVS system like Traktor or Torq. People like Richie Hawtin, The British Murder Boys, Surgeon, Carl Cox, The Phat Conductor, Monolake, Just Blaze, etc.
The checking the email argument is annoying because it does not address the real problem in clubs and events these days. The cult of DJ and people not there to enjoy the music. No one should be facing the stage – its not a rally. You should be there for the music not to see some marketed personality qith their hands up in the air all night. Ableton is a great tool for performing because it allows you to truly have your own sound when you play out – if your willing to put the work into setting up your loops – fx and tools. You can move far beyond beat juggling and mixing. Many of us have been down that road and now its time to move on to the next phase.
Just my opinion.
( )mr. tunes December 17th
yeah metronome is your final check to see if you’re doing well. it’s rough to check against other material in your set in case those are not warped perfectly.
but i still don’t always know which “warp from here” to use. there’s enough content in that to make a seperate tutorial possibly.
i also heard that v7 is better warping than v6 by leaps and bounds.
oh and picking on deadmau5 is so last week btw
( )Dickie December 17th
Couldn’t you trim (bring in the start/end bars) the files within Live instead of using an outside source and have non-destructive editing?
( )Mo Volans December 17th
@ Cynet-Tokyo … totally agree, ive played and watched shows using Ableton all over the globe and i usually get nothing but interest from people about what im doing…
We road tested Red sounds ‘Soundbite micro’ syncing Ableton and decks at Ice in Vegas just before it closed and several other gigs across the US … the booth was always crowded and even the Crystal method boys were asking what we were up to… so i think people can still be excited by a creative digital set up.
@ Dickie … yep of course you could trim in Ableton. I just find it can be beneficial doing some prep in an external editor as i find it clearer, but of course everyone will find the method that works for them.
( )The Other Scientist December 18th
While back, I read on some forum that the best initial warp setup for Ableton dj sets is the Re-Pitch method, as it does the least amount modification to the way the tracks audio is output. The other methods try to fill in audio between warp markers and can reduce overall sound quality of the track. So if quality of sound is important to you and you are not mixing tracks will large initial BPM differences from you master BPM, this might be an option to look into.
@mr.tunes: yeah I would love to hear some input on which Warp From Here provides the best results… is it one of those “depends on the track” sort of things?
Song selection, song selection and song selection. Those are the top three must have skills for a DJ . You can be the best beat juggler, but if your overall track selection and progression is bad, you’re not being a good DJ. Ableton is a tool that just pushes the boundaries of what’s possible. Who cares about the true tried, its all about the new new… that’s my 2 cent.
( )Nic Bertino December 18th
Very helpful as usual Mo. I think a lot of people will benefit from this.
( )teebee December 18th
well, i’d also like to know about your favourite warp method, cause everything ive read about the fav method was: beats, 1/16 …
( )best quality, no scratches….
Mo Volans December 19th
@ teebee … yep for me the warping mode set to beats and 1/16 tends to work best for this purpose. Of course if a certain track wont play ball you may want to experiment with different settings but if its percussion dominated electronic stuff your working with you should have no problem.
( )mr. tunes December 19th
i agree with the comment higher up that re-pitch is the best sounding, but that’s because it’s not really employing any technology on the track. i think beats mode is the best if you want to keep the key intact. complex was good in theory but it makes everything sound metallic and strange.
funny thing to think about – the piano player/piano roll is one of the earliest forms of music playback, and it probably had better timestretching than most of the technologies that succeeded it – because it was essentially midi!
( )nomi December 22nd
okay okay. i didn’t even read the whole comment but it annoyed me enough to want to post – which i never do. it is ridiculous to bring up the old “not real djing” argument or whatever. you’re missing the entire point. this tutorial is trying to teach you a skill, so just read it and don’t hate. do something interesting like mixing between Live and vinyl or any number of things. the fact is i don’t dj with completely preprogrammed sets, but i’m always interested in finding an easier way to warp my tracks. this is what this tutorial is really about. either way, the technology of djing is advancing with or without us and you can choose to embrace it or not. if i can put MY 2 cents in, if a dude is djing with a perfectly preprogrammed set, the very least he could do is still rock the house if his set is really tight song-wise and he sorta uses some form of crossfader action. and if it sucks then it sucks regardless of the way he performs. the joy of djing is the most important thing to recognize and if it’s there in the guy it’ll always show.
( )matt December 23rd
re: the re-pitch issue. i have to agree, even a small amout of timestretch ruins the sound quality for me.
( )if a track has linear & uniform tempo throughout, re-pitch is definately the best way to go for sound quality.
However, if a track has a bit of tempo drift., re-pitch won’t work as the at the section joins between each marker, i get a slight jump in pitch, which is very noticable.
is there anyway around this ???? it’s put me off using ableton, as i hate what time stretching does to the sound quality of a track.
I was considering using a minimum of timestretching on the opening & closing 16 bars of each track (just to get them uniform in tempo, and leave the bulk of the track alone, with it’s tempo drifts) – on the basis that the start and end are the bits most likely to be combined with another track – is this the best way to go ??
Smiffi December 24th
Hi looking into Ableton and thought this is the place to find the Dj’s…
Im converting over from Cd’s and have a few (probably silly) questions but if anyone could help out that would be great.
Firstly
1. If i buy the allen and heath xone 2d, I dont need to buy an audio interface thingy as it is capable of headphone monitoring with the main output?
2. are there any better solutions?
3. With the A&H 2d do i always need a mixer or can i plug straight into my monitors?
If anyone could that would be much appreciated!
cheers.
( )calitron December 26th
No !st poster is right, deadmau5’s attitude stinks bigtime when it comes to dj’ing. its not just about him using ableton, you wanna read some of his comments re “traditional” dj’s
( )Sciamachy May 7th
I think deadmau5, based on what he said on Radio 1 last night, sees himself as more of a musician/composer than a DJ. While he expressed gratitude to trad DJs who “present his work” he doesn’t seem to see much skill in playing “someone else’s tune” & another “someone else’s tune” & making them fit together – I’m paraphrasing here because I can’t remember his exact words, but that’s the gist anyway. I’m a fan of his work, & I DJ online via streaming services, & while his comment was kinda dissy I can see why he sees it that way.
( )I see Ableton as a tool to do more than just beat-matching & mixing tracks together though: I reckon you could get some pretty sweet results using sampled sections of songs, beatmatched, into scenes in the session view, kinda play them like an instrument – check the new Akai APC40: you could use that like a live instrument & get back some of the spontaneity of vinyl twin-deck DJing
Chris January 23rd
It is a BAD idea to start placing warper markers by double clicking and making a warp marker!!! all you need with constant tempo music that is in high quality and digital and not vinyl rips is one yellow marker the default one placed right on the first beat, then find where it needs pushing into place with the metronome and drag the black markers across a little nad you will find it will be all in temp throughout, it is very easy to nail the markers this way, you don’t need any more markers or you destroy the groove of the track!.
( )Mo Volans January 30th
this isnt always the case Chris. if a track has been ripped from vinyl, or edited manually then you WILL need to create more markers. Sometimes an artist will use a very heavy shuffle or groove quantize in these situations it is sometimes also necessary to apply more markers.
Of course if you can get away with simply letting the markers fall into place then thats the ideal situation but after warping literally thousands of tracks and using them live i can tell you this isn’t always enough.
I clearly state in the tutorial that you would only use this method if the track requires it.
( )M pleez February 21st
DJ’s are musical waitrons, no one cares wether you’re playing on vinyl or not, the only people who deserve respect for that are the true beat juggling “scratch you a new one’ turntabilists…. using applications like ableton allow for so many more creative and musical possibilities never mind performance options, but you might not understand that if you’re just a DJ, you just might be conceited enough to think that you’re doing something unique with those 2 turntables that hasn’t already been done for the last 20 years.
well said KHS – if you’re boring – it has nothing to do with your tools – you’re still gonna be boring.
rather than asking “why am I better for sticking to the old” – and subsequently getting left behind, why not ask how you could use new technology to enhance your performance, and do something new, creative and interesting to an audience outside of your four bedroom walls and your sad ass goldfish.
( )Rohan March 7th
the problem is that too many people are taking to softwares like live & playing.making absolute crap on stage in the name of music…
i have nothing against old or new…but the thing is that when people play on decks & turntables…there is no doubt that they can mix…
( )but when people start with live & claim to play a “live set” you dont really know what they are upto…ive seen too many new acts springing up who pretty much play a mediocre preprogrammed set…
i totally agree about the point that the tools don’t make it any better or worse…if you suck as a dj/live act…you will no matter what you use….but i’d much rather listen to mediocre sets by someone who is actually trying to mix than someone who is playing an absolutely tight but uninteresting preprogrammed set (& pretending to act cool with a lot of hand gestures + tweaking knobs to no effect)
Philippe Levy April 1st
Mo,
Given your experience with the software I have a question about workflow. I’m transitioning in from using Serato as my DJing environment. I’m attracted to Ableton because of it’s potential for highly choreographed sets. Mostly I got tired of the two channel system, not being able to easily drop acapellas or mash songs up live. But before I go crazy warping my library, I’d like to get a few pointers.
So my needs are two-fold. On the one side, the ability to produce live with ultimate creative control (Ableton). On the other, having the flexibility to react to the dancefloor real-time by having all my music ready (Serato is good for this). Reason is, I often find myself in the face of tough crowds that require me to try a lot of music out. Test the crowd, find out what it’s going to take to get those hips moving. Once the energy is up, I can ride that into a choreographed set. Obviously running ableton+APC40 and serato+decks+mixer to get the best of both worlds is ridiculous.
As great as Ableton is, the browser is hella clunky. I have about 2000 tracks prepared in Serato with cue points. I can sort by bpm, artist, genre, etc. It seems a lot more complicated to organize a large volume of tracks with Ableton. Say I prewarp all my tracks. Do I then drop 2000 tracks into a session view? Furthermore, to make cue points, seems the only way is to copy the song clip over several times and change start markers. So, say I want 3 cue points per track, I’d have like 6000 clips in one session view to have both cue points and all my tracks.
Trademark from Evolution Control Commitee (search youtube ‘video mashup screen’) looks like he has about 1000 clips (300 songs with 3 cue-points/clips each).
To solve this problem some of my friends use iTunes, pre-warp their tracks (all the asd files get stored in the iTunes folder) and drag and drop the track they want into session view. But unfortunately, you then have to redo your cue points time and time again while you play. When dragging and dropping a track into session view, Ableton only looks for an ASD file with warp parameters, not a ALS file for clips.
I realize this is somewhat off topic, but the level of discussion here is about as good as it gets. Other forums I’ve posted to have left me with mediocre responses.
The only solution I’ve come up with is to simply reduce my flexibility and give the axe to 80% of my music. That or create an ALS project file per genre of music and drag and drop that into session view if I need that genre. Friends have cited that sometimes this can cause gaps in audio, especially if you’re dragging in 80 clips.
Any ideas?
.:pl
( )Greedyfly June 12th
everyone should check out the moldover channel on you tube or controllerism.com. Differnent technique to djing. You can download ableton template files which takes a bit of learning but in the end are good fun.
Also shows how to set up and organise your songs/samples – 5 tracks song a song b drums vox and instruments with same tempo songs grouped to gether with 5 different coulours used to group them in the 5 keys ( circle of fifths)
( )Paul June 21st
The analog / wax debate is just too old now; it’s time to look beyond media.
( )Imagine a world where all you could play was what reached wax. How boring for us all, and expensive… I’d rather make and play my own in Live.
DJ Mark Almond July 19th
Having dj’ed since 1980, Ive a huge collection of vinyl. And yes Ableton is fantastic when warping dance tunes of recent years… I’ve just recorded from vinyl 2 tracks from 79, GQ Disco Nights and Players Association – Turn the music up. For those not old enough to remember these records have changes throughout of bpm. Players Ass Intro is 116bpm the first verse, 118, the bulk 120, then that break near the end, 116.
Ableton has a nightmare trying to warp this!!! And the GQ track! If you got these tunes, give it a go! I tried for an hour to manually adjust the markers, but the sound when played back is “warbled” if you understand what i mean!
Just wish drum machines were invented back in the 70s!!!!!
btw found this article gr8.
( )Sean Smith October 15th
Surpised to see someone mentioning the Players Association here. LOL. I am also using Abelton to remix some of my disco records and raregroove. With disco records it takes a long time to set up all of your markers. I found the best way is to set the markers on every 8 count then go back to fix the markers inbetween the 8 counts. Also set it to complicated material instead of beats.
( )