OK, I’ve decided that before we get into the nitty gritty of groove, I want to talk a little more about quantization. You’ll see why in a minute. After that, we’ll plunge right into the groove pool. (This will also give you a chance to get into your Speedo. Or bikini. Whatever.) An often overlooked […]
APPLYING GROOVE
OK, I think it’s time to move on from warping for a while. Today, we’ll pick up where we left off, though and discuss another automatic technique for changing the timing of a loop: the groove engine. In this tip, we’ll cover the basics. To apply a groove to a clip, hit the hot-swap button […]
WARPING 101: USING AUTO-WRECK
Most of my favorite groove-tweaking is done manually, but there are a number of automated techniques that are worth knowing as well. It’s easy to overlook the fact that as of Live 8, audio can be quantized just like MIDI. The quantize commands are under the Edit menu. If they are grayed out, click on […]
WARPING 101: WRECK THE GROOVE
It’s all very well and good to warp with the minimum number of warp markers in order to preserve the original timing of a sample, but there are times when that just won’t do. Sometimes you have to subtly (or radically) alter the timing of a piece of audio to get it to sit right […]
WARPING 101: SIZE MATTERS
Sometimes when attempting to warp multiple clips, you’ll see this in the clip view: This is telling you is the main caveat of warping multiple clips simultaneously: they all have to be exactly the same length. The solution is (not surprisingly) to make both clips the same length. This is easy to do, provided that […]
WARPING 101: MULTIPLE WARPGASMS
There are some cases where you have to do the impossible: warp a file with no time reference (such as an acapella vocal) such that it lines up with another file (such as a drum track) that has tempo fluctuations. This means that the vocal track would have to have multiple warp markers to correct […]
WARPING 101: TRICKY ACAPELLAS
The number one reason it can be tricky to get an acapella working right is that it has an odd amount of space at the beginning. You might have the overall tempo set correctly, but the vocals don’t land in the right place relative to the other clips you’re playing. Fixing this is similar to […]
WARPING 101: EASY ACAPELLAS
It’s common for folks to get stuck on warping acapella tracks (solo vocals). The obvious problem with acapellas is that there is no easy time reference such as drums to line up with the beat time ruler. However, given that acapellas are typically from sequenced music with a steady tempo, it’s often easier than you […]
WARPING 101: THE NEGATIVE BARS
Regardless of what warping method you use, I usually recommend that you get the Start Marker placed at the first clear downbeat of the audio before you start warping. This means that you’ll be leaving out any intro material from the clip. In order to have that material play back, once the clip is warped, […]
WARPING 101: THE LOOP METHOD
As you warp a wider variety of material, you’re going to encounter stuff for which the methods described so far simply don’t work for. In the process of making my hobotech mixes, I work with all sorts of old acoustic music that not only fluctuates in tempo, it often includes no percussion, so there’s a […]
