Live’s ability to match the tempo of all clips to the master tempo is obviously a wonderful thing that enables us to do all sorts of things that weren’t possible before. But conversely, it makes some things that are really simple with a traditional DJ setup slightly more complicated.
I’m speaking here of big tempo changes. Not going from 127 to 132 BPM which can easily be accomplished by nudging the tempo up over the course of a few tracks, but dramatic changes like going from 107 to 140BPM.
One solution to this problem is to use an unwarped transition clip. Since unwarped clips don’t sync to Live’s tempo, big changes to the master tempo can be made without anybody hearing it. The process goes like this:
Take a clip containing ambient material of some sort – spoken word, weird sound effects, whatever – and add it into a Set with its Warp switch turned off:
When you want to make the tempo jump, mix this clip into whatever you’re currently playing. Then, mix out any tempo based material you’re playing, leaving only the unwarped clip (or clips) coming through the PA. Now you can make your tempo change…
…and drop into the next song whenever you’re ready.
