There’s a way in which learning to warp is a little like learning to read music: you need to relate something you’re seeing to something you’re hearing. In the case of warping, you’re learning to identify important rhythmic elements in a waveform and aligning them with a tempo grid.
Before you even turn the Warp switch on, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’ve identified the first clear downbeat of the song you’re trying to warp. In other words, you need to listen to the audio and count along with it (“one, two, three, four”). Then you need to visually locate the first place that you count “one.”
Obviously, this can vary quite a bit. If you’re new to warping, its a good idea to start with relatively simple dance or pop music. In other words, use music with a big beat and a steady tempo.
Once you’ve identified the first clear downbeat, move the Start marker to line up with it:
You’ll have to zoom in a bit to make sure the Start marker is positioned precisely:
Now, all of the audio before this beat will get left out when you play back the clip. Don’t worry about it – we’ll come back for that audio later.
