Beat matching MP3s

RobMortimer · Post by **RobMortimer** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:17 pm

I have recently got Ableton Live 7 and have been having problems figuring out how to beat match mp3 tracks together in regard to making a mix compilation.
Would much appreciate any guidance on how to accomplish this.

Many thanks

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:37 pm

You need to "warp" each track. Warping makes every track you play in Live play at the same tempo.

Check out these tutorials (if you haven't already) - they're for older versions of Live, but all the principles are exactly the same:

http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_04
http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_05
http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_09

Then you'll need to decide if you are going to perform the compilation and record it (using session view) or whether you are going to arrange it and render it to disk (using arrangement view).

KD · Post by KD » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:52 pm

Kind of on the same topic, I've done a fair few mix comps in Live now, so I thought I new how to warp, but the latest set of tracks I've been working on seem to be giving me a lot of grief. Hopefully someone can explain why?

Previoulsy my mixes have been fairly commercial house affairs with tracks from Copyright, Defected, Soulfuric and the like (bought from Traxsource) and most tracks from these tracks have wapred no problem with only 1 warp marker on the fist down beat of the track and the last bar of the track adjusted to space out from back-to-front in the standard way recomended for warping.

However, I've also started buying some more progressive trance stuff from labels like Five AM, Electronic Elements and Cold Harbour (from Beatport). Lots of these tracks seem to be a lot harder to warp requiring multiple warp markers as the tempo drifts about alot.

I didn't expect this as I'd assumed that the music is digitally produced and bought digitially as well, therfore it would be bang on tempo and easy as you like to warp.

Has anyone had any similar experiences and can anyone explain why I'm finding these tracks harder to warp?

It's doing my head in and I seem to be wasting a lot of time trying to warp tracks rather than getting on with doing the mix...

Also, what's the most effective thing to warp to? The metronome or a simple kick drum loop? I have been using the metronome up to now, but I saw a tutorial on YouTube that suggested an Impulse kick loop is better...

Pepehouse · Post by **Pepehouse** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:42 am

Some tracks drift in tempo just because the producer wants it to be like that, try to warp them putting a marker every 16 bars or so that should do the trick if the track is electronically produced, with practice you'll warp those tracks in a couple of minutes. When I've got a hard to warp track I prefer to use a drum loop I find it easier than the metronome. Hope that helps.

KD · Post by KD » Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:03 am

Pepehouse wrote:Some tracks drift in tempo just because the producer wants it to be like that

Why would a producer do that? That just makes it more difficult to mix?

Also, the drift that I am seeing is more like the kind of drift that you get from ripping vinly, but because it's a digital download, I wouldn't have expected this...

Pepehouse wrote:try to warp them putting a marker every 16 bars or so that should do the trick if the track is electronically produced, with practice you'll warp those tracks in a couple of minutes.

The only problem with this approach is it can be difficult to "see" where the kick is in the middle sections of the track because the waveform changes because of the number of other instruments playing at the same time.

Also, is it common for the BPM of a track to not be a round number e.g. 130 BPM - some stuff I have warped comes out at 130.10 and stuff like that - again I don't know why a producer would choose to set the tempo like this?

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:00 pm

KD wrote:The only problem with this approach is it can be difficult to "see" where the kick is in the middle sections of the track because the waveform changes because of the number of other instruments playing at the same time.

What does it matter what it looks like? I warp with my ears instead of my eyes. What it looks like is irrelevant... it's what it sounds like.

Keyboard shortcuts make it easier to fly through a track when warping.

elektrovert · Post by **elektrovert** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:54 pm

I was warping one of my own tracks there a while ago, the tempo appeared to drift, but I know I recorded the whole track at 135 bpm.

I think the process of warping using the tap tempo makes the tempo appear to be drifting when you're adding markers.

If I just set the tempo of the clip to 135 bpm it's fine.

KD · Post by KD » Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:15 pm

hambone1 wrote:
KD wrote:The only problem with this approach is it can be difficult to "see" where the kick is in the middle sections of the track because the waveform changes because of the number of other instruments playing at the same time.
What does it matter what it looks like? I warp with my ears instead of my eyes. What it looks like is irrelevant... it's what it sounds like.

Good point - although I find it's quicker to do by eye when you can "see" the kick...

stonee · Post by **stonee** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:04 am

when i warp, I delete any warp markers that ableton sets in.

learn what a kick drum looks like on your wave form.

find the first kick drum in the song, and set 1.1 there. then go up about 16 bars, and adjust the begining of bar 16 to be at the kick that should be there (of your doing trance or anything with a strong drumloop)

takes me about 15 seconds.

if the tempo is drifting, try and find where it starts drifting off, and drop a marker there, then adjust your markers to the next kick you can find. then when you hear it drifting, do it all again.

hope that helps!

cram33 · Post by **cram33** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:52 am

Warping seems to be daunting at first, but now most tracks i warp only take 15 sec's up to half a minute to warp. And quite a few tracks i warped had a drifting tempo. No other way to do it then Stonee said. Some of my warped tracks have about 50 or 60 markers! And indeed use your ears. If you can see the kick, great. But often you can't! So train your ears! The way I like to warp is on a kicktrack, mostly with a clap and an 8th hihatloop for additional precision. Often I found that it's not enough to rely only on the kick, especially on drifting tracks. Hihats solve that problem for me. Good luck!

dunx · Post by **dunx** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:46 am

when trying to beatmatch, is the objective to have each song/mp3 bpm match the program's or global bpm?

so far i have set the global bpm to 140 and ususally each song i use strays around 140 +- 5 bpm. should i actually set it at 140 to match the global? (song bpms seems to always change when i warp tracks manually and)

cram33 · Post by **cram33** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:59 am

You don't have to match the songs bpm to the global bpm, but to the global 'grid'. No matter what your global BPM is. That way the song always stays in sync with the global BPM. Hope I answered your question correctly.

dunx · Post by **dunx** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:05 pm

cram33 wrote:You don't have to match the songs bpm to the global bpm, but to the global 'grid'. No matter what your global BPM is. That way the song always stays in sync with the global BPM. Hope I answered your question correctly.

haha well im pretty sure i've always been doing it wrong. i would set the global bpm and the change all the song's bpm to the global. well this never really worked very well

now when i manually warp tracks the bpm syncs up automatically and i dont have to do anything with it.

yeah that answers my question thanks.

ps. i have now mastered manually warping songs. good thread, thanks to all the people who posted with tips

DJ Mike Beeds · Post by **DJ Mike Beeds** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:09 pm

I just want to thank you all for this topic discussion, it's helped me out greatly