Ableton Forum

I have started regularly taking live out as part of my DJ sets, and the biggest problem is the tempo issue. I hope 2.0's tempo can be controlled by MIDI cc's, maybe one controller for rough tempo and one for fine control - it's easy (with a decent beatcounter, or the new tap tempo) to get NEARLY in time but we need to be able to push and pull the tempo slightly, as you would with a turntable, to keep live in time with everything else.

Looking forward to 2.0 tho!

tempo control is the most important !
thats what live needs to be played as an instrument !

i agree you a hundred percent !
is there any news if live 2.0 will offer
tempo control via midi controller ?

I have been using live (vers. 2) for all of 2 hours now. I think its great so far but not being able to change tempo with a controller is a serious drawback, and I am really surprised that that feature has been overlooked.

also being able tie fx parameters to a controller would be cool too...

What have you done not to be able to control tempo with a MIDI CC? It certainly works fine for me...

Try this... I use a tr505 just for it's tempo knob to control live through sync. Works great for intuitive tempo changes + each button on the 505 can be set to trigger scenes.

-gNome

step-increment (button-controlled) tempo control would seem like a good way of making finer tempo adjustments than is possible with a CC wheel or slider?

yes, a tempo control like traktor-dj studio. after, live is the perfect tool to djeing

martin

Midicontrol of tempo is possible for me. The problem is that you can only control within a range of 80 bpm - 207 bpm (due to the resolution of midi cc's). Some way to have a larger range would be nice, as well as having a finer control, as mentioned.

Also, why can we go no slower than 20 bpm? 1.x allowed 10 bpm. But I want to make time stand still!

PC

Now i know what we need : - tempo control assigned to a cc, like it is at present in live 2, but with wider range (less resolution).
Then a 'fine' tempo parameter which goes +-8%, like a turntable, for fine adjustments (maybe this value could be set in preferences, so +-10, 8, 6 or 3%). I would assign this to the mod wheel on my keyboard.
Finally, another tempo controller which we can assign to the pitch bend controller to 'push' or 'pull' tempo like you do with a turntable. This could be +-50% but with a logarithmic action, so you can push and pull very slightly with little movements or drastically with big ones for when you get yourself in a DJing mess.

With this kind of setup, we can set tempo very roughly with a knob cc (on oxgen 8, control freak live etc.) then use the two lovely knobs at the end of most midi keyboards for an intuitive DJ-like mixing interface.

Please, ableton, tempo is the biggest issue for many live users who are jamming with live bands and DJs, and what I have suggested is a great solution for those of us who are using turntables in performance already (i.e. lots of us!).

Orion Edgar, Salt Djs

I TOTALLY agree. A rough BPM zone (10 to 237) and a zone for mid adjustments (.01 to .99) and a zone for super fine (.001 to .099)

Remember, midi's rezolution only goes in 127 (?) increments, so it might take 3 zones to get the thousanths increments settings right...

OR... set it up so 1 knob controls it all, but with <shift> held down its mid rez and <opt (alt)/shift> its super fine... REASON uses this techique... THIS is my favorite, cause it could work with the up and down arrows for incriment adjustments without having to <tab> or use a mouse.
Would be NICE!!!

Hello !

I agree that two buttons for pushing the tempo / making the tempo momentary slower would be nice.

For now you can do this:

1. you can adjust the tempo range if you go to the arranger and have a look at the mixer pulldown. there you´ll find the tempo settings which not only set the vsible tempo range in arranger display but do also work for the midi controlers.

if you narrow the tempo to say 120-140 bpm you have 128 steps for 20bpm.

Regards, Robert / Ableton

Firstly, I would like to see midi sync working properly in OS X.

After that, how about a push and pull button for tempo.

pressing one of them (or midi keying) will temporarily decrease tempo about 5% whilst button is down. That would make it much easier to manually sync to a record, real musicans or another non-synced machine.

taa,

-SongCarver

i did try to MIDI sync in OS X and it didn't work so well.

I'd enjoy that too!

I'm very pleased to hear that ableton are looking into this (monolake's reply above), and the workaround will help loads, thankyou.

But I want to press the issue - it would be really good to have three separate midi cc's for tempo control, one with varying absolute range and two with percentage ranges, as I described above.