when prepping a recent recording, often, the start point needs adjusting.
and if that groove recording, say from a machinedrum, has maybe 5 variations within the recording … then there is a technique to quickly achieving the moving of the start point … and getting Ableton to respect that start point, and maintaining the highest quality unwarped output from a track that is in Warp mode to enable looping and adjustment of start point.
it’s taken about 10 years of thinking about this, purchased Ableton about 10 years ago with a macbook pro and an rme soundcard.
haven’t quite formulated how to explain it, but i guess most people know how to use ableton effectively already.
essentially, set start point to taste as regards time feel and where it should begin.
right click and select Set 1.1.1.00 here
then right click and select Warp From Here
ableton now respects the Start Point and will export a proper 1-4 bar loop of a pattern section variation within the recording, for later use on the Octatrack, properly, respecting the 1.1.1.00 start point.
if one does not select Warp From Here, if the loop braces are moved, Ableton will not respect the previously selected Start Point.
here’s the thing though: by selecting “Warp from Here”, a rewarp happens and the recording sounds muffled at some points like on a syncopated snare or something. yes, Complex Pro mode helps but not enough in my opinion.
So, what to do? Maintain the same tempo, and set the Warp Type to Repitched, then it does not apply any warp map, not once nor twice after the Warp from Here option selection.
So that is cool. the clip is still flexibly editable, as regards volume automation, dynamics, start point, loop length … but there is no loss of audio quality whatsoever.
Quickly export the five variations of the audio recording, by moving the braces.
note: setting Start Point is helped by selecting Command-4 to enter slip mode.
even in slip mode, the braces may be moved and the start point will follow along at a quantized position, but this may or may not be satisfactory, resulting in the required double keypress Command4 to return to quantized edit mode.
In the export dialog i export a 24 bit stereo aiff and set Export As Loop to Yes.
The resulting audio loop files are going to be very useable either to further sound processing in an ableton project, or directly on the Octatrack.
Although i cannot bear the sound of the click in ableton, i will use it very briefly when adjusting the start point of a clip. it’s worth it. especially if there are five variations of a recent 50 second pattern recording to ableton.
by getting the start point of the clip grooving with ableton’s metronome, or rather, making it sound like ableton’s metronome is grooving with the clip recording, then that is fabulous. Set 1.1.1.00 there, right click and select Warp From Here (ignore other options), and set Warp Type to RePitch to avoid the undesirable artefacts of a second Warp application to the clip.
from there it is the simplest thing to move the braces five times and export five, related yet different, quality audio clips.
it isn’t necessary to readjust the start point every time the braces are moved, and it isn’t necessary to sacrifice any audio quality whatsoever when exporting content from such an editing scenario. Yay.