Ableton defines warping as “process of adjusting the timing and rhythm of audio clips […] enabling seamless time-stretching and tempo synchronization”. This highlights the feature’s primary function: synchronising the timing of audio clips with Live’s tempo settings. Naturally, every feature can and should be ‘misused’ in a creative way. And it’s even led to the creation of new musical genres. In this video tutorial, we’re going to explore how we can use warping for sound design.
Watch the Video:
Drones & Risers
One of my favourite ways of creating drones or risers is what I call “extreme warping”. You warp until you reach the maximum of 999 BPM, find the best warp settings and consolidate the audio clip (Ctrl+J on Windows or Cmd+J on Mac). Then continue like this until you reach the desired length and result.
Changing Rhythm or Groove
Rather than fixing timing issues in audio, we can also use warping to adjust the rhythm. This can be done either manually or by using Grooves, which employ warp markers to make timing adjustments in audio clips. For this, the Beats warp mode works best with ‘Preserve Transients’ and the ‘Forwards Once’ Transient Loop Mode. Clip Gain envelopes can also be useful for achieving the intended result.
Rhythmic Patterns or Stutter Effects
The Beats Warp Mode is also a great tool for creating rhythmic patterns or stutter effects, even from a drone or atmospheric clip. To do this, set it to a note measure under ‘Preserve’; 1/8 or 1/16 often works best. The audio pitch can also be changed, and the Transient Envelope setting reduced, to make the sound more staccato. Different Transient Loop Mode settings can result in drastic changes to the sound.
Granular Textures
We can also create granular textures by employing a similar approach to making drones or risers. First comes the extreme warping, then we’ll experiment with the two Warp Modes based on granular synthesis: Tones and Textures. Consolidate, and if you like or need the audio clip to be longer, rinse and repeat.
Experiment & Record
This method is ideal for creating audio clips for use in your future productions, and it is best to do this in a separate Live Set. One reason for this is that adjusting the global tempo is part of the process. We’ll be changing the warp modes and their respective settings, the clip tempo and the pitch on the fly. First, we’ll set up another audio track to record the output of our experiment. To do this, we’ll set ‘Audio From’ in the second audio track to the first and arm it. You can record the output in Session View, but Arrangement View offers the additional feature of Comping. By setting the loop braces and activating loop mode, we can easily combine parts from different takes after recording.
Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or if you have a sound design trick involving warping to share with us.
Note: The theme shown in the video is called Achat and available for free.
