Scene Tempo and Time Signature
To display Scene Tempo and Time Signature controls in Ableton Live, follow the steps below for your Live version.
Live 12
To reveal Scene Tempo and Time Signature controls in Live 12, enable this option in Live > View menu.
With Scene Tempo and Time Signature enabled in Live's View menu, you can collapse or expand this view by dragging the left edge of the Main Track. To adjust tempo and time signature settings, follow the instructions below as for Live 11.
Live 11
In Live 11 Session View, to reveal Scene Tempo and Time Signature controls, drag the left edge of the Master track to the left. These controls are hidden by default.
To change a scene’s tempo:
- Click in the tempo field, enter a BPM in the range of 20-999, and press Enter.
- You can also use the arrow keys, or drag with the cursor, to adjust the tempo.
To set the scene's time signature:
- Click in the Time Signature field and choose a numerator (beats per bar) between 1 and 99
- Choose a denominator (beat value) of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16.
You can also edit tempo and time signature values in the Scene View. To open Scene View, double-click on the Scene Header for the desired scene, under the Main/Master Track header in Session View.
Scenes with assigned tempo and/or time signature changes will display a colored Scene Launch button.
Note: Sets that were created in older Live versions than Live 12, with tempo and/or time signature values specified by scene names, will have their values carried over to the Scene Tempo and/or Time Signature controls. When opening these Sets in newer versions of Live, the Master/Main track’s width is adjusted so that the Scene Tempo and Scene Time Signature controls are visible.
Live 10
To assign a tempo to a scene, select the scene and rename it with a tempo, in the range of 20-999 BPM. For example:
To assign a time signature to a scene, rename the scene with a meter, in the form of “4/4“. Specify the number of beats per bar (numerator) between 1 and 99, and a beat value (denominator) of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Scene names in Live 10 can designate name, tempo and time signature, in any order, as long as each field is separated by at least one character.
For example,
- “2/4+108 BPM“
- “72 BPM;7/8“
- “60 BPM Chorus 3/4“
are all valid scene names that will trigger meter and tempo changes.