Auto-Warp in Live 11.3 or later

Ableton Live 11.3.2 introduced improvements to automatic warping analysis. To ensure the best performance in Live, make sure to update to the latest version.

Improvements to Auto-Warp

When Live 11.3.2 or later Auto-Warps audio files for the first time, you might notice a temporary impact on responsiveness. This can happen when opening a Set last saved in an earlier version of Live, or when newly importing a long sample. Here are steps to avoid this issue:

  • In Live’s Preferences > File/Folder, enable Create Analysis Files.

  • In Live’s Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch, disable Auto-Warp Long Samples.

  • Allow all audio sample waveforms to finish being re-drawn before working in the Set.

RenderAudioFile.gif
Learn more about Audio Clips, Tempo, and Warping.

Note: Create Analysis Files in Live's Preferences > File/Folder should generally be turned on, if Auto-Warp Long Samples is enabled. 

Analysis Files

Live creates a unique analysis file with the extension .asd to store data about each audio sample in a Set. To store the improved warp data introduced in Live 11.3.2, Live needs to create new .asd files. Any lag associated with warping long samples will no longer occur once an updated .asd file has been created for each Clip. Learn more about Live specific file types.

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Auto-Warp Long Samples

You can disable Auto-Warp Long Samples, which is enabled by default, in Live's Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch. This feature is convenient when importing rhythmic audio samples for beat matching or tempo manipulation in Live. To prevent interruptions, you can deactivate this during live performance, or when working in Live if you don't need long audio samples to be Auto-Warped when imported.

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Auto-Warp Long Samples: Off

If this preference is set to Off, when importing long audio files:

  • The graphical waveform is only analyzed and re-drawn if needed, e.g. if no .asd file exists.
  • Auto-Warp analysis is not applied.

Note: When Auto-Warp Long Samples is turned off, audio clips can still be warped after import. Open Clip View, turn on Warp, then right-click in the sample overview and select Warp From Here. 

WarpFromHere.png
Learn more about Audio Clips, Tempo, and Warping.

Auto-Warp Long Samples: On

If Auto-Warp Long Samples is set to On, the result depends on whether a new .asd file has already been created for the sample since updating to 11.3.2 or later.

  • If an updated .asd file exists, the warp data will be loaded from the .asd file.
  • If no .asd file exists, the warp analysis will take place each time the sample is loaded.

Because of this, Create Analysis Files in Live > Preferences > File Folder should generally be turned on, if Auto-Warp Long Samples is enabled. Live will then save an .asd file for each sample, inside the same folder as the original audio file. 

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If you've disabled Create Analysis Files, to ensure uninterrupted performance when opening a Set with audio samples in Live 11.3.2 or later, wait for all audio samples to complete rendering and analysis before you start working on the Set.

 

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