Reference Manual
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 118
When the Warp switch is off, Live plays the sample at its original, normal tempo, irre-
spective of the current Live Set's tempo. This is useful for samples that have no inherent
rhythmic structure: percussion hits, atmospheres, sound effects, spoken word and the like.
Turn the Warp switch on to play rhythmically structured samples (such as sample loops,
music recordings, complete music pieces, etc.) in sync with the current song tempo.
To direct Live's assumptions about new samples, use the Record/Warp/Launch tab of Live's
Preferences. If the Auto-Warp Long Samples preference is on, Live assumes that long
samples contain music that should be played in sync with the Live Set's tempo. If you would
rather have Live default to playing long samples as they are, disengage this preference.
9.2.1 Tempo Master/Slave
All warped clips in the Arrangement View have one further option: They can be dened as
tempo masters by toggling their Master/Slave switches. Any number of clips can be set as
tempo masters, but only one clip at a time can actually be the tempo master. This distinction
is always granted to the bottom-most, currently playing clip in the Arrangement View.
The clip that is the current tempo master will play as if warping was off, but with one
important difference the rest of the Live Set will be warped so that it plays in sync with the
current tempo master.
This is achieved by adding tempo automation to the Master track for the duration of the
tempo master clip. You will notice that the Tempo eld in Live's Control Bar becomes
disabled in this state; this is because all tempo control is handed over to the tempo master
clip.
When toggling a clip's Master/Slave switch, or when deleting a clip that was set as tempo
master, the Master track tempo automation is removed again, restoring the proper tempo
to the region. If you wish instead to keep the generated tempo automation to continue
working with it, then (PC) /
Ctrl
(Mac) on the Control Bar's Tempo eld, and choose
the Unslave Tempo Automation command. All clips will then be set to Slave, but the tempo
automation will remain in place.
Note that when Live's EXT switch is enabled, the Master/Slave switch has no effect and
appears disabled.