Ableton Live - I Don't Get It

[ChicagoPaul3]

Hi

I just installed Ableton Live. I want to use it solely for time stretching and replacing drum hits on loops.

I pulled it up as an insert on a track, rewire connected, and imported a drum loop into the PT track.

How does it work as an insert/Rewire as opposed to standalone? I tried changing the BPM in Ableton but it's grayed out and doesn't do anything.

So I thought - ok, I'll try to drag/drop a loop into Ableton per the manual. Dragged it in, doesn't import.

Can someone please tell me how or direct me to the manual portion that says how to use Ableton to time stretch a loop with Pro Tools? Step by step?

Sorry if this is a dumbass question but as I said, I read the manual and it seems obvious in there but when I try to do what it says it doesn't happen for me.

Thanks

Paul

[asa]

You need to use the file browser within Live to import the sounds. Once they are in you can arrange the sounds the way you want within live, and live will then be able to time-stretch and adjust the audio files for tempo. You have a ton of options for handling the timing adjustments, using the beat markers within Live. The tempo controls in Pro Tools will control the tempo of Live and any other Rewire Slave, such as when you use Reason or Acid.

Hope that helps,

[spkguitar]

The Live tutorial video on The DiskFlix might help you.

[ChicagoPaul3]

thanks for the replies -


For what I do, I just want to time stretch and replace sounds in a loop, then import them to PT and build the rest of the tracks on that. If I use MIDI tracks, I will overdub them over the time stretched tracks I did in Live.

So do I need to even mess with Rewire for what I want to do? Is it more practical to do the work in live and import the finished audio to PT?

Last question - if it is, do I need to buy a third party soundcard to use with it? I currently have a bare bones system I use with my 002r that doesn't even have its own soundcard (to minimize driver conflicts). Not sure if I can use the 002r to monitor/soundcard if I'm not using PT software with it.

thanks again for your help

[spkguitar]

Did you even watch the video?




"So do I need to even mess with Rewire for what I want to do?"

No, not necessarily, but it is much easier that way.

"Is it more practical to do the work in live and import the finished audio to PT?"

More practical to work with loops in live mostly because of tempo sync/stretching, but with rewire, you don't need to import, it's already there.

"Last question - if it is, do I need to buy a third party soundcard to use with it?"

No, rewire/Live works within protools, no need for a separate soundcard.


There are also some
Live Tutorials on the ableton site you might want to check out.







~

[ChicagoPaul3]

no I'm at work, can't check out the video until later. But I will. Thanks again.

[asa]

I am totally with SPK on this. Another benefit to using Rewire to handle the communication between the 2 is that you can record the sequenced Live tracks as new audio files in Pro Tools, once you have the session arranged.