6055 ABLETON LIVE-WEB-A rev 7.5 x 9.25 ins...2 Appendix 1 Figure A1.1 Video in the Arrangement View....

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Video with Live 9

The Possibilities of Video in LiveCreating and synchronizing music to the moving image is a prominent mediumin the music, entertainment, and digital media arts community. Video is everywhere,especially with the abundance of web-based movies, online video tutorials, andadvertisements. This reinforces the importance that a legitimate Digital AudioWorkstation (DAW) must be able to support and import QuickTime movie formats.Live is no exception. Whether you’re a veteran multimedia composer or new tofilm/TV scoring, Live makes working with video a fun and gratifying experience.To that end, Live has taken video one step further with the ability to use WarpMarkers to manipulate and synchronize your audio and video in the ArrangementView.

Working with VideoLive imports movie/video files in the QuickTime format. This includes movie fileswith or without embedded audio tracks. To import a video into your Set, draga QuickTime movie file directly from a custom folder in Places or from aFinder/Explorer Window into the Arrangement View Track Display. Be sure to slideit to start at the beginning of the Beat Time Ruler (timeline) if not already. Notethat video clips can only be used in the Arrangement View. In the Session Viewthey are imported as audio clips. Once you’ve imported a video/movie, a floatingvideo window will pop up where you can view it as you work. Place it anywhereon your computer screen that you like. As you move your cursor to differentlocations along the timeline, Live will automatically follow along with the videoas seen in this window. For the more advanced users, you’ll be happy to knowthat Live also displays a movie clip’s QuickTime markers, which are built into theQuickTime itself when applicable. Feel free to resize the video window by draggingfrom the lower right corner, or double clicking in the video window to expand itto full screen. If you close it out, you can reopen it from the View Menu.

6055 ABLETON LIVE-WEB-A rev_7.5 x 9.25 ins 04/12/2013 11:46 Page 1

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Figure A1.1 Video in the Arrangement View.

Figure A1.2 Drag a QuickTime Movie into the Arrangement View.


There are two standard settings that youshould consider when working with video inLive. First of all, it’s very important to under -stand that you will normally want to work ata 48k sample rate. This is the standard samplerate for working to picture and should beestablished before you start a new project. The last thing you want is for your audio to beout of sync when you send it out for post-production, etc. You can change the samplerate from Live Preferences. The other con -sideration to make is what time code to use.

When scoring to film or TV you should set Live to display SMPTE time code in theTime Ruler as opposed to standard time. This is the industry standard for syncingyour music to the start and end points of a film and for identifying hit points.SMPTE is displayed as hours: minutes: seconds: frames. Right click or ctrl + click onthe Time Ruler at the bottom of the track display to choose a frame rate to display.

Twenty-four FPS (frames per second) is standard for film, but this is dependentupon a few production factors such as the dub stage, post-production, and musiceditor. You will need to double check the exact specs with one of these departmentsor with the director if all else fails before you start scoring to your QuickTime video.

Arrangement View: Video ClipsVideo clips look and behave very much likeaudio clips, but you’ll notice that their Title Barhas little holes (sprockets) reminiscent of anactual film reel. As far as editing these clips areconcerned, feel free to move them and trimtheir lengths as you see fit.

Editing Video Clips

Editing a video clip is just as easy as editingan audio or MIDI clip in Live. You can shorten

its length and cut it at specific points if needed.In other words, Live’s video capabilities makeit a video-editing tool as well. There are, of course, a couple of traditional clip editing

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Figure A1.3 Choose custom frame rates.

Figure A1.4 Notice the film-like sprocket design of a movie clip.

Video with Live 9


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Appendix 1

functions that are exclusive only to audio clips. Video clips cannot be cropped,consolidated, or reversed. Live treats these commands as audio commands andwill inadvertently turn your video clip into an audio clip if done so.

In regards to a video clip’s audio, it’s important to know that Live uses the existingaudio track of a video clip to align warp markers for stretching and adjusting yournew video clip. If the audio in your video track is not needed, you can always turndown the volume of the video by either accessing the track’s fader or silencing itdirectly inside its Clip View by turning the volume slider all the way down. This isa useful way to work, especially when it comes to adding your own sound designand music. With that said, Live’s Browser really comes into play for placing your

Figure A1.5 Video Clip in Clip View.


own audio to video. It’s a simple matter of selecting your clips and dragging theminto the Arrangement View. By dragging and dropping them precisely where youwant along the timeline, you can quickly get an idea going.

Live offers two ways to create and align your music in relation to your video trackand vice versa. Once you have a video clip loaded on a track in the ArrangementView, bring an audio clip into a new track and position it directly below and inline with the video clip. Make sure that both clips’ waveforms are viewable in theTrack Display—unfold them if not. Now, double click on the video clip to bring upits Sample Editor/Display. Activate the Warp button in the video clip’s Sample Box,

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Figure A1.6 Place Warp Markers anywhere you wish along a video clip in the Sample Editor in order toalign your video and audio clips together.

Video with Live 9


which should now display a Warp Marker at the start of the clip in the SampleDisplay/Editor. Since you have your audio clip track unfolded in the Track Displayand positioned directly beneath the video clip, you can easily manipulate thevideo clip’s warp markers in the Sample Editor in order to adjust and position yourvideo in relation to the timeline to match specific audio reference points.

Place warp markers anywhere you wish along the video clip length in the SampleEditor. You’ll quickly see that this process opens up some interesting ways to workwith both audio and video together. So, what’s actually happening? Well, we’ll getto that exciting information in a minute. First let’s look at this process withoutusing warp makers.

When working with audio and video without the assistance of Warp Mode, simplydrag and drop your audio/MIDI clips along the timeline and then move them tothe desired point with your mouse as seen in the example. You’ll see that whenyou are clicking and dragging a clip into place, the video display updates the locationof the video in real-time. Think of this as a video scrubber. By zooming in you canedit your clip placement to the finest detail in effort to sync it up to your video.

Use the Arrangement Loop Brace and activate the Loop Switch to maintain focuson a specified area without stopping.

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Appendix 1

Figure A1.7 Adjusting clips toline up spottingand hit points inthe video.


Synchronizing Music with Video

Working to picture is all about timing and synchronization, and in Live that boilsdown to using video clips in one of three ways, the first way being the traditionalmethod and the other two involving Live’s warping feature.

The Traditional Approach

Import a video into an audio track and then start scoring and laying in music asyou see fit. This is a simple and traditional method to using video in any DAW.Just choose a tempo that is suitable for the music you want to create and fromthere you can work with audio and MIDI just like you always have. Understandthat the Song tempo has no bearing on the video clip.

The Warping Approach

Live’s warping feature is a totally unique method for working with video. Simplyput, video clips can be the Tempo Master or a Tempo Slave. As the “tempo master”,Warp Markers are used to establish the tempo of your entire Set or for generatingautomated tempo variations throughout the duration of the video. This is usefulfor conforming your audio and MIDI clips to the tempo of the video’s pre-existingaudio or visual cuts as determined by you with the placement of your own warpmarkers. When set to “tempo slave”, you can manipulate the speed of the videoto creatively alter and affect its playback by using the tempo of your Set and theautomation of the tempo in the Master track. If you decide to use the warpingfeature, then this will all take place in Clip View.

Clip ViewWhether your video clips have audio embedded or not, you will use Clip View andthe Sample Display/Editor to handle their properties and manipulations. The SampleEditor is especially important when using the warping feature with video clips.Generally your music or sound design is intended to lock to specific visual cuespoints or signifiers called “hit points”. As mentioned earlier, this can be handledin a traditional way, composing around and to these specific hit points as necessary.As an alternative, this can also be done using Live’s warping feature. If you, in fact,decide to work with warping, then you’ll want your video clip to be the “tempomaster”. Activate the Warp Switch and the Tempo Master feature in the SampleBox. Once activated, Warp Markers can be added to a video clip in the SampleEditor.

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Video with Live 9


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Appendix 1

Video Clip Warp MarkersWarp Markers and video present some very interesting and unique possibilities asfar as tempo and timing are concerned.

Master

When working with video clips that are set to “Master”, you can use Warp Markersto adjust your Set’s tempo. This serves two purposes: first, to align specific points—start and hit points—with bars and beats and subsequently the Metronome clickto the video; and, second, to alter the playback of all of your other clips (MIDI oraudio) in your Set to match their speed to the defined tempo map that is derivedfrom the Warp Markers. This could also be done manually by adjusting the tempoand tempo automation map when needed to fit hit points, etc.

To take advantage of warping, simply add and move Warp Markers in your videoclip’s sample editor. This will permit you to establish multiple alternative temposin order to sync up to various hit points. You will notice when you add and moveWarp Markers that the beats per minute (BPM) in Control Bar Tempo adjusts to

Figure A1.8 Song Tempo is automatically created to reflect changes in a video clip’s Warp Markers.


reflect the changes in the video clip’s Warp Markers’ positions. This is also seen inthe Song Tempo automation control chooser on the Master track in ArrangementView. Right click or ctrl +click on the Song Tempo and select show automation.

For example, a video clip may have a music track already embedded in it, such asa temp score, music, dialog, and sound effects. Warp Markers will visually align thevideo clip to the bars and beats of the timeline so that you can record or editagainst a logical tempo map. It’s rather refreshing when you hit the Metronomebutton and the click lines up with the music track or exactly with a hit point in thefilm. In addition, Warp allows you to transpose the pitch of the video clip’s audiowithout changing the playback speed of the image. If the video clip is set to Slave,then any alterations such as transpose or tempo changes affect the playbackspeed of the video clip and its audio.

It doesn’t take many Warp Markers to lock in a tempo when you’re dealing witha video that already has music, such as a commercial or a music video. In theexample it took two Warp Markers: one to anchor the first downbeat with the grid(timeline), the other to anchor the second beat. Since our music track was at aconsistent tempo, only two Warp Markers had to be placed. On occasion you mayhave to periodically add more Warp Markers if the audio drifts out of sync overtime. This usually means that your transients are slightly off the beat and you needto adjust them. Zoom in tight to see minor misalignments. When adding WarpMarkers, try not to have multiple breakpoints in the song tempo automationunless you are simply trying to warp audio and you can afford subtle tempovariations, otherwise you want it perfect so when you record to picture or lay innew audio there are no tempo fluctuations.

To begin, place the first Warp Marker at the first Transient that you know to be adownbeat, then drag it to the closest bar. Place the second Warp Marker at thesecond Transient and warp it over to the closest beat. Lastly, delete Live’s autocreated Warp Marker at the beginning of the clip since you don’t need it anymorenow that you have created your own. To review warping concepts, launch to

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When scoring to film, you may find that an otherwise perfect tempodoes not sync up with an important hit-point in the cue. When faced

with this dilemma, use Warp Markers to make a slight and indistinguishable tempochange in a selection of the music, as to push or pull back the audio in order to hitthe visual marker.

Video with Live 9


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Appendix 1

Figure A1.9 Here you willanchor the firsttwo beats ortransients withWarp Markers tothe downbeats inthe grid.

Aligning Video Clips on the Track DisplayVideo clips can be moved and trimmed just like any other clip. When working topicture, it’s desirable to have the bars of the Arrangement View’s Beat Time Rulerto match with what would logically be the beginning, or bar 1 of your music. It’svery unlikely that any video you work with will start on the first image; rather,there is usually a lot of blank video or a “two-pop” that you must wait for beforethe first image appears. In the professional world of film and TV, this is used toalign audio and video in the post-production, or simply to keep everythingaligned—dialogue, sound effects, music, etc. Figure A1.10

Video clip withsilence at the start.


To set the video clip so that there is the least amount of silence at the beginningof the clip, it will have to be trimmed. We’ll trim it down to the first downbeattemporarily (bar 4) since it’s a good visual reference for where the video starts.

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Figure A1.11 Trim the video clip back to the first downbeat for a visual reference.

Figure A1.12 Move video clip to bar 2.

Let’s move it to bar 2, because we need some space for the lead-in.

Video with Live 9


Once that beat one is sitting on bar 2, we’ll expand the clip back out to start atbar 1. Now it is in sync and on the right bar grid.

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Appendix 1

Figure A1.13 Expand (trim) clip edge to start at bar 1.

Figure A1.14 Select all Warp Markers then drag from the first marker and place it on bar 2.

Now, it’s up to you; but it’s a good idea to do the same thing for the video clipitself in Clip View since the arrangement adjustments don’t affect the actualcontained clip’s time ruler; just the start point is changed. To do this in Clip View,select all Warp Markers, then drag from the first marker and place it on bar 2 justas we did in the Arrangement View.


Once in place, all you need to do is adjust the position of the Start Marker to bar 1. Simply type in “1” into its start field input box.

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Figure A1.15 Adjust the position of the Start Markers to bar 1.

Video with Live 9



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6055 ABLETON LIVE-WEB-A rev 7.5 x 9.25 ins...2 Appendix 1 Figure A1.1 Video in the Arrangement View....

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