When I'm preprogramming a mix on Ableton and beat match the two tracks... sometimes, if I close the program and reopen or reload on another computer, the beat-matching gets slightly off. The problem is I had them beat-matched exactly before, and when I reload the mix, the timing is slightly off.

What could be causing this? I'm making a mix with mp3's mostly, so they are decoded into wav. I sometimes delete some tracks in the decoding cache to save space, so some tracks must be re-decoded. Could this be a problem? I'm not exactly sure this is the problem but it's my best guess.

Of course, u can tell me to just redo the timing...but there are 2 problems. If u've got 30+ transitions, u don't want to redo everyone when u reload the program.

Plus, what I'm concerned about is that on the beatgrid in the arrangement view, the kicks are aligned perfectly, but they sound kinda off once I close and reload the program. However, when I zoom in and out, the kicks seem to move to different positions? wth? And it's not a trick of the eye or whatver...i can visually see, for example, that a kick moves closer/farther away to the 17.1.1 when I zoom in/out (it's changing positions within the beat grid itself.

Does anyone know what's going on?

I've never had this problem before. I am changing tempo a lot (but gradually) during this particular mix, but I'd think the program would be more robust than to have a master tempo inconsistency between the two tracks.

If you're occasionally clearing out your decoding cache, that could be a problem. You could try saving the sample settings after you set your warp markers again (the "save" button in the "sample settings" section of the audio editing window). I'm not 100% sure if that saves it to the mp3 or decoded wav, but I haven't had any issues with having to re-warp things so I'd assume that it works. That's the only suggestion I've got. Hope it helps!

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Originally posted by No Left Turn You could try saving the sample settings after you set your warp markers again (the "save" button in the "sample settings" section of the audio editing window). I'm not 100% sure if that saves it to the mp3 or decoded wav, but I haven't had any issues with having to re-warp things so I'd assume that it works.

the save thing, i think, saves the warp marker data in a little file called a ".asd" file, not the actual mp3/wav itself.

it does save in either the .mp3 or .wav

the .asd is just a reference file so when you load up the file again, it doesn't have to buffer up again and loads instantly.

Same version on both computers?

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Originally posted by cherrybarry When I'm preprogramming a mix on Ableton and beat match the two tracks... sometimes, if I close the program and reopen or reload on another computer, the beat-matching gets slightly off. The problem is I had them beat-matched exactly before, and when I reload the mix, the timing is slightly off. What could be causing this? I'm making a mix with mp3's mostly, so they are decoded into wav. I sometimes delete some tracks in the decoding cache to save space, so some tracks must be re-decoded. Could this be a problem? I'm not exactly sure this is the problem but it's my best guess. Of course, u can tell me to just redo the timing...but there are 2 problems. If u've got 30+ transitions, u don't want to redo everyone when u reload the program. Plus, what I'm concerned about is that on the beatgrid in the arrangement view, the kicks are aligned perfectly, but they sound kinda off once I close and reload the program. However, when I zoom in and out, the kicks seem to move to different positions? wth? And it's not a trick of the eye or whatver...i can visually see, for example, that a kick moves closer/farther away to the 17.1.1 when I zoom in/out (it's changing positions within the beat grid itself. Does anyone know what's going on? I've never had this problem before. I am changing tempo a lot (but gradually) during this particular mix, but I'd think the program would be more robust than to have a master tempo inconsistency between the two tracks.

I can tell you for a fact that this is a bug. I'm assuming you are using live 5. This was well documented on the ableton bugs forum. Doesnt happen to everyone but it happened to me and many others and is related to decoding the mp3 to wav.

Couple of things to try.

1) Update to the latest patch (5.3?). This apparently has fixed the problem. (I cant verify this as i used the next suggestion before the patch came out.)

2) Once you have decoded from mp3 to wav, hit the replace button which will replace the mp3 with the wav. Then hit save. You'll now have an asd file next to the wav. Move them both to a different folder (so they dont get deleted in the cache) and from now on always use the wavs instead of the mp3. Alternatively you can convert from mp3 to wav before you even load into ableton. This is what i did, it solved the problem and meant it never had to convert periodically when the cache deleted the wavs. Big drawback of course is hard drive space as all your tunes will now be wavs.

3) Install quicktime and have this as your default player for mp3's. Ableton prefers to use quicktime to decode mp3's and for many people this solved the problem. It didnt for me, but this would still be a good starting point.

Hope this helps..

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hmm that makes sense...thx

i think i'm just gonna convert them all to wav until i get Live 6