Ableton Live: How to Adjust the BPM During Your DJ Mix

Focus: Mixing

Software: Ableton Live

Tags: tutorial


I showed you how to automate BPM changes in Ableton Live in a previous video tutorial. Youtube user Birdhouse19 left a comment asking how to do this on the fly instead of automating it. In this video I will go over 3 ways to change the BPM in the mix.

The first way to change the BPM is similar to the quick swap method I described in this video. Simply type the BPM you want to change to into the tempo box, wait until the point where you want the change to occur, and hit enter. If you want to fade from one bpm to another you can click on the tempo box and use the arrow keys to go up and down by 1 BPM each click. The best way is to do this is to use a midi controller. Map a knob to the project’s tempo and set the appropriate min/max values. Then turn the knob to adjust the BPM as you mix by turning the knob.