Videosync not in sync when using Arrangement Tempo Automation

Videosync
1

Hi, I have a one-hour video file that I would like to have play back at its original speed, in the Arrangement View of an Ableton Live project that will have pretty extensive master tempo automation throughout the show.

As soon as I add any tempo automation, the video playback position becomes very random and unpredictable. I have found that warping my video gives more predictable results, but I do not want to time stretch my video in any way. I need it to play back at the originally rendered speed.

Can you recommend how to correct my workflow? -
For my 10-song set, the video is one hour long and on track one. Then I add my first song as an audio file on track two, which is 114bpm. Now I add my second song and automate the tempo to 135 bpm.

If the video file is NOT warped, then when the playhead hits the tempo change, the video file suddenly jumps in playback position when it hits the tempo change.

If I had warped the video before making the tempo automation, then the playback speed of the video shifts when I hit the tempo change.

I’m looking for a way to have the video file be unaffected by tempo changes as I build out my show. How can I do this?

2

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

Automating the tempo while playing unwarped video clips in Arrangement View is known to cause glitches, since to limitations of Live’s API. The best we can offer for now are a few workarounds:

  • Place the clip on an audio track in Session View. Playing unwarped clips in Session View while automating the Tempo should give expected results.
  • Use Video Simpler to play back the clip using a MIDI note. Before doing this, make sure to convert the video to HAP, as any other codec is not recommended for use with long duration videos and Simpler. The HAP codec is supported on macOS only.

Let us know if you need any further help with this!