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How to make a tape stop in Ableton Live

A tape stop is the sound of a machine losing power: the audio slows and the pitch falls with it, then it stops. Here are three ways to get one in Live 12. The first needs nothing you don't already have.

1. With what ships with Live

Delay in Repitch mode

Live's Delay device has three ways of handling a change of delay time. Repitch "produces a pitch variation when the delay time is changed, which is similar to the behavior of old tape delay units". That is a tape stop waiting to happen.

  1. Put a Delay on the track. Delay is in every edition, Intro included.
  2. Set Feedback to 0 and Dry/Wet to 100%.
  3. Turn Sync off so the time is in milliseconds. Unsynced, it goes from 1 ms to 5 s.
  4. Right-click the device title bar and choose Repitch.
  5. Automate the delay Time from a few milliseconds up to one or two seconds over a beat or a bar. The faster the ramp, the harder the stop.

What it can't do: it is a delay, so the audio ends up late by the amount you ramped to. It never truly stops, it only gets slow, and ramping back down gives a speed-up, not a clean start. Good for a drop or a transition, less good for anything that has to rejoin the beat.

A clip's Transposition envelope, in Re-Pitch warp mode

The Re-Pitch warp mode changes pitch and tempo together, "similar to how DJs change the playback speed on turntables". But in that mode "the sample's transposition controls are deactivated", so a transposition envelope has nothing to act on. The method works the other way round: in Complex, Complex Pro, Beats, Tones or Texture mode, draw the clip's Transposition envelope falling across the last beat. The pitch drops but the clip keeps time. It reads as a tape stop on drums and short sounds, less so on sustained ones.

  1. Select the clip. In the Envelopes box, choose Clip, then Transposition.
  2. Draw a ramp from 0 down to -24 or -48 semitones over the last beat or bar.
  3. Hold Shift while dragging for finer steps.

Clip only, so this needs an audio clip, not a live signal.

Simpler, with Warp off

If the sound is in Simpler, turn Warp off. With Warp off, transposition changes speed as well as pitch, like an old sampler. Set a negative amount on the pitch envelope and a decay that matches the stop you want. The sample slows, drops and stops. Simpler is in every edition. Sampler does the same and is Suite only.

What doesn't work

Grain Delay (all editions) and Shifter (Standard and Suite) can be automated to drop the pitch, but they pitch-shift without slowing the sound. Shifter's Pitch mode is monophonic. Neither one sounds like a machine stopping.

2. With a free plugin

Each of these is an insert. Put it on the track, and either press its button or automate it.

Steps are the same for all of them: drop the plugin on the track, open the automation lane for its stop or mode parameter, and draw the stop where you want it. Some add a start too.

3. With tapespin

tapespin's window is a record. Put it on the track and press play.

  1. Hold the record. The tape stops and the pitch falls with it. How fast depends on your hand: with Auto on, a grab brakes over a beat.
  2. Drag it, forwards or back, and the audio follows your hand. That is a scratch.
  3. Let go. It spins back up and lands on the beat. Snap sets where: free, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or a bar.

That last step is the one thing only it does. You play the stop and the scratch by hand, and when you let go it rejoins the track on the grid, so even a rough move sounds intended. Holds and drags are written as automation (the Stop and Scratch parameters), so Live records the take and plays it back. A MIDI note stops the tape too, if you'd rather play it from a keyboard.

There is a demo in the browser at snowday.fm, the real plugin compiled to WebAssembly, so you can try it before you install anything. $9, VST3, AU and CLAP, Mac and Windows.

Sources

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