In this quick post, we’ll quickly cover how to add tempo changes in Ableton’s arrangement view. We’ll cover 2 “types” of changes. The first, which we’ve covered before, will be “abrupt tempo changes”. The second being “gradual tempo changes”. Let’s get started.

Abrupt Tempo Changes

In order for us to see the tempo automation in arrangement view, we need to right click on the tempo and click ‘Show Automation’. You can also enable automation by clicking on the icon left of the padlock near the top right, or press ‘a’.

Once you can see your tempo automation on the bottom in the Master channel, you can manipulate it as you wish. Most of the time you’ll be creating abrupt tempo changes because every song in your set will most likely have different tempos. It’s probably quite rare that a song will have a tempo change mid song but this will come in handy if you’ve got interesting live arrangements or transitions that have different tempos.

Simply create your first point by clicking on the dotted line in the Master channel, it will then become a solid line. To create an abrupt tempo change, you’ll need 2 additional points. Create another point on the solid line at the end of the song, then create a third point and drag it above the previous point. Then, hover your mouse around the third point, when it turns blue, right click and select ‘Edit Value.’ Type in your desired value and you’re done.

Gradual Tempo Changes

The simpler of these 2 methods is to create a gradual tempo change. This time, after the initial point, we’ll create another point along the solid line where we want the tempo change to start, then a third point where we want the tempo change to end. Lastly, hover over the third point, right click, ‘Edit Value’ and then type in the desired tempo. Done!

Gradual tempo changes can be helpful if you want to transition between songs that have similar tempos. In our example the first song is 80 BPM and the next is 75 BPM, so we can slow down the last few measures so when the next song starts, we’re in the correct tempo.

Closing Thoughts

We hope this has been helpful and that you can see the benefits of both abrupt and gradual tempo changes. As always, any questions or issues please don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@renderthemusic.com . Next time, we’ll be looking at creating tempo automation in Session View.

Thanks for reading!