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Varispeed in Ableton Live, and how to slow a sample

Gazillion Industries · September 24, 2026

A slowed sample sounds stretched when something had to be invented to fill the extra time. Live will do it either way, and the choice is one menu inside the clip.

You do not need a plugin. Ableton Live's Re-Pitch warp mode is varispeed: set a clip to it and the clip's playback rate follows the Set tempo, so the pitch moves with the length the way a record does. Complex and Complex Pro do the opposite job — they hold the pitch and re-synthesize the length, which is time stretching, and that is where stretched-sounding artifacts come from. Use Re-Pitch when the key may move, Complex Pro when it may not. A plugin earns its place when you want to ride the speed while the track runs, rather than set it per clip.

The short version

How do I put a clip into Re-Pitch?

Double-click the clip to open Clip View, go to the Audio tab, make sure Warp is switched on, and open the Warp Mode chooser. Beats, Tones, Texture, Re-Pitch, Complex and Complex Pro are the six entries. Pick Re-Pitch. The manual describes it as adjusting the sample's playback rate, so the pitch changes as the tempo changes, the way a DJ changes speed on a turntable.

One thing has to be right before any of it behaves: the clip's own tempo. Live warps against the figure in the Seg. BPM field, so if a 90 BPM break is marked as 45 the rate it lands on will be double what you meant. Check that number, fix the first Warp Marker on the downbeat, and only then change the Set tempo. Re-Pitch has no amount of its own — the Set tempo is the control.

You will also notice the clip's Transpose and Detune controls go dead. That is deliberate and documented: in Re-Pitch the playback speed is already deciding the pitch, so a second pitch control would be arguing with it. If you need Transpose, you need a different warp mode.

What do Complex and Complex Pro do instead?

Complex is for material that has beats, melody and texture at once — a whole song, a loop off a record, a stem with everything in it. Complex Pro is a variation on the same algorithm, documented as working especially well on polyphonic textures and full songs, and it costs noticeably more CPU. Freeze the track or resample it when the meter starts complaining.

Complex Pro adds two controls worth knowing. Formants decides how the sample's resonant frequencies behave when you transpose it; at 100% the original formants are held even through a large pitch move, and it does nothing at all unless the transposition has actually changed. Envelope defaults to 128 and shades the tone: lower values tend to suit high-pitched material, higher values low-pitched material. Both are worth a pass before you decide an algorithm has failed you.

The thing to keep straight is the job each mode is doing. Re-Pitch reads the existing samples out at a different rate, so every part of the recording moves together and nothing is reconstructed. Complex and Complex Pro hold the pitch where it was and manufacture the extra duration. The full comparison is in what is varispeed.

SKRUU puts varispeed pitch and independent time on two knobs, on an insert, in a normal automation lane.

When is each one right?

Reach for Re-Pitch when the drop in key is part of what you want: a break slowed into a heavier groove, a vocal dropped until it sits under the beat, a whole record taken down the way a turntable takes it down. It is also the right call when the sample is short and percussive, because there is nothing for an algorithm to smear. Anything in the slowed and reverb family wants Re-Pitch, since the key moving is the sound.

Reach for Complex Pro when the key is fixed by something else — the song is in F minor and the sample has to stay in F minor, or the vocal has to land on top of an arrangement that is not moving. Also use it when the tempo distance is small. Asking for 4% is a different request from asking for 40%, and the algorithm is much better at the first one.

There is a third answer people forget. Switch Warp off and the clip plays at its original tempo, ignoring the Set entirely. Switching Warp off slows nothing down, but it is the fastest way to hear what the sample actually sounds like before Live has done anything to it.

What does a slowdown do to the key?

Varispeed ties pitch and duration together, so every speed change is also an interval, and the interval is arithmetic rather than opinion. Semitones equal twelve times the base-two logarithm of the speed ratio. That single line answers every version of the question.

Work an example. A 90 BPM break dropped into a 72 BPM Set is running at a ratio of 0.8. Twelve times the base-two log of 0.8 is −3.86, so the break arrives 3.86 semitones down — between a major third and a fourth below where it started. The length moves by the inverse: a quarter note that was 666.7 ms at 90 BPM is 833.3 ms at 72.

The two turntable rows are why so much sample-based music sits around five semitones from where it started. Nobody chose that interval. It falls out of the two speeds a record player offers, and producers have been living inside it ever since.

Why does a stretched sample sound stretched?

Because the algorithm is writing material that was never played. Holding the pitch while adding duration means inventing the missing time, and the further you push, the more of the result is invention rather than recording. Transients get doubled or softened, sustained notes develop a flutter, room tone smears, and a hi-hat turns into a short, tired wash. None of it is a fault in Live; the cost comes with the operation.

So fix things in this order. First the Warp Markers: half the smearing people blame on Complex Pro is a marker landing off the beat and the algorithm being asked to fight the grid. Second the mode: Beats is built around transients and will chop a sustained pad, Tones suits monophonic pitched material, Texture suits pads and drones, Complex Pro suits everything at once. Third the distance: if the sample has to travel a long way and still hold its key, expect to hear it, and consider whether the key really is fixed.

Re-Pitch removes the problem rather than improving it. Nothing is reconstructed, so nothing can be reconstructed badly. The price is the key, and the key is often negotiable.

Slowing a sample so it still sounds like a record

1. Drop the sample in, open Clip View, and check the Seg. BPM reading is the real tempo.
2. Put the first Warp Marker on the downbeat and confirm the loop stays in time across eight bars.
3. Set Warp Mode to Re-Pitch.
4. Lower the Set tempo until the groove sits where you want it.
5. Read the interval off the arithmetic above and move the rest of the arrangement to match, or transpose the sample's new key into your instruments.
6. Consolidate the passage, or freeze and flatten the track, so the rendered audio is what everything downstream is working on.
7. Compare against the original at the original speed. If the slow version has lost weight rather than gained it, you went too far.

What will Re-Pitch not do?

Three limits, and they are the reason this question gets asked as a plugin question at all. Re-Pitch is a clip property, so a Set full of audio needs the mode chosen on every clip individually. It responds only to the Set tempo, so there is no amount to grab, automate, ride or record — you can automate a tempo, but that moves the entire Set. And it does nothing to MIDI tracks or software instruments, so every part that is not audio stays put while the samples move around it.

It also cannot touch a live input, a return or the master while Live is playing, because there is no clip involved. That is the gap an insert fills, and the options are laid out in the best varispeed plugins.

Questions people ask

What plugin do I need for varispeed in Ableton Live?

None, if you only need it per clip: Live's Re-Pitch warp mode changes the playback rate and lets the pitch follow. A VST3 or AU insert is what you need when you want a continuous pitch and speed control you can automate, perform on a live input, or put on a return or the master.

How do I slow a sample in Ableton without it sounding stretched?

Use Re-Pitch. It changes the playback rate instead of reconstructing the missing duration, so there is no invented material to hear. The pitch drops along with the tempo, which is the trade. If the key has to stay, use Complex Pro and keep the tempo distance as small as you can.

What is the difference between Re-Pitch and Complex Pro?

Re-Pitch changes speed and pitch together, like a turntable. Complex Pro holds the pitch and changes only the length, which means re-synthesizing audio that was never recorded. Re-Pitch is free of artifacts and moves your key; Complex Pro keeps your key and introduces artifacts.

Why do Transpose and Detune stop working in Re-Pitch mode?

Live deactivates the transposition controls in Re-Pitch because the playback speed is already determining the pitch. To transpose a clip independently of its length, choose Beats, Tones, Texture, Complex or Complex Pro instead.

How many semitones is a 20% slowdown?

About 3.86 semitones down. A 20% slowdown is a speed ratio of 0.8, and twelve times the base-two logarithm of 0.8 is −3.86. Half speed is exactly 12 semitones down, and a 45 rpm record played at 33⅓ runs at 74.1% speed, or 5.20 semitones down.

Should I just turn Warp off instead?

Only to audition. With Warp off the clip plays at its original tempo and ignores the Set tempo completely, so it will not follow your session at all. It is useful for checking what a sample sounds like untouched, and for one-shots that should never be warped.

Does Re-Pitch work on a whole Set?

Not by itself. It is chosen clip by clip and follows the Set tempo, so lowering the tempo moves every Re-Pitch clip but leaves MIDI parts and instruments in their original keys. Moving everything together needs either manual transposition or a device that does both.

What SKRUU does

SKRUU is our varispeed pitch and time stretch plugin, and it loads as an ordinary insert, so the speed becomes a knob you can ride and an automation lane you can draw. PITCH moves rate and key together and reads out in semitones as well as percent. TIME moves length on its own, which is the half Re-Pitch cannot give you. DRAG sets how long a new speed takes to arrive, from instant to a hand on the platter. There is a demo on the SKRUU page.

Live already knows how to change the rate. What it does not give you is somewhere to put your hand while the track is running.

Keep reading

• What is varispeed — Speed and pitch together: the math, how it differs from pitch shifting, and how it's used.
• How to make slowed and reverb — Slow it with varispeed, add a long dark reverb, and make sped-up versions too.
• Best varispeed plugins — What the rate control has to do, how to test one, and the free options worth downloading.

Gazillion Industries LLC · reading material