Hi, does anyone know how to take say starting on bar one, we have 6 notes and we move the 6th note (compress all 6 notes) to bar 2, we end up with 5 notes per bar or quintuplet 1/4s. This is something Ableton can do, and I cannot figure it out. What if I want to throw in some quintuplet hats or septuplet grooves over 4/4?? It can be done in the top window, but for some reason the time stretch tool doesn’t work on a selected group of midi notes.
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A) Save two presets:
→ one to stretch the notes (“PLE stretch”)
→ one to shorten the notes (“PLE shorten”)
B) Create a macro for each PLE preset.
Macro 1 (“StretchM”):
- PLE stretch
- Edit - Cut
- Edit - Paste
Macro 2 (“ShortenM”)
- PLE shorten
- Edit - Cut
- Edit - Paste
C) Create a keyboard command for each macro.
When executing one of the two macros, make sure that the Project Cursor (the playhead) is located at the start of the selected note group. You do this by hitting the “L” key.
If anyone finds a way to stretch/shorten a note group by 1 tick (or a quarter note, etc), I’d also love to know how.
Thank you for the solution! I’ll have to figure out the math for each n-tuplet. Cubase has the stretch tool in the key editor. All they need to do is make it work with midi notes! This is the only thing that I prefer Ableton for. Most users will shy away from logical editors and want a simple intuitive way to stretch notes.
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Don’t mention it. It was my pleasure.
From a user’s perspective, yes. This is how it looks like. Easy-peasy. But, from a back-end perspective, it might not be as doable… And I really don’t think Ableton can do what you’re saying. AFAIK, you can only multiply or divide by 2.
Example
This can actually be done in the arrangement in Cubase. Just cut down midi event to the part you want to stretch, and then use the stretch tool. So I am also hoping this is something we can get transferred to the piano roll.
Also in your example above in Live, if you try dragging the 2nd marker above the midi notes, you can accomplish the stretch the OP wants to do. That lets you stretch free hand.
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Thank you for the Ableton tip. I didn’t know of the possibility to time stretch directly in the Ableton’s Key Editor (Piano Roll window). I guess Cubase is behind on this one…
And a little bit of corrections:
Arrangement Window (Ableton)
Project Window (Cubase)
Not “MIDI event”. “MIDI part” is what I think you mean.
Haha I appreciate the corrections.
As I was typing it I did have this feeling of “what the hell was it called here again?”, so thanks for correcting me, even if I do realise my point did come across 
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I sorted it out. I can make any tuplet I want in the midi quantize panel. Woah! How did I miss it?? This makes me an official Cubase fan boy.
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EXACTLY !!! I would love to see that in Cubase, please!
I would love to see midi stretching implemented!
N-tuples would be so much easier!
Adjusting harp glissandos, runs or generating variations are also among the very practical use cases.
Stretching (and compressing) is possible via two macros. Read the following post.
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