best way to timestretch a track

[mattfell]

My client has requested that his song (guess who Rick?) be slowed down by 5%. I've tried elastic audio on all the individual tracks and the result aint great. Anyone out there done this successfully?

[waitup]

Do you need to slow the song down so that you can continue overdubbing? Or can you apply the change to the whole mix? I've had greater success stretching a whole mix using the TCE tool in Pro Tools than individual tracks.

[mattfell]

Yes, we need to continue overdubbing. Personally I'm pushing for us to complete the track at it's current tempo then experiment with the timestretching in mastering as I know my client has done this a lot on his previous albums, however he is keen to do it now.

[waitup]

Bummer... I've never had any great success doing that!

[GlennS]

I've done it in Wavelab. To me it's always a compromise in sound quality if you have to preserve the pitch, but my clients have told me it sounds fine to them.

Wouldn't you be better off doing it before mixing anyway?

[harry]

Hello,

i have listened to the timestretch in cubase 6 - i think it is much better than both protools elastic audio and timestretch in cubase 5 - it is acutally usuable and maybe almost invisible depending on source material -

see if you can find someone with a cubase 6 setup and try it?

cheers

h.a.r.r.y.a.r.v.a.n.i.t.i.s

[tony]

I use time strech in Adobe Audition,it as my go to for my sound design work. Can't say I have tried using it for tracking but I have used it with success to do back tracks for live gigs.

[rick]

ha i dont need to guess !

best of luck matt , it certainly doesnt work in mastering artifact free even if he tells you it does or it did
or it should .....it doesnt
that is why he would want you to do it now
right now its the best place to do it before you mix even if you are snookered right now
he is a smart guy - he doesnt want to do it in mastering


"pitch n time"
on every individual track with be the go ... even if it leaves noises its still the best
i have done all the tests

http://serato.com/pitchntime-pro

i cannot think of a process i want to have happen in mastering less then time stretch !

oh yes "erase" that is not so good

[Kurt]

I've been pleasantly surprised by the stretching in the new Sonar, may be worth a shot..

[The Tasmanian]

Like Rick - pitch n time generally works OK.
Works OK on drums/bass and some times electric guitar - but piano's, acoustic guitars and anything with complex harmonics - nothing does a great job.
When I have been in this situation before, and I found rather than re record the whole song, I get away with time stretching the drums and bass, then re record the stuff that sounds crap stretched (acoustic instruments).
This way you don't need to do everything from scratch again.
Good luck!

[AnthonyMF]

When you used elastic audio, did you render the tracks in X-Form? Because the live off the disk time stretching is pretty rubbish in Pro Tools, it's really just there for while you're working on timing. X-Form is hugely, hugely better than any of the live algorithms. Takes quite a while though! For a whole session of individual tracks I might even leave it over night to render.

[wez]

Since it's just a tempo issue, why not just slow down a little (ie not pitch shift). obviously you'd want to finish tracking first.... then mix/transfer to half inch and varispeed? 5% might be pushing it but you never know - listen to Crowded House "Don't Dream It's Over".

[mattfell]

thanks for the help everyone
anthony what is this x-form of which you speak?

[Text_Edifice]

should be hiding under audio-suite - what version of tools are you running?

[mattfell]

8.0.4cs2

[Text_Edifice]

sorry - sent you to the wrong place (have x-form in my audio-suite from the prod toolkit).

When you change your track to elastic audio you have the option of selecting monophonic, poly, rhythmic etc. below these options is x-form (rendered).

[Alastair Reynolds]

The way we used to timestretch/compress commercials in Analogue tape days (a 31 second ad isn't 30 seconds when networking shows)
was to use either a Lexicon 2400 or an Eventide H3000B on a Studer A810 at 15 or 30 ips., but the Lexicon was the better performer.

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~dattorro/Lexicon.htm
These would varispeed the capstan on the A810 then pitch shift the audio.
results were very good. you'd dial in the current track length then the desired track length and it would calculate the varispeed and pitch shift .
I still have them if all other avenues fail

[graemeh]

+1 Pitch n Time from Serato on individual tracks. The only thing that works on a legato solo piano for instance...

[mattfell]

thanks everyone. after some trial and error I've gotten great results using x-form on drums (sounded not so good on the other instruments) and serato pitch n time pro on everything else

[chribble]

old thread here. whats the best for use on a whole track?

i have a song at 111BPM I want it at 113BPM. Its minor but makes the song move a bit more.
I have done it using cubase 4.5 as "poly complex mpex?"

Is there a better way?

[Wiz]

I can do it in logic..using varispeed.

If you get stuck you can give me the stereo track and I can give it a go for you...

cheers

[danander11]

Threads that make you cringe...

[chribble]

Thanks Pete - is that a plugin in Logic? I actually share a license copy with a band member but don't use it as I like cubase better.

Is that the most transparent time stretch over a whole track?

I can do it in logic..using varispeed.

If you get stuck you can give me the stereo track and I can give it a go for you...

cheers

[Wiz]

you can do it by slicing up the track in flex mode and then adjusting the tempo, or via varispeed...

I do this kind of thing when auditioning tempos during the writing stage....

It may or may not work out to your satisfaction, depends on the quality required of the end result I suppose...

give me a shout if you want me to try it,

[jkhuri44]

Izotope make a native algorithm for Sonar i believe? it looks excellent...

[Kurt]

It works very well.

Izotope make a native algorithm for Sonar i believe? it looks excellent...

[jkhuri44]

really wishing i didnt waste money on cubase 6 now that i look back at it....

[chribble]

really wishing i didnt waste money on cubase 6 now that i look back at it....

yeah really? i'm still on 4.5.1 and its still good for me on snow leopard.
Is the upgrade really not worth it? I don't feel like I am limited in my current choice at all.

[jkhuri44]

nothing "wrong" with it...just not different from 5...and not that wowed by it's over all performance...feels a little clunky, i know people will argue...

anyway, not to derail...whistles *

[Damien]

messy way but.. RME interfaces can change the internal clock (think varispeed)...

you slow the track, analogue out and transfer (re record) into tools...

this takes 2 systems, double the interfaces and has 2 x conversion paths. but you can varispeed the song artifect free... well better than the others..

i have not done this. i have spoken to rme at length about doing this and they use it as a selling point..