Best way to speed up a tune... ?

eliam · Post by **eliam** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:02 pm

I've never done it before, so how would you suggest to do it? I have a song almost all recorded and I want to speed it up in some places, smoothly. Is it possible, or I will have to treat as a whole and process it all at once?

Thanks

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:19 pm

In Logic.... The timestretching tool give pretty convincing result with minor fuss.

eliam · Post by **eliam** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:28 pm

cool! Is it "automatable"?

Post by **hubird** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:29 pm

hmm...I tried to stretch a long mix as a whole a very little, in several programs recently, Peak, Cubase, Sonic Works, Ableton, tho not Logic.
I was not satisfied with the result.
Some glance got lost, in a way mp3 does it to a mix.
I came to the conclusion that stretching is ok with single sounds, but not really with overall mixes.
Correct me if you don't agree

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:43 pm

Agreed hubird...

stretching always does 'something' to the sounds, never heard a perfect stretch so far...

And no, it's no automatable, it's a destructive process

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: marcuspocus on 2003-09-24 13:44 ]</font>

eliam · Post by **eliam** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:45 pm

I see... I'll try it out and tell you the results. If it doesn't work, I'll leave my tune like that for now. Maybe wavelab would have a good algorythm to perform this type of stuff...

Post by **Neil B** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:24 pm

Again, coming from a midi background more than audio, I tend to write in midi and then record to audio.
In terms of Cubase changing the timing/bpm is easy and I assume it is for most software.
I get the tempos correct before recording to audio.
Any audio loops that I'm using (drum samples for instance) can be shipped into Recycle and stretched or compacted.
The only problem with this method is if the track is picking up speed gradually (accelerando) and I have ramped the tempo change over 3 or 4 bars - then the samples will drift even with Recycle. It is then a matter of breaking up each loop into smaller segments.
It can be done - but it involves work and planning imo.

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:26 pm

On 2003-09-24 13:02, eliam wrote:
I have a song almost all recorded and I want to speed it up in some places, smoothly. Thanks

It would be always audiable since you degrade the amount of samples in a second. The best tool to smothly speed up or down a file is Serato Pitch'n Time, in my opinion. But it's only AudioSuite (ProTools not realtime plugin standard) AFAIK.

There is also a standalone app (for sure Mac version but I don't know if it's PC, too) called Amazing Slow Downer which works great (but not natural)

I would recommend what Neil sais. If you have your song in pieces it's always better to move them than proceeding the whole song.

_________________
Sir Sam Plaire Scopernicus

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2003-09-24 16:29 ]</font>

eliam · Post by **eliam** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:22 pm

Thanks for the tips! Yes, I prefer to have everything controlled in rel time through midi, but since I own a miserable count of 3 dsps (which I love!), I must compromise... I still have all the sequences though but I'd bother with re-recording them only for a final release, where I'm not now.
Anyway, thanks for the good advice!