Should I Use Pitch N Time or not?

[logandrum]

I just finished producing this whole track and now I find out that it is too fast. I was wondering if I should use Serato Pitch N' Time to slow it down no more than 5bpm. This is a very expensive plugin but I may just have to purchase it if it leads to great results.
Has anyone had any good results with it, and how much of the audio quality will change after applying it? I have to slow down the whole song which has like 40 tracks, do I apply the plugin to all the tracks at once, or to the 2 track? Any feedback would be great, hope to hear from you soon, thanks in advance, Brett

[WildHoney]

Download the demo and try it on the 2 track mix. . ..
I've used it often on 2 tracks with generally good results -- the last time I used it to do what you want to do was to slow down a track from 152 to 148 and neither I nor the client could detect any loss of quality.

[bashville]

PnT is probably the best at this task, but I don't think you'll be happy on a critical listen with all the material just shifted. You'll notice a little phase-shift quality on everything, like listening inside a ceramic bowl. (How do I know what that might sound like, you ask?)

It's great in a pinch--maybe there's some rhythm or background vocal stuff that would just be too much hassle to replace. But I'd think you'd want to re-do any featured tracks again. Depends on what it's for. If it's for TV background, or you know it's going to get squashed into mp3's for the final delivery, maybe it doesn't matter.

[uno1234]

Soundshifter from Waves blows it all away. It's by far the best, and I've used them all.

[bashville]

Well, there you go. The Waves looks a little cheaper, too.

[Oliver M]

Soundshifter from Waves blows it all away. It's by far the best, and I've used them all.

I disagree. I'd use Pitch 'n Time Pro!
SoundShifter is rhythmically not as precise as PnT. Also, I recommend you process the single 40 tracks rather than the entire 2 track master as you may want to process the tracks with different settings and different algorithms which gives you overall a better result.

But see for yourself, both plugs are available as demos.


Oliver

[Scott Goldberg]

Hi Oliver,

It sounds like you have a iot of experiece with both. I have P&T and for the most part, I have been really happy with it. Would you mind telling me some of the things that make it superior, in your opinion to the Waves version or perhaps to any other versions available out there you've tried? I like Serato, but I don't have a lot of experience wirh many others exceot sound toys and maybe a xouple o more. I'd sure be interested what you'd haave to say. Thanks ahead of time if you are able to take the time.

[ashdot]

I usually use combined techniques for stretching an entire song.

I first use Waves shifter on a 2 track rough mix, to settle on the tempo.

If the change is in the area of 2-5 bpm, I try not to process the drums and percussion and instead use Beat Detective to fit them in the new tempo.

If there are Midi parts and Rex files, I re-record them for the new tempo.

For the harmonic parts and vocals, I use Waves shifter, alternating between "smooth", "punch" and "transient" settings, making tests on small regions to choose the correct settings.

Make sure you solo each individual track after processing it to make sure there are no glitches.

Izhar

[uno1234]

I find that Pitch n time makes everything sound robotic. I find it completely unusable and I'm surprised that people actually use it. Waves Soundshifter sounds unbelievably natural to me. The real test is how it sounds once it's mixed. I find that all other time stretcher do not respond well to additional processing.

[crizdee]

Hi,

I found the logic "any material" algorithm (i think that is what it's called?) to be the best for 2 track stretching! i did a lot of 2 track shifting for compilation CD's and this was better than PnT, i haven't got Waves to compare.

Chris