Time Stretching

[spaceman]

I gotta time stretch some stereo tracks post mix by 1-4BPM, depending on the track.
what do you peeps use? I was thinking pitch and time with the varispeed on.
I know it will pitch slightly but that is fine.

In past I have printed to tape and sped tape during the cut, but I have to do it in software this
time cos of financial constraints. Any help as to best way to do this would be much appreciated.

[Stig Eliassen]

Melodyne works very well for time stretching.

[TCDet]

Melodyne 3 studio
Detects the original tempo. you put in your new tempo and save the song as audio.
It's quite good for extreme changes as well.

[spaceman]

The melodyne examples sound great. Anyone got any favourites between this and Serato pitch n time? How does this compare to speeding it up (and slight pitching of course) on the 1/2" going to master?
Also is their any other contenders I should look into?

thanks

[Zownd]

The best results for me come from Waves time-shifter (i also tried Speed and Serato). This is inside protools. Outside PT there is TimeFactory which is truly superb,....

then again it's reeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy ssssssssssssssssllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooww wwwwww

[MX582]

cant you just use the time compression expansion built into pro tools for this? or am i missing something? then again TCE can tend to distort the sound if you use it too much

[Scott Goldberg]

The Pro tools one works crappy. Either Serato...that works great for me...or Melodyne. I'm just a little wary of Melodyne right now. First, it's very deep (I been told that there's an easy tendancy for operators to get over-involved with it) Plus, I've had a lot of dialog with other well known plug-in companies, who claim that Melodyne leaves a lot of artifacts that people don't even realize are there, simply because consumers usually only hear the examples of that product that are out there in the ads and demos Celemony provides.

I don't really know this for fact at all! I just know that Serato works great. I also have a real heavyweight friend/producer who loves Melodyne and he swears by it. I'd have a hard time not believing him, as he's done some amazing work that we've all heard in the movies. Academy Award and gold record [bleep].

I actually changed a whole piece today from 161 bpm to 190 bpm with Serato. There were over twenty tracks in this session, and I processed them all, and I suffered no artifacts, pitch or sound changes, other that the faster speed I needed to give my client. I was really surprised and actually amazed. Years ago, I spoke with Ken Walden from Digi about this issue and, at the time, he told me that no one could touch Serato. This was before Melodyne or Waves was out though. I can't comment on those, as I have no experience, but Serato sure did the trick for me today. Man, I was amazed!

[Improv]

I like several, depending on the application. The standard Digideign TCE is best for vocals and speech. Pitch-n-time seems solid for drums and percussive material. And my favorite for everything else would be Waves Soundshifter. Never used Melodyne, but heard good things.

[Stig Eliassen]

First, it's very deep (I been told that there's an easy tendancy for operators to get over-involved with it)

Yes, it goes quite deep. So does PT. I love it. Use whatever tools and features you need for the task at hand.

Plus, I've had a lot of dialog with other well known plug-in companies, who claim that Melodyne leaves a lot of artifacts that people don't even realize are there, simply because consumers usually only hear the examples of that product that are out there in the ads and demos Celemony provides.

I don't hear any artifacts when "Melodyning" tracks. If you don't have a lot of bleeding into the mic(s), that is. Practice good recording techniques and you'll be good.

[TVPostSound]

It al depends on the material.
I do post-production, and use
Digidesigns Pitch (great for studio narration VO)
Searto Pitch and Time (great for complex waveforms)
Speed (great for production dialog with ambience behind it)
Waves (the last one I try)

What Im trying to say is there is no one pitch program that
does everything well.