Elastic Audio - X-Form - rendered/committed regions Q?

[Mark Dann]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

Well, I'll say it again then. Listen to your transients. They are ruined using X-Form. Completely smeared.

Agreed.

[pfo]

Originally Posted by Mark Dann

Waves SoundShifter or SoundToys Speed. Sonically, it's night and day better. Now if we could plug THOSE two algorithms into EA, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Yep, that thought crosses my mind all the time.

And to Avid, feel free to butt in at any point and interrupt this digression and answer Jeremy's question. Or my questions. Or my questions in the other thread. We're just passing the time waiting for you to come back.


That wasn't meant to sound as snarky as it did. I actually feel like the tech support presence and response time has improved noticeably since the rebranding.

[RooFuss]

so from tests it seems like x-form on the ohs,rooms,hh and rhythmic on the rest of the kit is going to work best for me...

What is everyone's opinion on 'consolidating' as opposed to 'commiting' all the EA'd tracks when done? (i'm using 8.0.3cs2) do they use different algorhythms, will they give different outcomes? I'm just about to try both ways...has any one tried these two different methods already...(i'm sure i read it in a thread somewhere else but can't find it...seems at home in this thread)

would be interesting to hear from you guys that have been using EA from the start!

[Shifted Music]

workflow wise I consolidate either the track or region before removing X-Form and the commit time is instantaneous.

1. Work in poly, usually. Or whatever algorithm sounds right.
2. Edit, move bits, adjust event markers if need be
3. Switch to Xform
4. Listen and check.
5. consolidate
6. remove X-form and hit commit

My 2 cents sound wise:

I did a direct comparison a couple year ago with the X-Form Audiosuite plug in, Waves Soundshifter, Sound Toys Speed, Pitch In Time (not pro) and several other ways like Ableton, Tracktor, and Digi standard TCE plug.

This was on a full 2 mix of mastered tracks, dance tracks with steady tempo information to begin with. The majority were being adjusted maybe 2 BPM at most for a length of about 6:30.

I thought what sounded most natural was X-Form, soundshifter, pitch In Time, speed, forget the rest... In order of better sounding result.

I have not redone the test using the EA X-Form algorithm, but certainly the audiosuite plug in was tops at that time for this project.

Previous to that test Sound Shifter had won a similar test done 2 years prior and was my go to for a while.

[Bobby Peru]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

Well, I'll say it again then. Listen to your transients. They are ruined using X-Form. Completely smeared.

Yeah but the thing is that ANY of the other EA plugins get totally borked when you commit and even sometimes during random playback when they are not committed.

They always move something or create digital weirdness - lots of time it will be only one track that is FUBAR like the bottom snare mic or something.

I've committed edits using polyphonic and rhythmic 4-5 times per song and had artifacts and things that were totally [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ed everytime.

I've rarely had to re-commit ANYTHING I do with X-form. Getting a perfect commit with any of the other EA plug will be always be totally random - like the lottery - esp in 7.4 on a G5 which is where I'm at.

Total time suck/waster otherwise.... I'll sacrifice the transient smear to keep my focus and be able to move on to the next task quickly.

Plus, there's no transients left after mastering anyway

Shane Olivo
Bobby Peru Recording
Milwaukee, WI

[gmu]

nice post. I'm getting something that sounds like drop outs in my overhead mics when I stretch/move a hit during a cymbal fade using monophonic. It's obviously distorting at that point as well. I'll try poly on those tracks and see what happens. At this point it's unacceptable.

thanks!

[2fly]

Useful post this...

my current method is to split the kit into close mics and cymbally, roomy mic groups...it makes it easy to assign the EA plugs in a couple of clicks. Rhythmic for close mics and Polyphonic for the others. After I've assigned the EA plugs I regroup all the drums and edit the warp markers all together. This has given me the best results so far.. I don't often commit (probably a hideous crime but I don't trust it...especially when the righthand side of a stereo track just disappears after two minutes etc). So if I need to 'commit' I'll buss and bounce.

[jeremyroberts]

We still have not had an answer from Avid on the original question.

I know you guys are all in AES mode this week, but some day, can we get an answer, please? Thanks.

J