time stretching and remixing

[NuEra]

What are some techniques when it comes to time stretching for the purposes of remixes. I hear all these remixes of pop songs that may not have a tempo close to a dance track but the samples sound just like the original.

I can get a track loaded into ableton and set the markers and change the setting complex but it can still sound really hurried. Is there more to the process?

I am just looking to learn a little more about time stretching, remixing, sampling...

[admin]

This is a good topic. I find it really depends on a case per case basis but there are a few guidelines. For some of the songs where the tempo is very different its possible the vocals are at half time to the track. For instance if the original tempo was 70bpm then you would reduce them down to say 64 and then do the track tempo at 128, double. This way the vocals are only making a small change. For something like 100 to say 125 that can be more of a challenge. The worse case is vocals with a lot of vibrato, as when this is sped up it sounds silly. What I've done in these cases is chop the vocals and hand place them, sometimes syllable by syllable. Very time consuming, can take a whole day or two just to complete but in some cases this would be the only option. You can also try a combination of time stretching and chopping. In the case of using Live's algos remember these are realtime and will always suffer problems. The best bet is to use a complex offline process which will generally give much better results.

[Bitfiend]

I agree, the couple of times i've done rmx's of this sort i've had to drill down to at least each word/breath and individually chop and stretch. Even going as so far as syllables.
But getting down to that level is the difference between sounding like a wavy, bootleg rmx and a pro rmx or edit IMHO.

[sven hauck]

In the case of using Live's algos remember these are realtime and will always suffer problems. The best bet is to use a complex offline process which will generally give much better results.

What offline tools do you recommend?

[Rambunkcious]

In case you don't want to cut up and edit every sample, an alternative would be melodyne

http://www.celemony.com/cms/

It allows you to edit every vocal articulation add/remove vibrato, tremolo, glide, harmonies however its a new toolset to learn, tho should not be a bad learning curve.

[admin]

What offline tools do you recommend?

SX offline can be ok, same with wavelab's. Then there's the Pitch and Time plugin for Pro Tools which was/is popular. Melodyne as Rami said is pretty sick though, I used it about 3-4 years ago and was great then, sure it's even better now. For realyl serious manipulation that would probably be the way to go.

[Rambunkcious]

For PT def sound toys "speed" plug in for offline, the serato pitch and time is supposed to be good to but expensive.

[Bitfiend]

yeah serato is very good but very $$$.
I'll have to check out the Melo.....

[blackwatchstudio]

Digidesign's Elastic Audio which was introduced in version 7.4 is a great tool for this. You can basically slice and stretch your audio by instantiating one of the Elastic algorithms (Poyphonic, Rhythmic, Monophonic etc according to the type of track) which will create markers on every transient. You are able to push/pull/time each hit perfectly. Almost like Recycling (rex) but even more powerful. Elastic Pitch is going to be available in v.8 coming out this month..exciting times we live in!!

[admin]

How does this compare to Live's warping? Sounds similar. One thing I've just realized with Live that I don't like now is there's not groove quantize for audio parts, miss that from SX. Still haven't found out how to move audio parts around without snapping. The usual command for doing it in MIDI (holding alt) doesn't work. Even with the grid off it still seemed to snap.

EDIT: Figured it out,had tried the clip quantize before and not grid...