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Vocal time stretching

I've tried to do a remix but i cant sync the vocal with the track itself. Although i've automatically detected the tempo of the vocal, i cant play them simultaneoulsy. Is it a software (i use FL studio)that makes it a problem for me, i mean with Ableton it is a lot easier, or any general rules that should be taken in mind when syncronyzing? Thanks a lot!

Best option would be to use Ableton to properly warp your acapella or vocals.

Otherwise, I'd try beatmatching it with a steady kick to get an accurate tempo of the acapella.

quote:

Originally posted by ponsshin Best option would be to use Ableton to properly warp your acapella or vocals. Otherwise, I'd try beatmatching it with a steady kick to get an accurate tempo of the acapella.

Ableton will do a great job, I second that.

If you have access to Logic, there is time correcting features there as well.

Pro tools 8 isn't out yet, but the elastic time will be sweet. It will do real time pitch adjustment too!

A good WAV editor, such as SoundForge or Wavelab, will allow you to easily re-assign the tempo as well.

Audacity is a free WAV editor that will do timestretching (see "Change Tempo" under the Effects menu).

Third for ableton it does exactly what you want

U should try right clicking on the the TIME value in your audioclip and selecting auto, then selecting a range 75 - 150.



Usually fruity nails it, unless i have been very lucky.

There are acapellas that wont work using this method i found, the acapellas that arent from dance tracks mainly.

However i then would recommend using cool edit pro to timestretch the vox so as not to upset the pitch of the vocal.

quote:

Originally posted by ponsshin Best option would be to use melodyne to properly warp your acapella or vocals. Otherwise, I'd try beatmatching it with a steady kick to get an accurate tempo of the acapella.

Fixed. Ableton's time stretching is beyond bad...

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips Fixed. Ableton's time stretching is beyond bad...

Never used Melodyne for that purpose so I can't say but I know it's a bitch to use.

I'd mock it up in ableton where you can see the peaks clearly, then once you have the BPM you want it at, then transfer it to melodyne to take advantage of its time stretching algorithms. Melodyne isn't really hard to use at all actually...

I second Melodyne. This is very easy to do with the warp tool in Cubase though... It is somewhat like warping in Ableton, except the peaks move as you do it (rather than just positioning a marker).

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Originally posted by echosystm I second Melodyne. This is very easy to do with the warp tool in Cubase though... It is somewhat like warping in Ableton, except the peaks move as you do it (rather than just positioning a marker).

Paste your vocal track in arrangement view and warp from there. This way you can see both the markers and the peaks move.

If i recall correctly, there was a video by BT somewhere on the internet about how he time stretched some from about 96 bpm to 136 bpm without any mess ups, i believe he was remixing Sarah McLaughlin

best thing to do with fl is drag audio vacal clip into playlist and take snap off, then drag til timing is perfect

quote:

Originally posted by Stef If i recall correctly, there was a video by BT somewhere on the internet about how he time stretched some from about 96 bpm to 136 bpm without any mess ups, i believe he was remixing Sarah McLaughlin

It depends on the original recording too, my voice doesn't respond well to that sort of abuse, but some people have voices which do. The only way I can do time stretching is if I use melodyne, otherwise its just a mess...

Re: Vocal time stretching

quote:

Originally posted by Microlab I've tried to do a remix but i cant sync the vocal with the track itself. Although i've automatically detected the tempo of the vocal, i cant play them simultaneoulsy. Is it a software (i use FL studio)that makes it a problem for me, i mean with Ableton it is a lot easier, or any general rules that should be taken in mind when syncronyzing? Thanks a lot!

Wait, you cannot automatically detect the tempo of the vocal unless it contains a drum beat. Or atleast it won't be very accurate. Take the original track and detect the bpm of it and use that information to apply timestretching to the vocal.

Of course we're all asuming that the original track has a constant BPM, ie, is a dance track... Rock, Jazz etc are a lot more work...

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips It depends on the original recording too, my voice doesn't respond well to that sort of abuse, but some people have voices which do. The only way I can do time stretching is if I use melodyne, otherwise its just a mess...

Fair enough, but i am sure there are some algorithms out there that can be pretty accurate without major loss of quality.

quote:

Originally posted by Stef Fair enough, but i am sure there are some algorithms out there that can be pretty accurate without major loss of quality.

Yeah melodyne. Maybe cubase, not sure about that though... Some people can get away with using the ableton one though somehow, just lucky I guess...

quote:

Originally posted by Ry Thomas best thing to do with fl is drag audio vacal clip into playlist and take snap off, then drag til timing is perfect

Yes, inserting it as an audio clip can also give you the possibility to cut ('chop') it down, so you can slide every little bit to match it perfectly.

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Originally posted by Icone Yes, inserting it as an audio clip can also give you the possibility to cut ('chop') it down, so you can slide every little bit to match it perfectly.

In Cubase this is called hitpoints, you can let Cubase auto-detect them en chop it automaticely, this is great for using loops, not so much for vocals. When creating hitpoints, the sample will also be adjusted to the BPM of the track (ofcourse you have give the original BPM first). It's not adviceable doing this on vocals (that is, let Cubase chop them up automaticely), because Cubase can cut them on the wrong moments.

Better is using the warp function, I found this one out a couple of weeks ago working on a remix of Crosses. Warp is great! Just drag the piece of the sample where it is out of sync to the right position, and that's it.
Warp is also very usefull when you have guitarparts in your track, it's pretty difficult to play a complicated guitarpart exactly on-beat, so for the notes that aren't (after the recording), you can use warp to set them on time.

quote:

Originally posted by Stef i believe he was remixing Sarah McLaughlin

Sarah McLachlan .

Or did I miss some form of joke!

quote:

Originally posted by Stef If i recall correctly, there was a video by BT somewhere on the internet about how he time stretched some from about 96 bpm to 136 bpm without any mess ups, i believe he was remixing Sarah McLaughlin

From the lost footage videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ8ZzKck1Os

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