Change speed AND pitch of audio track

[Steve Moddelmog]

I want to change the speed of an audio track and have the pitch change correspondingly.  The only options I can see are to keep the pitch the same - very clever, but not what I need in this case.  Can it be done?  Thanks for help.

[RBH]

Try a small sample - what happens if you don't select the retain pitch switch? Copy a small clip to a new track and test.

[marcL]

9 hours ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

I want to change the speed of an audio track and have the pitch change correspondingly.  The only options I can see are to keep the pitch the same - very clever, but not what I need in this case.  Can it be done?  Thanks for help.

If you mean like a tape recorder with speed change, then no, this is not possible in CbB, but in other DAWs like Reaper and Samplitude.

In CbB you can only change speed or pitch separately.

[Steev]

14 hours ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

I want to change the speed of an audio track and have the pitch change correspondingly.  The only options I can see are to keep the pitch the same - very clever, but not what I need in this case.  Can it be done?  Thanks for help.

Clever indeed to say the least, but I've always found changing both speed and pitch is a 2-step process to get anything even close to what is desired, and both of these processes take an enormous amount of processing power for any CPU.

1st, change speed/tempo, then "SAVE"

2sd, work on pitch in 1/2 tone resolution for the best realistic/authentic results use 1.) Melodyne?? ?? 2.)WavesTune??,  3.) AutoTune?, 4.) elastique', ?

or whatever you can get your hands on that you can dial in pitch?‍♂️ & formant?‍♀️, then FREEZE TRACKS!?

3rd, keep your expectations on the low down, learn to settle for what you get as "acceptable" because if you expect perfection, you will always, without a doubt, be sorely disappointed.

"Close" is the operative word here because any time you do either it has an impact on sound quality which is at best OK for the "close enough for rock & roll" mindset but for everything else, specifically exacting results, it typically has much less than ideal results.

 Good Luck & Happy Recording/Sequencing/Music Creation.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Steev

[Craig Anderton]

18 hours ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

I want to change the speed of an audio track and have the pitch change correspondingly.  The only options I can see are to keep the pitch the same - very clever, but not what I need in this case.  Can it be done?  Thanks for help.

Replace the track with a sampler. Load the audio file into the sampler, and apply pitch bend. Then, render the track to convert it to audio.

I used this technique to pitch-correct vocals with an Emulator II in the days before Auto-Tune ?

[user 905133]

Another software option is to use a virtual modular synth than can play files where the speed (pitch and rate) is altered by a virtual control voltage.

[Terry Kelley]

I do the two step method. Assuming you want to keep the song in tune, I change the pitch first and then change the length. Each half step is the 12 root of 2 or 1.05946309436 so use that to calculate how much to speed it up or slow it down.

[Steve Moddelmog]

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I thought it would be easier - seems like it used to be difficult to keep the pitch the same, now it's difficult to make it change with the speed.  Am I just remembering that incorrectly?  ps, if anyone can recall a version of Sonar that does what I want, please let me know - I have all back to the first product branded with the Sonar name.

[scook]

Time/Pitch Stretch 2 was bundled with SONAR Platinum/Producer.

It is not a regular plug-in but the binary stretch.ax and the now almost useless stretch.hlp are installed alongside the DAW executable. Stretch.ax is registered as a DX plug-in.

If it is installed by any old 64bit Cakewalk DAW, it is available in all 64bit Cakewalk DAWs and CbB in the Process Effect > Audio Effects Time category in the clip context menu.

[scook]

While I have Time/Pitch Stretch 2 for this type of effect I use the elastique TimeStretch in SoundForge Pro.

It is about time for another $20 SoundForge blowout at Humble Bundle. 

[Steev]

26 minutes ago, scook said:

While I have Time/Pitch Stretch 2 for this type of effect I use the elastique TimeStretch in SoundForge Pro.

It is about time for another $20 SoundForge blowout at Humble Bundle. 

Ah HAA! Thanks scook, I could not for the life of me remember if this was bundled with Sound Forge or SONAR. '''?'''

[AB99]

I do not know if anyone tried this, but the time stretcher that comes with the Video Vegas is very good.  Sometimes I have used that for adjusting the timing (mainly to increase or decrease tempo.)  As to changing the pitch, I defer to others above.

So, if one has Video Vegas loaded, the time stretcher sofware shows up as an option in Cakewalk!

addendum:  the Video Vegas time stretcher may be the same as in Sound Forge, which is noted above.

Edited February 15, 2023 by AB9

[Craig Anderton]

FWIW the Magix versions of Vegas and Sound Forge also include the Elastique Timestretch plugin. 

[Steve Moddelmog]

15 hours ago, scook said:

Time/Pitch Stretch 2 was bundled with SONAR Platinum/Producer.

It is not a regular plug-in but the binary stretch.ax and the now almost useless stretch.hlp are installed alongside the DAW executable. Stretch.ax is registered as a DX plug-in.

If it is installed by any old 64bit Cakewalk DAW, it is available in all 64bit Cakewalk DAWs and CbB in the Process Effect > Audio Effects Time category in the clip context menu.

I have Sonar Platinum (64-bit) installed on my computer, and I am just not seeing this plugin.  I understand that it's not viewable with other FX , but when I right click my clip and select "Process Effect / Audio Effects," I can't find it anywhere.  I do see the Pitch Shifter plugin, and maybe I could use that in conjunction with stretching the time, but I want the pitch and time to change in tandem with each other.  Can you post a screen shot of the clip as the effect is selected?  Thanks.

[John Vere]

@AB9  beat me to it but ya, any of the Sony/ Vegas/ Magix video editors seems to do this. It's as simple as you grab  the leading edge of a clip hold CNTL and drag the clip right. It speeds it up. And it seems none destructive as you can change the amount at any time later. I use this to speed up boring parts of tutorials and the audio will turn chipmunk so I know it's working in the way the OP desires for sure.

I just opened Sound Forge and it does it differently using the time stretch plug in shown above. It works, I sped up a whole song from 120 BPM to 130 BPM and only shifted the pitch by 1 semi tone. Brilliant. Seemed to not produce any artifacts either.  

https://www.magix.com/ca/music-editing/free-download/sound-forge-pro/

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by John Vere

[Steve Moddelmog]

Thanks for the all the suggestions about using a video editor.  I don't have one of the premium ones, but I have Cyberlink Power Director and it was able to do what I wanted perfectly.

[AB99]

34 minutes ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

Thanks for the all the suggestions about using a video editor.  I don't have one of the premium ones, but I have Cyberlink Power Director and it was able to do what I wanted perfectly.

 

34 minutes ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

Thanks for the all the suggestions about using a video editor.  I don't have one of the premium ones, but I have Cyberlink Power Director and it was able to do what I wanted perfectly.

You are welcome!  To be clear, for me, the use of the time stretch in the video editor had nothing to do with video.  It just so happened to be a great audio tool bundled in the Video Vegas program, presumably from the connection of the company with Video Vegas and Sound Forge.

[user7138898860557991]

Audacity can do it too.
It's standard effects -> change speed and pitch.
I've done this for years.
Pitch down my main mix a fifth, import the track then sing along at the slower speed and pitch. Bring it back up to the right speed and you're good to go.
Makes a great backing vocal if done carefully.

[jwintermute]

On 3/10/2023 at 12:43 AM, user7138898860557991 said:

Audacity can do it too.
It's standard effects -> change speed and pitch.
I've done this for years.
Pitch down my main mix a fifth, import the track then sing along at the slower speed and pitch. Bring it back up to the right speed and you're good to go.
Makes a great backing vocal if done carefully.

For anyone late to this discussion (as I am), Audacity works very well. 
I have three versions of the same song, loaded into Cakewalk from cassette using a four-track recorder (which is an interesting exercise in itself...). The versions have exactly the same rhythm and bass tracks, but the other tracks are different, and I was interested in combining them all into one master.

Due to the use of different Portastudios/cassette decks, they run at slightly different speeds. Using Audacity, I was able to simulate the pitch adjustment on a Portastudio using "Change Speed and Pitch".

To work out the adjustment, I loaded the rhythm track from one version (which was created using a DrumTraks, - a real one ?) to the left track, and the same rhythm track from another version to the right track. The right track was running very slightly slower. By experimentation, a "Speed Multiplier" setting of 1.005 brought the two rhythms into sync, and the sound quality was not bad at all.

Edited March 29 by jwintermute