Helpful ReplyDuplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique

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jimkleban
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2012/07/01 09:38:35 (permalink)

Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique

Back in the day, you could change the speed of the MASTER tape (say 30ips to 15ips) where the tracks were recorded at 30ips. When you changed the speed of the tape machine to 15ips, the tracked music would be half speed... if you recorded a track at 15ips on this tape and then put the speed back to 30ips, the 15ips track would go up in pitch (an octave) and be twice as fast.

This was done on a ton of records and I can't even come up with an idea on how to do this in SONAR?

Can it be done? And if so, can someone help me out?

Thanks,
Jim


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chuckebaby
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/01 10:02:26 (permalink)
yes it can,you use the function called "fit to time"
i believe its in the menu "process" if not try project.
select the tracks you want to speed up and change the time to a equation / the songs time devided by 2 =.

be prepared it takes a little while to process this.

my advice is to experiment on two or three tracks first to get the feel of it.

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#2
jimkleban
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/01 10:39:26 (permalink)
Chuck,

You sound like you are on to something... what I want to do for just tracking one instrument, is slow all the other tracks down, record a new track, and then speed all the tracks back up to the correct tempo.

So, in essence, the new recorded track that was recorded at half speed, will now play at full speed but an octave higher and twice as fast.

Having a hard time visualizing how this will work using your suggestion?

Will your technique allow this?

Jim


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OscarLaun
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/01 11:04:09 (permalink)
One way to do this is:

-mixdown the backing tracks
-under process>tools use the audio transpose to lower the mix an octave
-CTRL>drag stretch the mixdown to twice it's length
-bounce to track 
-record the new part using the stretched/transposed mix
- transpose the new track up an octave
-CTRL>drag to fit the transposed audio to time.

I don't think there is an easier or faster way to do this in SONAR though Adobe Audition or Sound Forge may be able to do the transpose/time fit functions in one step. 

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jimmyrage
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/01 15:27:13 (permalink)
There are also several plugins that can do that within Sonor.  Melodyne's one where you can easily change pitch and tempo.   I never use V vocal but that may be a possibility as well.  
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julioxkingbeat
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/10 15:59:31 (permalink)
Just read in Recording the Beatles that Harrison did this technique on the song And Your Bird Can Sing as he wouldn't play the riff or solo (can't remember which) fast enough in time for the recording session, so Martin had him play an octave lower in half time.

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soens
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/10 21:30:14 (permalink)
No one here seems to like SoundBlasters but they would do this at least on the output side. You could speed up/slow down and also change the pitch up or down independantly. When I used it, it worked great. Too bad there's nothing within Sonar like this.
 
I'd also like to see Multiple bus outputs per track. Some mixers can do it. why not Sonar?
 
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js516
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/11 09:04:42 (permalink)
I'm able to do that by changing the sample rate of the project. I use a MOTU PCI424 (24ioand 2408mk3).  If my project is 44.1,  I can double the speed by changing the project sample rate to 88.2 and slow it down to half speed by changing the project sample rate to 22k. If I record a track with the altered project sample rate, then change the rate back to where it was before, I can effectively create the same effect.

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jimkleban
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2012/07/13 07:31:39 (permalink)
js516... that would work but only at half or double speed... I have been thinking about this and I know this could work and the bakers should be able to do this.

A mix of the song audio file can be loaded into KONTAKT as a big huge single note sample.... then since you can alter the pitch with a PITCH WHEEL... one would be able to slow the song down to whatever pitch one wanted... if Kontakt can do this, SONAR should be able to do this... NOW record both the sample of the mix and the new audio part.... create a sample of the new audio part and do the opposite to bring it back to speed with a pitch maneuver and record this new sample as a new audio track... the new audio track should now be aligned with your original tracks and mission accomplished.

This is not an elegant way to implement but it would work and if this was built as a function or plug in using this logic, the BAKERS could provide this function in one step plugin, no? Or some variation on this theme.

Jim



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Soulburned
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2017/01/11 05:31:22 (permalink)
I believe I may have a simpler solution.

Firstly, if you're making sonar responsible for handling synchronization and timing as the master clock (internal / audio), then anytime you change your sample rate, Sonar will actually be providing SRC for playback, and you may hear the artifacts of aliasing introduced depending on which resolution your sampling between for playback purposes, yet the pitch and tempo of the playback will remain the same.

Now... if you were to set Sonar so that it receives timing from an external clock (say your hardware interface), and you keep your project and thus Sonar's sample rate the same, but change your device's sample rate - theoretically Sonar will be trying to play back and record at the original sample rate, but your hardware interface will be sending and receiving at the newly set sample rate.  This would in theory be the easiest way to emulate the tape speed effect in the digital domain.

Here's where some issues are likely to arise.  Depending on the driver model, and the particular stability of that device, some Hardware interfaces may "force synchronicity" which means they will either adapt back to whatever the software is saying it's expecting, or simply complain of a mismatch.  I can tell you there's quite a few studios who prefer using external / dedicated hardware clocks to gain the benefit of quickly implementing this technique, and also for shuffling between multiple audio sources in a given control room.
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dilletant
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Re:Duplicating the Half Speed Recording Technique 2017/01/11 08:44:29 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby Soundwise 2017/01/11 09:13:03
It's in "The Big Book of SONAR Tips"
https://shop.cakewalk.com/1244/?scope=checkoutrc&id=j3dXaNuxgP
 
Chapter 12: Tempo and Pitch Shifting
Les Paul’s Double Speed Tape Trick
 
Also here.
http://www.soundonsound.c...hniques/vari-well-then
 
=============================
 
Another method is what jimkleban described but even simpler, no need to use third party Kontakt.
1. Make temporary mix of your song to a new track: Tracks> Bounce to Tracks.
2. Insert DropZone synth.
3. Drag the temp mix clip into DZ sample window.
4. Insert C4 midi note into DZ midi track. The note has to be twice as long.
5. Freeze the synth.
 
Now you can record your part and then and do the same procedure with the recording, this time inserting C2 note.
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