How to slow recorded material 1/2 speed and pitch shift respectively?

OK...
 
I remember this can be done, but it's not something I've tried before so I'm a newbie here...
 
I just transferred a recording from 1/4" tape, but it was playing at 7.5ips while the recording (I believe) was actually 3.75ips. My machine will not play that slow (7.5/15) So I'm trying to make the shift via software. I'm guessing it won't be very audiophile, but I'd like to do it anyway.
 
I've tried a few attempts and not gotten anything even close.
 
Ctrl-dragged the clip end... Changed the project tempo to half it's value with clip follows project enabled in AS...
 
I guess I could use melodyne/V-Vocal to time stretch as well as pitch shift?
 
Right now I'm transferring more in the same situation so I can't try until this final transfer is completed
 
Thanks for any clues to this procedure...
 
 

Audacity is a free program that has such a feature with good resolution, but no batch functionality that I can recall (you would need to do each file separately).

Cool. I've never noticed that feature; is it in WaveLab Elements, also?

THanks Everyone!

I will explore these ideas...

I'm also now thinking it might be 1/4 the speed? (1 7/8)

Scary...

Funny as it's been so long since i played with this scenario.

This seems it might be too extreme a shift to currently be feasible.

Its recordings of a full band/orchestra so not something splicing would accomplish either. 🎶

Hmmm...

Right direction, but i must be doing something wrong.

Im using a shorter recording to test the procedure. Same problem exists.

The first data in the clip has acoustic guitars one lefy and one right followed by a guitar left with vocal right.

As soon as I slip-stretch to 200%, I seem to lose the gtr/voc portion. It seems to only include the data from the first half of the clip.

What else am i missing?

Thanks! It's getting closer.

There are a lot of methods.
Best quality is in following order: WaveLab = AdobeAudition, Audacity, ......... Sonar.
 
Because we digitaze thousends of tapes - this month 800 tapes on 14 tape machines - we have tested a lot of applications. Best is playing the tape in its speed. Slowing down is an absolute NoGo.
You can hear the difference.

Keni
Hmmm...

Right direction, but i must be doing something wrong.

Im using a shorter recording to test the procedure. Same problem exists.

The first data in the clip has acoustic guitars one lefy and one right followed by a guitar left with vocal right.

As soon as I slip-stretch to 200%, I seem to lose the gtr/voc portion. It seems to only include the data from the first half of the clip.

What else am i missing?

Thanks! It's getting closer.

 
Do not slip stretch, slip edit to create extra space at the end. Follow the instructions exactly and it should work.

THambrecht
There are a lot of methods.
Best quality is in following order: WaveLab = AdobeAudition, Audacity, ......... Sonar.
 
Because we digitaze thousends of tapes - this month 800 tapes on 14 tape machines - we have tested a lot of applications. Best is playing the tape in its speed. Slowing down is an absolute NoGo.
You can hear the difference.

That's what I'm finding.

Much too far a stretch... but.........

👽🎲🎲

Keni

Anderton
Do not slip stretch, slip edit to create extra space at the end. Follow the instructions exactly and it should work.

Thanks again Craig... This nailed it! Surprisingly listenable.
 
...at least for the little 6 minute clip. We'll see how it works for the long band/orch performance.

The fidelity will be the same. That's because we're not using fancy DSP to make the changes, but essentially doing what tape does...just in the digital domain. Sometimes simplest is best.

If you have an android device and are willing to do this "outside the (Sonar) box", Music Speed Changer or similar apps are great for this. You can set the speed and pitch independently or linked, reverse audio, and save the results as a new wav or mp3 file up to 320kbps. Very little artifacts and works on the fly. Great for comparison testing as you can then play both versions back to back. Free version can do +/-24 semi-tones (4 octaves) and 10-500% tempo and has small ad banner at the bottom - only 99¢ to remove.
 

Hey Keni,
 
Odd that we have the same puzzle to fix. My tapes are from 1963 - some I can play back on my Roberts 770x (2 speed options) and some still sound like chipmunks.
 
From what I understand they must have been recorded for economy sake or to lengthen the taping time at 1 7/8 inches per second. If I just had short clips I would do them in Sonar by stretching but the tapes are 7" reels so that is not a reasonable option.
 
Best solution which I will trying next week: Download Audacity for free, set Audacity sample rate to double what you normally use, when recording play back reel to reel at it's slowest speed, after recording go to Audacity Effects and select pitch, set pitch to minus 51.50 and fine tune after if necessary. Audacity has a MONO/Stereo option.
 
Dan

Anderton
You can do this in SONAR easily.
 
1. Slip-edit the end of the clip so it's twice as long, then bounce the clip to itself.
2. Open the clip in the Loop Construction View.
3. Choose Clip > Stretch On/Off and set the Threshold to 0 (i.e., no transient markers).
4. Change the pitch semitone parameter to -12.
 
The file will now play at half speed. Bounce the clip to itself...done. This is the same result as slowing down tape by half-speed.
 
Note: In Step 3, you do NOT want Loop On/Off enabled. This is not about looping. Also Threshold must be set to 0.

I wonder if it would be faster to use the Clip Inspector as much as possible. The only thing the LVC has that is missing from the Clip Inspector is the Slice Threshold Setting.

danholobow
Hey Keni,
 
Odd that we have the same puzzle to fix. My tapes are from 1963 - some I can play back on my Roberts 770x (2 speed options) and some still sound like chipmunks.
 
From what I understand they must have been recorded for economy sake or to lengthen the taping time at 1 7/8 inches per second. If I just had short clips I would do them in Sonar by stretching but the tapes are 7" reels so that is not a reasonable option.
 
Best solution which I will trying next week: Download Audacity for free, set Audacity sample rate to double what you normally use, when recording play back reel to reel at it's slowest speed, after recording go to Audacity Effects and select pitch, set pitch to minus 51.50 and fine tune after if necessary. Audacity has a MONO/Stereo option.
 
Dan

Hi Dan...

Yeah, i chuckled seeng yours now too... Craig's solution is what i needed though i had to chop it into shorter clips. I was probably going to do that when mastering and making the cd copy anyway...

This was from a full 7" reel recorded at 3.75 ips. My 2-track is a good, industrial machine from the 7.5/15 ips days of tape...

I have an older version of Audacity somewhere, i think on an old laptop. Probably too early a version, but i know i could easily download/install anytime if i need it.

Probably the 15dwy demo of wavelab woukd have worked for me right now too, but i have no money to spend right now

If your tape is recorded at 1-7/8 and full from head to tail, it means a bunch of separate edits. I did a full 7" 3.75 ips tape in 7 segments. As you can keep them in place, the clips can stay in order (after splittin) and if you use dead spots between music etc. the extra steps are painless...

If you have a lot of tapes, this would get old fast...

I did my 7 segments in near 20 minutes taking my time...

scook
I was thinking it may be easier to lengthen the clip by entering a new length value in Clip Properties.

 
That's a good idea. If the LCV threshold defaulted to zero, then you could do everything needed in the Inspector...but I don't know if this is a common enough scenario that it would merit making the tradeoff of opening up the LCV and not having any transient markers.
 

I believe the actual length does not matter as long the the clip is at least 2x the original length.

 
Yes, that's correct. I usually just get lazy and drag out a long way, then trim later.

Anderton

danholobow
Best solution which I will trying next week: Download Audacity for free, set Audacity sample rate to double what you normally use, when recording play back reel to reel at it's slowest speed, after recording go to Audacity Effects and select pitch, set pitch to minus 51.50 and fine tune after if necessary. Audacity has a MONO/Stereo option.
 

The results i got with Sonar are far better than I expected. The only thing that is a problem is the length of clip it can convert.

So if any of the other programs handle significantly larger clips, that would be the only "improvement" i might need...


I doubt the sonic results using Audacity, Wavelab, etc. will be any better than what I've described with SONAR, but I'd be interested in your findings.