Skyline_UK
I've never found Sonar's time stretching any good.

+1. I use Reaper when I need to time stretch a clip. It works like it should. Easily and without any artifacts.

Geo524

Skyline_UK
I've never found Sonar's time stretching any good.

+1. I use Reaper when I need to time stretch a clip. It works like it should. Easily and without any artifacts.

Reaper lets you varispeed an entire project easily, and so does Studio One Pro. That said, I've never encountered a real-time pitch-stretching algorithm that could work with as wide a variety of program material as ones that render offline. I particularly appreciate that the iZotope algorithm used in Sonar gives a choice of bass, vocal, solo, and mixed material. Same with sample-rate conversion; check out these comparisons of artifacts from sample rate conversion for multiple programs. Unfortunately I don't know of an equivalent chart for stretching algorithms. 
 
I have encountered a lot of people who think Sonar's stretching sucks because they don't know how to choose the right algorithm for the material they want to stretch, or don't realize stretching defaults to a real-time preview mode that does in fact suck. Not saying you guys don't know that, but it is an issue that comes up a lot. Hmmm, might make a good tip...
 
 
 
 

 I have encountered a lot of people who think Sonar's stretching sucks because they don't know how to choose the right algorithm for the material they want to stretch, or don't realize stretching defaults to a real-time preview mode that does in fact suck. 

 
Agreed.  I will be the first to admit "operator error" on this one.  I didn't understand the proper way to go about achieving what I was trying to do.  I don't blame Sonar at all.  It's a fantastic DAW with all of the tools anyone could ask for.  It was simply my lack of knowledge keeping me from doing the job right.
 
As far as the sound quality...once you "bounce to clip" my audio sounds perfect.  But that was never an issue with me anyway.  And yes...I was only adjusting the speed of my MIDI drum track.  I wasn't time stretching the entire project, only the guitar arpeggio that I'm not talented enough to play in real time. 
 

Anderton
I have encountered a lot of people who think Sonar's stretching sucks because they don't know how to choose the right algorithm for the material they want to stretch, or don't realize stretching defaults to a real-time preview mode that does in fact suck. Not saying you guys don't know that, but it is an issue that comes up a lot. Hmmm, might make a good tip...

As you saw from my other thread with the bug, I've been doing some time stretching recently using the Ctrl-drag method. How would I configure the algorithm if I wanted to bounce those clips? I know that when using Audiosnap, at least under 8.5, I could choose between various iZotope modes, but I don't see any of that appear when I just stretch things in the Track View like this.

Kylotan
 
As you saw from my other thread with the bug, I've been doing some time stretching recently using the Ctrl-drag method. How would I configure the algorithm if I wanted to bounce those clips? I know that when using Audiosnap, at least under 8.5, I could choose between various iZotope modes, but I don't see any of that appear when I just stretch things in the Track View like this.

The mode still adopts whatever offline stretching mode is selected in AudioSnap...I realize, though, that's not intuitively obvious. It's something that should be added to the documentation. 

I've watched the videos and read the books describing how to do this.
 
I've tried it again and again on lazy Sundays.
 
I'm mostly a hobbiest, so ... I just replay rather than changing tempo.
 
That said, I do think it's outrageously cool what you can do with it.
 
The most  important thing for me when working with this stuff is how to get the transients back out of my project. The size of your project can explode and saving the project can suddenly take a long time. To get the project size back down after playing with Audio Snap and Transients, save as a bundle, then save back as the project. Boom, size back to tiny.
 
 

gswitz
I'm mostly a hobbiest, so ... I just replay rather than changing tempo.

I'm not letting that go by without a comment 
 
I generally think that's a better approach. I've never re-cut a song that wasn't better than an earlier attempt. There's something about the process of learning the song the first time that translates into a more confident performance on the second go-round.
 
For me this is most noticeable with vocals. When I cut vocals, I'll then listen to them over and over and do new vocals. They're always better. I liken this to a (very) "lite" version of taking your music out on the road and honing it in front of an audience.
 
And frankly, "back in the day" when a song wasn't working, the pros would know when to cut their losses and just start over. Many of the songs that became classics didn't start off the way they ended, "Sympathy for the Devil" being a prime example because its evolution was captured in a Jean-Luc Godard film. There wasn't this ethic of "if it has problems, we'll fix it." 
 
Don't get me wrong: I like having fix-it tools to take something from 95% to 99%. But if the tempo itself is off, that tends to influence everything from the feel to the parts themselves. Recutting respects the needs of the new tempo.
 
Damn, I can be wordy sometimes