Plays at all sample rates, why not record?

M

mrclay

New member
I've always wondered this and I don't think it's specific to by SBLive card. Through software (like Cooledit) I can play .wav files back at almost any sample rate, but I can only <i>record</i> at the standard rates like 48, 44.1, et. al. I'm assuming the software just easily converts the sample rate on the fly and sends the data to the card at it's normal rate (like the SBLive is 48), but why couldn't this process be reversed to allow recording at non-standard rates?
I just realized it's gonna be a nightmare "tuning" my DAW setup (like you can easily w/ any old cassette 4-track) so I can overdub an electric piano to a track with a slightly out of tune keyboard backing track (that I can't rerecord). I'll have to do some smart stretching..
 
I'm confused as to why you'd want to record at a non-standard sample rate in the first place. What are you attempting to do?
 
>What are you attempting to do?

I'm tracking a song and half the instruments, including vocals are there and sound great (and couldn't be redone even if they didn't). The problem is the keyboard and, consequently, the vocals were detuned from A=440Hz (I didn't know this during recording). The track sounds great, but now I've got to overdub two more keyboards which can't be tuned down to match..
Through a lot of headache I've found out what percentage to speed up the 1st tracks so A=440, but to do the dubbing I'm going to have to stretch a monitor mix track to play in A=440 (but still be at 44.1kHz), do the overdubs, then un-stretch the new tracks by the same amount so all tracks are at 44.1. The problem is, I doubt CoolEdit has the precision necessary to stretch twice (once for the monitor, second for the overdub) and come out with perfectly-aligned tracks. I'm not willing to pitch shift anything..
 
Unless I'm totally mistaken, a pitch shift is *exactly* what you want to do.

Most pitch shift plugins have an FFT option which will allow you to adjust the pitch of a track WITHOUT changing its length.

One guy around here actually uses one to make his guitar sound like a bass, without having to play the track double time :)

I wish I could give you a link here... I know that n-Track comes with a good pitch shift plugin that I've used a few times. Since FFT's are pretty CPU intensive, you probably don't want to do this in realtime though....I think that Goldwave has a pitch shift routine, maybe that would be your best bet.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slack's got it (I used to use my acoustic with an octave pitch-shift for bass).

1) Make copies of your original tracks (in case you goof up).

2) Shift the copies so that they're at 440 (it'll probably take some experimentation)

3) Overdub at pitch to the now corrected tracks.
 
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