changing tempo of tracks

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EightMilesHigh

Member
I couple months ago, I recorded a song in a different key and at a faster tempo. The drum track was excellent. Since then, I have rerecorded the song slower, but can’t seem to get a drum track I’m pleased with. (I am using a different kit now)

Here's what I want to do: Keep the old drum track but slow it down without changing its pitch. I have experimented with this and can’t really hear any difference sonically. (On the other hand, some instruments I hear a big difference) Does slowing negatively impact the sound of drums?
 
You said you didn't hear a difference, so I guess not? :D

I've tried it on acoustic guitar and it added all kinds of artifacts and crappyness even with slight changes. I've never tried it on drums, but I imagine the effects would be less noticeable. Even more so in a dense mix.
 
changing speed

There surely is much going on in the mix (20 or 30 guitar tracks though not at the same time), and I can't really notice a difference with drums. The track is going from like 4:05 to 4:15. Your right about acoustic guitars, and often with electric guitars for that matter. If they play a real prominent role, it's not a good idea. It adds that "layer of crapiness" you alluded to. You know what sounds worse than anything slowed down? Organ. I slowed down a jazz organ track once and there were all kinds of pops. It sounded like bad tape even though I record in digital! Suffice it to say I couldn’t use that track. I never liked doing it with bass either, it seems to take away some prominence, though I do it sometimes with very short snippets to make everything match up.
 
You can use MIDI for organs and stuff like that, even drums. MIDI tracks can be changed without any kind of artifacts or crappyness. This allows you to change tempo, timing, everything as you need to.

Otherwise, I'd recommend retracking unless it's not noticeable. But instruments like guitars, keyboard, etc. will need to be retracked.
 
EightMilesHigh said:
I have experimented with this and can’t really hear any difference sonically. (On the other hand, some instruments I hear a big difference) Does slowing negatively impact the sound of drums?
Click to expand...

I'd say that, everything else remaining the same, you're likely to get better results with drums than with guitars. A bigger factor, though, is the quality of the software you're using.

I work sometimes as a software developer, and I bet if I spent a weekend working on it, I could write some code that would time stretch, but would turn everything into complete crap -- given a lot more time and expertise (more than I will ever be able to devote), the software can get smarter about identifying events in the sound file and preserving their integrity, and I would imagine that there's room for a really big quality spread, depending on the underlying algorithms.

I've had good results with small changes to drum tracks in Logic Express (I'm using v8 now, but haven't done any time stretching in it -- the function in v7 was good, I think, and so v8 should be as good or better). Not evangelizing here -- just a data point for you.
 
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