Time Stretching Vocals

Not really a digital DJing thing but more of a remixing technique I guess but Im sure many of us had wondered or probably already know how to acomplish this. I posted over at KVR and didnt get much of a response (which is suprising considering the wisdom over there).

How do you extend vocals or for that matter extend any sample? I know it can be done, as I've heard it done before but Im not sure how one would go about doing it.

For instance: If I had a vocal sample that said "This is a sample". How could I extend a certain point of it continuously for a defined amount of time?

For instance: How could I extend the "A" sound in "sample" to sound like "saaaaaaaaaaaample" without it sounding like a loop or anything un-natural. I simply want it to sound as if the original human who provided the vocals spoke it with an extended "A" sound in "sample".

I don't want to hear a loop beginning and end, I don't want it want sound like it was run through an FX processor, I don't want to change the pitch or envelope info, etc.

maybee u can use the warp function in ableton for this...but i don´t know

I've used a really basic way (no effects for anything)

I've opened it up in Audacity, and just copied the "a" sound. Then paste it in a bunch.

If you select the right part of the sample it won't sound looped :)

Only thing I could think about is enabling key and then doing an extreme pitch.drop. I know you said you don't want to manipulate the pitch, but in Traktor that's the only thing I could think of.

EDIT: Been playing around with the idea a bit; what I've come up with would be to either to make an autorepeat-temp-dec or you could fiddle with using the cd-mode, the play-off and a pitch-dec.

For an accapella for example you could take advantage of the key lock feature in traktor and stretch it. The thing is you will neeed to find the exact original bpm first. e.g i'm doing a version of faith no more's "epic" now i know the original track is 88bpm so i set that as the bpm for the accapella. Put it in traktor ssstretch it out and even record it that way. Then you have a stretched out version ready to go. Just one way.

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Originally Posted by earl-panda

maybee u can use the warp function in ableton for this...but i don´t know

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yes good old ableton can do it no probs

yeah, drop it into ableton, set warp markers such that the parts of the sample are hitting on the beat you'd want it to fall on after processing.

IE, the start of the sample would be at warp marker 1, then set warp marker 2 as far along the the sample that the portion you'd like to hear when beat two drops is at that point, etc, etc. Then just play around with the various stretching algorithms (beats, complex, etc) to get the character of sound you want. Save it out and you're done!

If your dealing with vocals id use Melodyne - its pitch stretching sounds much is much better for vocal material

thanks for the replies guys!

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Originally Posted by DvlsAdvct

I've used a really basic way (no effects for anything)

I've opened it up in Audacity, and just copied the "a" sound. Then paste it in a bunch.

If you select the right part of the sample it won't sound looped :)

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I've actually done this in FL before.

I had to stick a bunch of reverb over it, but it did the trick. :)

Adding a "sick bunch of reverb" and "just looping it - you get the right bit and it won't sound looped" are good starting points. But once you get annoyed with the difficulties of getting good loops while retaining the human voice tonality or start to hate losing all that definition just to extend a voice sample, you'll finally get see why "granular sampling" is the key.

Granular sampling will take your voice loop, cuts it into lots of tiny pieces and pastes them beack together together, a bit like making a collage. Instead of your vocal loop fitting together like bricks in a wall (end to end to end), using a granular system you can take pieces and overlap them, smear the edges between parts, make each section of sound more human by adding in tiny amounts of pitch and timing randomness (which is essentially what adding "sick reverb" does, but without all that smearing in the time domain) until you just can't tell where the join is.

Get hold of a good sampler - not Simpler - and try doing it granular.

you also could do a transpose stretch? basically you mix on 3 decks and have deck C stretch the vocal and when youre ready to stretch it quickly cut in deck C and cut out deck A, when youre done cut back A and no ones the the wiser (cue juggling kind of) No need for other programs, traktor can do it.

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Originally Posted by DJ_Animus

you also could do a transpose stretch? basically you mix on 3 decks and have deck C stretch the vocal and when youre ready to stretch it quickly cut in deck C and cut out deck A, when youre done cut back A and no ones the the wiser (cue juggling kind of) No need for other programs, traktor can do it.

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True but Im not really impressed with Traktor's key lock feature (sounds very artificial to me). Hell even Ableton's warp feature for this is not pleasing my ear.

I've heard it done with granular technique before but it was very "tricked out" with other effects so it wasnt necessarily what I was looking for (i.e. Nautilus plugin for MAC). So far the Melodyne VIDEO is the best I've heard...but Im not trying to drop $300 on that right now.

Not only have I wondered about this for a while but the whole Depeche Mode Beatport remix contest Im doing got me thinking about it again. I've heard several quality uses of this feature that sound great and natural.

Limey, you think Ableton 6's granular delay could do this?

Yeah...I'm going to vote for Melodyne. Probably the best granular processor out there.

I've taken vox in 4/4, turned them into 3/4, at a third the speed, in a different key. It's bloody amazing.

It's become an indispensable part of my remix/mix/production toolkit.

ok, then Im definitely doing something wrong with my demo.

If I ever have money to burn I will definitely be picking Melodyne up.


not anytime soon since I still need to pick up a VCI........some day