Time stretching for dummies (who does this)

Sup,

Im trying to improve my understanding of the time stretch feature... I know what it does... but I hardly ever use it. I usually pitch up samples in the program screen in my 1000k, and match tempos like that if I need to keep a loop running through as the base motif of the beat. Who uses time stretching on their samples? What are the advantages... I'm I the only one who over looks this function? One producer I know said something about patch phase and muting the sample at any moment during the play back without having to wait until the next midi note to trigger the sample again... Do I understand this right? or did I just answer my own question?

i normally dont use time stretch either. i usually mess around with the decay, tempo, and pitch to get it right.

I'm a noob... no not really... I was just checking the choping sample post after I posted this. It seem some people use it when they chop samples. Trying to create something from a horn phase for example, time stretching a note or two may make the chops fit in a chopped up sample flip. I haven't done it yet but I'm sure to try... doesn't matter though I'm kind of bright with this I'm sure to find a way to make use of it... they say 10% is the max. FYI.

If you chop small enough you dont need to time stretch.

If you chop small enough you dont need to time stretch.

Huh? why is that? Wouldn't you be playing more to fill the gaps... or is that the point of chopping small. I have a 1k, no cross fade functions. Is it really necessary to chop up a note so small you have to play the pad "5 times" verses one? F*** it, i'll just stick to chopping in recycle.

if you knew how to chop then what youd do is slice to the tempo of what youre doin. like if you chopped a perfectly 4/4 beat, cut it into 4 then place it right. what i do is usually mute group all the samples or note off. and if the samples are too slow then pitch it up if its too fast pitch it down. honestly yall shouldnt be samplin a whole tune anyways. unless its your base. and youll be playin keys over it makin it a whole new tune....

chopping and Timestretching is to different things. Timestretch is fitting a sample into a BPM of a sequence without changing the pitch.chopping is what it is chopping,and of coarse you can pitch up or down and or Timestretch each piece of sample to fit a sequence without changing the original pitch. jus experiement haha.

my advice is never to ahve a sample that includes more than one note/hit/whatever

if you do, you don't have control over the sample's tempo. if the sample is 1 note, it doesn't necessarily have a tempo and can be blurred, tuned, etc to fit any tempo.

people resort to timestretch way too quickly. it is a destructive effect, can't be undone.

i use it as a last effort to make something fit. on a small chop, you can timestretch it by 20 bpm + or - and it still sounds fine with the other samples - a little grainier, but better to have 1 or 2 grainy chops out of 16 rather than 1 long sample tha't's full of timestretch glop.

plus, sometimes it's a cool sound effect to do this. say you have 1 really easy to chop sample that's 16 eighth note hits - 1 for each pad.

thanks for posting this cuz it gave me a cool idea:

chop the original sample and assign it to the pads.
now go back to the original sample and timestretch it by 20 so the grain is JUST noticeable. chop this sample and assign it to the 2nd layer.
now go back and timestretch it by 40, the grain is defined now. chop THIS sample and assign it to the 3rd layer.
do it one more time by 80 bpm or so, so the grain is just rediculous. assign this to the 4th layer.

for each of your 16 pads, go through and make it so the bottom layer is triggered via 0-29, 2nd by 30-59, 3rd by 60-89, and 4th by 90-127. now assign your qlink to layer and track (or pad if you're not using the jj os) and sweep while hitting 1 pad (set to monophonic playback)

notice how you can control the timestretch in realtime by a resolution of 4 (8 or more if you take more time to do this and use simult)

Antonym wrote:my advice is never to ahve a sample that includes more than one note/hit/whatever

if you do, you don't have control over the sample's tempo. if the sample is 1 note, it doesn't necessarily have a tempo and can be blurred, tuned, etc to fit any tempo.

people resort to timestretch way too quickly. it is a destructive effect, can't be undone.

i use it as a last effort to make something fit. on a small chop, you can timestretch it by 20 bpm + or - and it still sounds fine with the other samples - a little grainier, but better to have 1 or 2 grainy chops out of 16 rather than 1 long sample tha't's full of timestretch glop.

plus, sometimes it's a cool sound effect to do this. say you have 1 really easy to chop sample that's 16 eighth note hits - 1 for each pad.

thanks for posting this cuz it gave me a cool idea:

chop the original sample and assign it to the pads.
now go back to the original sample and timestretch it by 20 so the grain is JUST noticeable. chop this sample and assign it to the 2nd layer.
now go back and timestretch it by 40, the grain is defined now. chop THIS sample and assign it to the 3rd layer.
do it one more time by 80 bpm or so, so the grain is just rediculous. assign this to the 4th layer.

for each of your 16 pads, go through and make it so the bottom layer is triggered via 0-29, 2nd by 30-59, 3rd by 60-89, and 4th by 90-127. now assign your qlink to layer and track (or pad if you're not using the jj os) and sweep while hitting 1 pad (set to monophonic playback)

notice how you can control the timestretch in realtime by a resolution of 4 (8 or more if you take more time to do this and use simult)

Holy crap!
I think you short circuited my brain with that post! That hasn't happened in a LOOONG time. I am excited now. Thanks Antonym!

My confusion is this: Say I have a sampled 2 bar loop that is 96bpm. I want the full track to be 90bpm. If I use timestretch, how do I convert ratio percentage to bpm? If I change the pitch, how do I know if I've reduced the tempo accurately? Is this something that you just have to play around with and 'feel it out'? Or is there a more precise way to use pitch?
Would timestretch be the best way to make the loop 'fit'?

the higher the ratio (and the lower the bpm) the longer the sample. been fuxin wit it lately

Yeah, I get that part. But I guess I am just looking for the most accurate way to do it, rather than just feeling it out. For instance, with the example I mentioned in my previous post (original sample 96bpm, full track will be 90bpm), would I basically perform the math this way:
96bpm is the %100 point
Will need to lower the original bpm by 6 to make it fit into the 90bpm track.
96 - 6 = 90
How would I correlate that into ratio percentage? Since I need to slow the bpm down, do I add the bpm difference between the original and what I desire (in this case 6) to the %100 ratio point?
Would it be the equivalent of 100 + 6 = 106? Or %106?

im still tryin to figure that out myself

StonesThrow wrote:If you chop small enough you dont need to time stretch.

Exactly

But I also happen to be a big Fan of Timestretch, it makes your chops that much smooth.

Actually I use the bpm match function, Its like timestretch but quicker.
Im also rocking the XL so I dont know

Oh yeah, I'm using the XL too....

Man what did I start? ... LOL Ok then, time stretching and chopping are different and I understand that... I'm also surprised that no one uses the stretch feature to make fit a loop at a differant BPM... (thanks Stones) Big up Antonym for the layer excerise I'm sure most people didn't think to ever do something like that... (Tips and tricks?) Like alskee said... chopping on rhythm make is very easy to control tempos by pitching up or down to get them to fit... this forum is the truth... Aright then.... TAIN.