﻿ Audio Editor - Stretch / Pitch Tool


Time Stretch / Pitch Shift Tool

The Time Stretch / Pitch Shift tool allows you to alter the duration, pitch and formant of a sample independently. The audio Editor and more generally the Sampler Channels & Slicer tool, use the Elastique Pro, zplane algorithms to deliver advanced time stretching / pitch shifting that meets the standards of professional production and broadcast applications.

To Open the Time Stretch / Pitch Shift Tool

To open the tool you can either Left-click on the Time Tool button , press (Alt+T) inside the Editor, or use the Tools > Time > Time stretch / Pitch shift option. To open the paste-stretch dialog press (Ctrl+Shift+T) or use the Tools > Edit > Paste stretch option. The paste-stretch dialog is available only after a sample selection cut or copy operation.



Formant preservation

Using the formant section - In order to manually preserve the natural tonal quality of the sound select 'Pro Default' method and set the Factor crs setting to the same value of the Pitch coarse in the 'Options' section above. For example, if the 'Options' Pitch coarse setting is +5 then set the Formant envelope Pitch crs to +5.

Formants are peaks in the frequency spectrum caused by resonances, natural frequencies of vibration, of an instrument. Trumpets, guitars, violins, drums and the human voice all have formants. The human voice is an excellent case study for the importance of formant preservation as we are particularly sensitive to vocal formants. Resonances of the voice stem from mouth, sinuses and throat cavities and convey information about the size, age and sex of the vocalist. Normally, as the pitch of the vocal chords are raised or lowered, formants change intensity while the peak frequencies stay relatively fixed. A problem with 'traditional' pitch shifting of vocal recordings is that the formants transpose with pitch (itself an unnatural phenomenon) or fall outside the expected range; the 'chipmunk' effect is a classic example of formants shifted too high. Formant preservation algorithms work by detecting the pitch of the formants in the original sound and then apply the same frequency resonances to the pitch-shifted sound, preserving the 'natural' quality of the voice or instrument. The formant controls in Edison are -

NOTE: If these controls appear to be lower contrast or 'grayed-out', compared to normal, it means that they are disabled for the selected Pitch Shift/Time Stretch method in the 'Options' section.

Action buttons