What's the best DAW for time stretching audio clips and audio manipulation?

SmooveMode

New member
I want to take a wave or mp3 and load it into a DAW, time stretch it, then add midi and possibly more audio to the session too. Is there a DAW that has the edge over the others when it comes to manipulating audio tempo, key, etc.
 
Cubase. Load a sample, go to your pool and type in the bpm, and as your change your BPM, it changes wit it. I know most DAWs can do this now maybe......but it's what I used. Most acidized waves are already set to do this without having to type in the bpm.
 
Basic time stretching works the same in every audio editor and DAW, so any real difference is going to be related to flexibility in terms of manipulation and the information you can save with the resulting file.

I tend to edit audio by entering numbers as opposed to using the mouse so I am not overly familiar with the all the features of different DAWs that you would probably interested in, I will offer up this advice though......if there is a good chance you will be stretching go with the highest resolution possible.
 
Basic time stretching works the same in every audio editor and DAW, so any real difference is going to be related to flexibility in terms of manipulation and the information you can save with the resulting file.

I tend to edit audio by entering numbers as opposed to using the mouse so I am not overly familiar with the all the features of different DAWs that you would probably interested in, I will offer up this advice though......if there is a good chance you will be stretching go with the highest resolution possible.

When you refer to resolution and you referring to sampling rate?
 
When you refer to resolution and you referring to sampling rate?

Yes.

What you want is more samples to stretch, think of it like this, lets say you have 4 samples 1234 vs 6 samples 123456 within a certain length of time and you want to stretch them both so they each end up taking the same length as 12 samples per unit of time, one would look like this 111222333444 and the other like this 112233445566, you see there is less repartition occurring in the one that uses 6 samples than the one that uses 4 so the end result will not sound as synthetic.
 
HollandT, thanks for that info. I currently have Logic, but was willing to change if there was something that does time stretching a lot Better.
 
This article was hella helpful. I It seems like the dedicated audio (no sequencer) programs did a more detailed time stretch. The DAWs were acceptable, but compared to melodyne they got blown away! I could hear almost an echo effect in the DAWs at 75% while the Melodyne was clear and detailed (could hear mouth movements and smaking). Maybe in the later versions they may have caught up with Melodyne?
 
It's quite likely that the programs have improved since the article was written, after all different companies do tend to take the best bits from each other to stay competitive.

Although I tend to lean more towards using a dedicated editor (WaveLab) there are a lot of advantages to using an editor that is integrated into your DAW, first of all you are keeping all your files tied to your project, you can hear edits within the context of your track and everything is set against the same grid.
 
Even though I may be more of a Reason guy, I know for a fact Ableton (preferably Live 8) is great for time-stretching manually and such. It allows you to warp the audio just as Cubase would as 901_Rice_Street stated w/ the tempo gradually and with separate ways of warping. But not only is it just drag in and change the tempo, but you can also time-stretch each individual chop you make ANYWHERE in the sample and drag it onto a bar measure to sync anything and everything you want onto beat w/ simplicity.

I currently cannot post links until at least 1 more post, but if you copy and paste "Ableton Live Tutorial - Warping Full Tracks (the right way) w/ !bandinclude" and "Ableton Live Tutorial - How to Manipulate Vocal Samples" you will come across two seperate videos that explain both methods of time-stretching in Ableton, ironically, by two separate channels as well. Enjoy.
 
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