Denver Recording Studio

Recording Beats: Take 3

Hello again and welcome to Denver Recording Studio Blog. I’m going to be writing a bit about time-stretching and pitch-shifting sampled, or original, material. First things first, find something to sample. In most of my own work I look for non-melodic samples in order to add my own melody later, but most of my advice can be applied to any kind of sample, be it vocal, melody, percussion, foley, etc. All right, do we have our samples?… so I operate most comfortably in ProTools using a few different time altering softwares: ProTools X-Form Time compression expansion plug-in, ProTools audio suite pitch shift, the Speed plug-in by SoundToys, and occasionally outsourcing to Reason and/or ReCycle. If you can afford it, the Rane plug-in is the best I’ve used for time compression expansion. Depending on what you are going for, each of these softwares yields a very wide range of results.

Time compression expansion will maintain the pitch of the sampled material, but beware of harsh artifacts when drastically altering the tempo - use headphones to check this. Yet, if the track allows, I typically try to use the sound of the pitch shift to my advantage for an added texture in the song (i.e. half-timing drums stacked with the regular speed drums). When doing something like this, be careful to not allow the mix to suffer when something goes way out of key or just doesn’t fit right. It is easy to correct the key of your sample to keep things in harmony with the existing melodic parts and/or drums by using most pitch shift plug-ins like a “before and after key-calculator”, or simply by having a keen ear.

SoundToys Speed plug-in is fun for vocals and sound fx in this situation because it has a graphical tool that is two separate lines controlling the pitch and tempo independently. In this way you can correct the tempo and then alter the pitch how you’d like to fit the song. Also, using Speed’s graphical setting you can draw pen lines for the sample to change tempo over time, not as a whole piece affected like an audio suite region-effect.

Another very popular way to re-sample beats is to break the individual hits into separate sections using something like ReCycle’s (changing the cut-sensitivity) or manually in ProTools; the latter I prefer with way more control despite being more time consuming. Once the elements are separated by type, or by the beat count, they can be programmed into beat machines, samplers, whatever. A lot of times I use them as REX files in Reason. Either way, now you are able to make anything you want with your sample sections and crazy stuff starts happening. Pete Rock might do it like this (see linked vid), DiVinci - from the Sollilaquists of Sound - might try something like this. Amongst many more techniques, I like to play - in the ProTools edit window - with the phase of the samples by moving them around in relation to their regular speed counterparts. This creates weird chorus and phaser effects that bring zest into a dry drum track. I also like to stack the same samples for multing* and just get creative by trying new combinations and filters.

So, whether it’s halving, chopping, rearranging, reversing, stretching, flamming, multing, pitch shifting, or just sending samples through lots of gear, take time to experiment with lots of combinations to add depth to your track, bridge, break, whatever. Realize that there are many ways to make something like this fit and don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t sound right the first time… and if it does sound right the first time, make it sound better cause most people aren’t that lucky. And always remember to tune your drums, especially with tonal elements and those trunk rattlin’ 808s.

I hope at least some of this info helps, let me know.

— Mike with the Mic

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*** Multing is stacking 2 or more of the same sample and running each through different eqs and filters to isolate and boost different frequencies in each layer; it’s done with basses and drums a lot for a thicker, more colored sound when they are played together.