Time Stretching VS Pitch Shifting

What is time stretching?

In audio production, time stretching refers to a form of audio processing that extends or contracts the duration of a sample or sound without changing its pitch or tonal characteristics.

Time stretching technology uses complex algorithms, mathematics and even AI to warp the fabric of time without changing a sample’s pitch.

 

What is pitch shifting?

Pitch shifting is the opposite of time stretching because it changes the pitch of a sample or sound without affecting its duration or timing.

Again, pitch-shifting technology uses its own set of complex mathematical operations to increase or decrease the pitch of a sample.

 

How to use pitch-shifting and time-stretching

Matching to a new key

Being able to match any sample to any key opens up so many worlds of possibilities, it’s kind of mind-blowing.

 

Making a sample minor or major

Being able to change a sample from minor to major is such an interesting capability because it creates new samples with an entirely different energy.

Much like key matching, the ability to change a sample to its relative minor or major key opens up so many doors.

 

Pitch shifting vocals

Pitch shifting technology changed the game when it came to vocal processing.

Legendary plugins like Auto-Tune use this kind of technology to shift each note in a vocal performance to be on-pitch with the track.

 

Matching BPM

The most obvious application for time stretching technology is matching BPM between different samples without changing pitch.

PaulXStretch

PaulXStretch – Plugin for extreme time stretching and other spectral processing of audio, based on the Paul’s Extreme Time Stretch algorithm, previously only available as a stand alone application.