The best way to speed up a song recorded a bit too slow

east3rdst · Post by **east3rdst** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:18 pm

The song is in its tracking phase still, but there are concerns that it my be a bit sluggish. I'm using PT 7.3. Is there a tried and true method/plugin to speed up a song with no artifacts?

ProGanks · Post by **ProGanks** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:31 am

east3rdst wrote:The song is in its tracking phase still, but there are concerns that it my be a bit sluggish. I'm using PT 7.3. Is there a tried and true method/plugin to speed up a song with no artifacts?

The best way would be to retrack everything.
If you're a full band, recording to a metronome, just speed it up a little.

Since you're still in the tracking phase, this is what I would suggest.
When it comes to recording, you don't want to half ass anything.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:41 am

Yeah, if it's just one song, and you're still tracking, then do that song again.

nordberg · Post by **nordberg** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 7:33 am

i agree.

i had a pretty bad situation occur a few years ago when i was told to speed drums up
(nothing else was recorded yet)
i did it but it made the phase between the tracks all fucked up.
i told the band that it would be better to just retrack the drums but the singer said it sounded fine (drummer had gone home)
long story short, it sounded awful, phasey, and impossible to mix...

oh yeah, said band blamed my for it sounding like shit. ugh.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:24 am

Re-tracking is the best advice of course and I agree with the other's above.

However, I've used Acid before to take a finished mix and speed it up just a bit and the track sounded brilliant IMO.

Disclaimer: It was my music and I was the engineer and artist sooooo, this is a shamelessly biased opinion when I use the word "brilliant" LOL.

fizzgig · Post by **fizzgig** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:12 pm

agreed, if you are tracking, redo it...

however on a recent recording, after EVERYTHING was done, certain people wanted it faster. a LOT faster. like going from 148Bpm to 155bpm.

so our mastering engineer used Logic (Time and Pitch) to speed it up. The results came out great!!!

not to plug, but go here http://www.redmonroe.com and download the 3 songs mp3's. The song in question is Private Ballroom. i cant hear the artifacts from Logic that I could when I tried the exact same thing in Ableton and Acid and Cubase. If you can hear artifacts, then you must hear a LOT better than I.

east3rdst · Post by **east3rdst** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:30 pm

re tracking is not an option, plus I think the songs are fine. I might wait till the vocals are laid down to see if the tempo is suitable. I would assume it would be best to attempt speeding up a song thats been mixed to 2 tracks rather then 24+ tracks.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:51 pm

Download an evaluation copy of Reaper and check out the variable playback speed. I've experimented with it and small tweaks to speed sound quite good.

Jeff

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:36 pm

Take note that when speeding up a final mix you'll notice the change in speed affects certain freq ranges differently so you'll want to 4, 5, or more speed variations to find one that really works for you. Sometimes the effect can sound like a multing effect. It's pretty cool actually. I don't make a habit of it but when oyu find yourself backed in a corner you have to be positive and make the best of it, right?

east3rdst · Post by **east3rdst** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:07 am

Thank you. That what I need. Just when I was about to give up on the internet it proves it self again.

Mystic Steamship Co. · Post by **Mystic Steamship Co.** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:11 am

If the track is just a tiny bit slow I would either A) make it a little bit faster using the vari-speed on the tape machine (i'm not sure how you do it in PT, but I am sure it can be done.) or B) get over it.

If the track was much slower than it should be there is really no good way to fix the problem except re tracking. The feel of a 'sleepy' version of a song sped up will be nothing like the feel of the song tracked at the correct tempo, at least from my experience.

Cool things can be done with vari-speed though, that's for sure. But it's usually cooler slowing things down than speeding them up.

tommy · Post by **tommy** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:47 am

I might wait till the vocals are laid down to see if the tempo is suitable. I would assume it would be best to attempt speeding up a song thats been mixed to 2 tracks rather then 24+ tracks.

If the band insists on speeding it up, I would do it before you begin overdubs rather than wait for the two track final mix to do that. That way, the band can overdub to the actual final tempo and you would also be effecting less instrumentation with the potential artifacts that may occur.

elevenoid · Post by **elevenoid** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:43 am

east3rdst wrote:I might wait till the vocals are laid down to see if the tempo is suitable.

I often feel songs are too slow until the vocal is on, if the band are only talking a couple of bpm it might turn out to be totally fine...

Dan-O · Post by **Dan-O** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:06 am

ipressrecord wrote:Download an evaluation copy of Reaper and check out the variable playback speed. I've experimented with it and small tweaks to speed sound quite good.

Jeff

+1

evangelista · Post by **evangelista** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:02 am

Print the mix to tape and turn up the varispeed.

It's a classic, tried-and-true technique.

Digital sounds bad to me for this.

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The best way to speed up a song recorded a bit too slow

The best way to speed up a song recorded a bit too slow

Re: The best way to speed up a song recorded a bit too slow

agreed, but...

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