WAVE EDITOR / RECORDER

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.

Options

Amount

  • Pitch coarse - Change the base pitch in semitones.
  • Fine - Change the base pitch in cents.
  • Mul - Pitch range multiplier (in %).
  • Time mul - Change sample duration in %. NOTE: To match a samples BPM to FL Studio, rather than use this control, make sure the sample has a Tempo set in the Sample properties dialog. You can use the Autodetect (tempo) button if one is not set. Next make sure the 'F10 > General Settings > Read sample tempo information' is selected. Finally, drag and drop the sample from Edison on the Playlist and FL Studio will stretch the sample to match the current project.
  • Length (ms) - Change sample duration by specifying length in milliseconds(ms). In 'paste-stretch' mode this value is automatically calculated.
  • Method - Select from the following pitch shifting/preservation methods. NOTE: Certain methods may disable or automatically adjust the 'Formant preservation' settings. Affected settings appear in a lower contrast and tweaking the control has no effect.

    Elastique:
    • e3 Generic - A 'Default' mode is designed to work with the widest range of input signals. As usual, experiment with other methods if you hear unwanted artifacts.
    • e3 Mono - Specialized for monophonic input signals such as vocals or solo instruments. Uses automatic formant preservation techniques.

    Legacy Elastique:
    • e2 Generic (Pro default & Pro transient) - Older version of e3 Generic.
    • e2 Transient (Transient & Tonal) - Transient and formant preserving stretch method.
    • e2 Mono (Monophonic) - Older version of e3 Mono.
    • e2 Speech (Speech) - Optimized for spoken words. For singing, use the 'e3 or e2 Mono' mode).

    NOTE: Names in brackets show pre FL Studio 12 nomenclature.
  • Insert - If this switch is on the effected audio will be inserted, if it is off the sample will be mixed with the original.

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 -

  • Factor coarse - Moves the base pitch of the formants, in semitones.
  • Fine - Changes the base pitch of the formants in cents.
  • Mul - Formant pitch range multiplier in %.
  • Order - The default setting works for most material. If the input audio is high pitched the order should be lowered if the input audio is low pitched the value should be raised.
  • Copy from pitch - Copies the pitch value from the 'Options' section above. If you select this after setting the desired pitch shift in the 'Options' section, then the formants should be automatically preserved.

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

  • Reset - Restore default settings.
  • Preview - Audition the current settings without applying them.
  • Accept - Process and paste (replace) the original selection.