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CORE TECHNOLOGY 04 · ADVANCED TIME STRETCH

Any tempo. The same sound.

Our own time stretch, built for music. Drag a clip’s edge to fit it to the bar, or let Auto-Warp find a loop’s tempo and line its beats up with your song. Hits stay on the beat, notes stay in tune, and the stereo image stays where it was.

WARP · BEATS · AUTO-WARP
A drum loop recorded at 96 BPM, fitted to a 120 BPM song with every hit on its beat AS RECORDED · 96 BPM IN YOUR SONG · 120 BPM 0.80× on the beat
An illustration: a 96 BPM drum loop fitted to a 120 BPM song.

FOUR MODES

The right stretch for every sound.

Drums, a voice and a pad need different things from a stretch. Choose a mode for each clip, and change it at any time.

MODE

Beats

USE IT FOR

Drums, percussion, loops and rhythm guitars.

IT KEEPS

The attack of every hit, landing on its beat.

MODE

Tones

USE IT FOR

Vocals, bass, keys and lead lines.

IT KEEPS

Clear notes that stay in tune.

MODE

Texture

USE IT FOR

Pads, ambience, noise and field recordings.

IT KEEPS

A smooth, natural sound; noise stays noise.

MODE

Repitch

USE IT FOR

Tape-style slow-downs, speed-ups and risers.

IT KEEPS

Speed and pitch moving together, like tape.

FIT AUDIO TO YOUR SONG

A loop from anywhere, in time with your song.

Bring in a loop at any tempo. Auto-Warp finds its tempo, puts markers on its beats and lines them up with your song’s grid, in one step you can undo.

Auto-Warp to the song

One command finds the clip’s own tempo and warps its beats onto the song’s grid.

Three ways to find the tempo

It reads the tempo a loop file carries, works it out from a well-cut loop’s length, or listens for the beat, and says which one it used.

Nothing done when unsure

When the tempo it hears is not reliable, Auto-Warp tells you and changes nothing.

Drag to fit

Stretch or squeeze a clip with the Time Warp tool: drag its edge to the bar where it should end.

From 0.25× to 8×

From a quarter of a clip’s length to eight times as long, with the ratio shown on the clip.

AI takes in time

Music AI takes that come back at a different tempo are fitted to your song, or kept exactly as made if you prefer.

PITCH, FORMANTS AND TAPE

Change the pitch, keep the voice.

Pitch is separate from tempo, so you can move a part to a new key without changing its length, or its length without changing its key.

Pitch on its own

Raise or lower a clip’s pitch in semitones, with or without a change of tempo.

Formant Preserve

Keeps the character of a voice or an instrument while its notes move, so a singer still sounds like the same singer. On by default.

Tape Mode

Couple speed and pitch in Beats, Tones or Texture, for the sound of a tape machine slowing down.

A mode for each clip

Each clip keeps its own mode, ratio and pitch, saved with the song.

Reset Warp

One command puts the ratio, pitch, mode and markers back as they were, and one undo brings them back again.

One step to undo

Every warp change is a single step on the studio’s undo list, from the clip menu or from Nimi.

SOUND QUALITY

Stretched, and still sounding like itself.

We test the stretch against measurements, not just by ear, so what goes in at one tempo comes out sounding the same at another.

On the beat

Every hit lands on its beat, and a clip starts exactly on time, at every ratio.

In tune

Notes keep their pitch while they are stretched, from deep bass to bright leads.

Solid low end

Kicks and bass notes stay tight and focused when the tempo changes.

The same stereo image

Left and right stay locked together, so the stereo image does not move or blur.

Noise stays noise

Cymbals, breath and room sound keep their texture instead of turning metallic.

Untouched at 1×

A clip at its own tempo plays exactly as recorded, bit for bit.

RENDERED WHEN READY

Dozens of stretched clips. A fraction of the CPU.

Stretching while the song plays takes work from your computer. So once you stop editing a clip, Harmonic Pro Studio renders its stretch in the background and plays that file instead: the same sound, bit for bit, for a fraction of the CPU. Change the clip again and it plays live until the new render is ready.

  • Automatic

    Rendered when ready is the normal setting. There is nothing to press.

  • You can see it

    A clip that is still stretching live says so, with the render’s progress.

  • Render now

    Move one clip to the front of the queue from its Warp menu.

  • Always live

    Keep a clip stretching live, or switch background rendering off in Settings.

  • Your audio is safe

    The renders are a cache in the project’s folder, never your recordings.

  • Room on the drive

    It pauses when the drive gets low on space, and the clips simply play live.

Questions

How far can I stretch a clip?
From a quarter of its length to eight times as long, in any of the four modes.
Does stretching change the pitch?
No, unless you ask it to. Beats, Tones and Texture keep the pitch; Repitch and Tape Mode move speed and pitch together, like tape. You can also change the pitch on its own.
Will my export sound like what I heard?
Yes. A stretched clip sounds the same whether it plays live or from its rendered file, bit for bit, and the export uses the same stretch.
Can I switch the background rendering off?
Yes. Choose Always live for one clip from its Warp menu, or switch background rendering off for every clip in Settings › Audio › Processing.
Which editions include time stretch?
Every edition, the Free edition included.

THE CORE TECHNOLOGIES

They work together.

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