I've always been a midi guy, not much of an audio guy, but I've been wanting to get deeper into audio editing, and I thought I'd ask about the tools and techniques that people use today. Some of the effects I'm interested in are:
Be able to take a sound or a segment of longer audio and speed it up/slow it down with ease of control, and be able to turn that sound on or off in sync to the beat, or take just one small moment of the clip an stutter it, as fast as 32 notes..etc (so it sounds like it's acutally just hanging in that moment). I have no idea how these types of effects are done--no clue at all.
What are the modern audio editing techniques/tools today?
-
- KVRAF
- 1644 posts since 18 Mar, 2004 from Lincoln, CA
-
- KVRAF
- 1577 posts since 20 May, 2002 from Cambridge, UK
well FLStudio has lots of stretching and slicing options in the sampler channels since v5.0 I think. I've rarely bothered with such things but since they're there and ready to use now I have done occasionally. Not trying to convert you, but that's what I use seeing as you asked 
THIS IS MY MUSIC: https://spti.fi/rZyjX7i 
-
- Banned
- 1842 posts since 4 Aug, 2004 from just right here
Lunatique said
Sounds a bit like the cakewalk or acid route to me. You could just use a sampler or a rex-player.Be able to take a sound or a segment of longer audio and speed it up/slow it down with ease of control, and be able to turn that sound on or off in sync to the beat
-
- KVRAF
- 12235 posts since 18 Aug, 2003
From the sounds of it, I'd guess a fully-spec'ed sampler would be a good way to go. Maybe try out NI's Kontakt, I'm pretty sure with its scripting function that you can do all what you're after.
For pitch stuff, another alternative would Leapfrog's Rephrase. For slicing stuff, I'd highly recommend LiveSlice (which also runs as an effect).
To do that kind of stuff real-time (without advance editing and without a certain degree of haphazard randomness) might be tricky. Another effects option might be Devine Machine's Lucifer.
For pitch stuff, another alternative would Leapfrog's Rephrase. For slicing stuff, I'd highly recommend LiveSlice (which also runs as an effect).
To do that kind of stuff real-time (without advance editing and without a certain degree of haphazard randomness) might be tricky. Another effects option might be Devine Machine's Lucifer.
-
- KVRAF
- 8721 posts since 24 May, 2002 from Tutukaka, New Zealand
I'd also suggest the sampler route. If you're more comfortable with midi, there are some pretty well-featured samplers around as s/w nowadays. It's alot cheaper than h/w sampling and some of them have better filters to my ear. Shortcircuit is a good example of a reasonably cheap one that has excellent audio-mangling capabilities and modulation options equal to most decent synths (in fact, the good samplers are fully-fledged synths in their own right). And the ease of use is far greater than any h/w sampler I've come across. I love Shortcircuit's straight-forward, everything-in-one-screen GUI.
For slowing down/speeding up, simply apply pitchbend over midi. The decent ones allow envelopes to be applied to pitch mod too. For stuttering, either use the sampler itself (although that could be quite long-winded), or a midi gate. Midi gates have the added bonus that you're still remaining in your comfortable midi world
There are a few plugins that do the stuttering effect too. They store clips of audio within a buffer for true repeat-stuttering - sorry can't remember the names off the top of my head.
Having said that...most of the big hosts nowadays make audio editing pretty easy. More and more, I find myself simply directly editing audio in Cubase...you can chop it up with one easy scissors tool, use zero-crossover cutting to reduce clicking etc, resample with FX etc, timestretch etc with a pre-audition and even use quantise on audio, if that's your thing. It's just a case of getting in there and spending a few days mucking around inside the host. A read of the manual certainly helps though. That combined with a sampler, and there's not too much you can't do - mangle up an audio clip within the wave editor of your host, resave as a discrete .wav and then load it up in your sampler of choice for even more manipulation and playing a tune with it.
Just using quantise on audio clips - perhaps you're not aware that many hosts use some sort of quantise handle on audio clips (and you can move the handle to anywhere within the clip). Then you can move those clips to exact quantise points and use your groove quantising on the audio clips too. It makes stuttering pretty easy - and you can use the quantise down to whatever level the host goes - if you want 1/64 stuttering, just set the host to 1/64 and repeat your clips. It can be far more flexible than midi when you get into it.
For slowing down/speeding up, simply apply pitchbend over midi. The decent ones allow envelopes to be applied to pitch mod too. For stuttering, either use the sampler itself (although that could be quite long-winded), or a midi gate. Midi gates have the added bonus that you're still remaining in your comfortable midi world
There are a few plugins that do the stuttering effect too. They store clips of audio within a buffer for true repeat-stuttering - sorry can't remember the names off the top of my head.
Having said that...most of the big hosts nowadays make audio editing pretty easy. More and more, I find myself simply directly editing audio in Cubase...you can chop it up with one easy scissors tool, use zero-crossover cutting to reduce clicking etc, resample with FX etc, timestretch etc with a pre-audition and even use quantise on audio, if that's your thing. It's just a case of getting in there and spending a few days mucking around inside the host. A read of the manual certainly helps though. That combined with a sampler, and there's not too much you can't do - mangle up an audio clip within the wave editor of your host, resave as a discrete .wav and then load it up in your sampler of choice for even more manipulation and playing a tune with it.
Just using quantise on audio clips - perhaps you're not aware that many hosts use some sort of quantise handle on audio clips (and you can move the handle to anywhere within the clip). Then you can move those clips to exact quantise points and use your groove quantising on the audio clips too. It makes stuttering pretty easy - and you can use the quantise down to whatever level the host goes - if you want 1/64 stuttering, just set the host to 1/64 and repeat your clips. It can be far more flexible than midi when you get into it.
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1644 posts since 18 Mar, 2004 from Lincoln, CA
Those are some fine tips! I'm kind of surprised that audio editing seems to have become more advanced than midi editing? That's a strange thing to me because logically, midi should be the more flexible and powerful of the two, since it's so structured and methodical, while audio deals with organic data that can't be easily seperated into components like midi could.
Keep the tips coming! If you can name some plugins/tools/functions that doesn specific cool things, please mention them!
Keep the tips coming! If you can name some plugins/tools/functions that doesn specific cool things, please mention them!
-
deaf dunderkwac deaf dunderkwac https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=78199
- KVRAF
- 5247 posts since 15 Aug, 2005 from RainLand featuring RAinRAinRAin
audio editing was/is always more powerful. midi needs an update imho.
Use features of midi and audio and you have the best of both at your fingertips!
Darkware
for glitchy stuttering fun stuff all of Jack's VSTs are fun to play with.
Tho some are a bit put-off by his GUIs (I personally love'em)
Use features of midi and audio and you have the best of both at your fingertips!
Darkware
for glitchy stuttering fun stuff all of Jack's VSTs are fun to play with.
Tho some are a bit put-off by his GUIs (I personally love'em)
-
- KVRAF
- 1817 posts since 1 Jun, 2003
i can second liveslice and lucifer - in fact those two are the plugs i like most for the things you described. personally, samplers such as kontakt or even eXT's built-in sampler never did anything for me. i also have FL and if it doesn't have to be on the fly, that's fine, too. but i'd rather be using liveslice - and although only just getting into lucifer they're already perfect in combination, to me.
-
Muzik 4 Machines Muzik 4 Machines https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9550 - KVRAF
- 7829 posts since 6 Oct, 2003 from Quebec
melodyne
it renders monophonic audio like midi
it renders monophonic audio like midi
-
- KVRAF
- 2009 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from Cornwall, UK
2nd for melodyne:
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=cre8studio0
surly the ultimate audio editing tool?
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=cre8studio0
surly the ultimate audio editing tool?
-
- Banned
- 1149 posts since 7 Mar, 2004
Zero-X Beat Quantizer http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/beat.htm
Vocalign http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul00/a ... ynchro.htm
and http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/a ... licing.htm
Cubase SX Audio Warp.
Vocalign http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul00/a ... ynchro.htm
and http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/a ... licing.htm
Cubase SX Audio Warp.
-
- KVRAF
- 10161 posts since 16 Dec, 2002
Ableton Live
-
- KVRAF
- 4822 posts since 14 Mar, 2002 from Somewhere else, on principle
Yep.VariKusBrainZ wrote:Ableton Live