PitchTime programs/parameters (H8000FW)

[tmoravan]

If anyone has spent a lot of time using the PitchTime programs (specifically 3616 or 3619 which I think are the same under the covers),  I’d appreciate some additional commentary on what exactly the 2 meters are displaying, how the delay time interacts with the pitch/time settings and why I can get the modulation to lock up at 16.0 seconds.

I didn’t have time to look this morning, but I didn’t see a way to turn off that modulation.  Is that built in, or what exactly is it trying to display?

Basically, I’m trying to use this program to do some extreme pitch (couple octaves or more) shifting down and/or time stretching (set to like 5% or so) and the results are not exactly what I was expecting.  There are times when it sounds like it goes into bypass mode and all I hear is the original signal (that’s when the continually varying time at the bottom left locks to 16.0 seconds).

Usually the Presets manual has some solid explanations of what’s going on, but I couldn’t find much about this particular set.

 

thanks

[nickrose]

There are limits to what I can say here, because we don't have anyone who knows much about this algorithm (the man responsible is long gone). Further, I'm not sure that it works very well.

The modulation appears to be an artefact – basically the algorithm has to do a lot of crossfading between different bits of audio, and it may not always pick the right place. This will be material dependent, and worse with a true stereo signal. It will also be worse the higher the time change.

Because it is not possible to directly increase or decrease time (it tends to go at its own speed), the algorithm works on a buffer of audio, which it can play out at the required speed. The length of this buffer is the "delay" parameter, and the current buffer position is the "now" value.  The "dtrig" meter shows when this wraps around, giving a jump in the audio. Don't know what the "ztrig" does.

The maximum length of the buffer is 16 seconds (hence your observation). I can believe that weird things will happen if you get too near the maximum.

This algorithm will work best with a mono or near mono signal, and small time changes. Your 5% should be OK. You will get some roughness with extreme pitch shifting.

If you don't need real-time performance, the "big sampler" will work better. But then, for the same reasons, so will a DAW.

 

 

 

 

[tmoravan]

Nick – thanks for sharing whatever you can – it all helps.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my Elektron Octatrack doing extreme time stretching and pitch shifting and I remembered the H8000 had some algorithms to do that, so I gave them a try.  Your additional explanations certainly will help, combined with some more hands-on experimenting.  I poke around the other suggestions you made as well.  I’m not really looking for natural (obviously), just wanted to understand what the parameters were doing so I could better exploit them.  

 

Tom

[tmoravan]

oh, and when I said 5% I didn’t mean 5% down, I meant 95% down…

[nickrose]

If by 95% down, you mean running at 1/20th speed, that might be pushing it …..

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