What is the best timestretch algorithm?

Hi!

Does anyone know if there are any posts on how to choose the right
algorithm for timestretching. I have tried to understand the manual, but I don’t
think it gives enough concrete examples for me being able to understand.

so for example, which setting is best for drums, which one is best for guitar and bass, and which one
is best for vocals, and lastly what do I need all the other algorithms for?

As far as I know the elastique is in genereal the best. But why do I still need some of thee other ones then.

There really isn’t a ‘best’ algorithm for drums (or whatever) in general although there can be a best one for the specific drum recording you are using. Each algorithm will color the sound in its own way & only you can judge which sounds best or most appropriate on the material - that might even be a supposedly wrong algorithm. The manual does describe what type of material each is optimized for (poly/mono etc.), which can suggest which to try. Compare some different algorithms on your audio & choose the one you like (or dislike the least as the case may be).

Alternatively if the first algorithm you try sounds OK, just use it to save your time and move on.

An article I read here https://www.musictech.net/2018/10/time-stretching-and-pitch-shifting-in-cubase/
suggests otherwise. (the relevant commment is under Using Algorithms section) MPEX is supposed to be the better of the two, but I think it is taste and test.

I just had to master an audio stereo 24 bit 44.1khz EDM track that needed to change BPM, it was lolloping at 121BPM and I Time Stretched it to 126BPM ( as well as muck about with a straying tempo before doing so.) and I needed it to stay at the same pitch. I am working in a 24 bit project file.

I tried MPEX Complex,the the highest setting, and it took a while to complete but the end result though crisp had a feeling I can’t explain but it felt slightly clinically stripped, a bit cold somehow and I could notice it the most in the tom sounds. So I went with Elastique Formant Time. And that did the job and a lot quicker, leaving the indefinable warm feeling that MPEX was stripping out, though I may try MPEX Musical mode if I have to do this again, since it worked well enough this time, I am moving on.

any further thoughts on this?
I tried the one in Wavelab Pro 11 (ZTX), heard artifacts.
(I haven’t gone back to try the ones in Wavelab 10 yet - there are several options, but I’m not sure what the exact algos are underneath.)
I tried MPEX Complex in Cubase 12, heard artifacts.
Then tried Elastique Pro, which so far seems better, and much quicker even… but I have yet to really, really listen closely. Will be doing today.

The standard algo isn’t good at all and unfortunately that’s all you have in the lower versions of Cubase. This to me doesn’t make much sense. Free DAWs have decent algorithms and even Sequel comes with Elastique and that’s a free product.

Just wanted to share my opinion, I think that removing all decent time stretching from the lower versions is not the place to introduce limitations. People trying out LE/AI with a few loops are probably not going to be impressed by “Cubase’s sound”.

yea, but even elastique has limitations I’m finding.

The one in Wavelab 11 is actually Zplane elastique (despite the manual saying its ZTX - Zynaptic) and that one causes artifacts (at least for this particular file I’m working on). Elastique is also the higher quality one used in Cubase (along with MPEX). But still, artifacts can be heard.

The algorithm in Wavelab 10 is ZTX and they seem a bit better, and I might not care if I didn’t have the original file to compare with, but I do hear some slight artifacts… So, I think I’ll go back to the mix and try stretching individual files instead, hopefully that’s work better. It’s worked for me in the past, at least using Wavelab 10’s algos… though it might just work using Cubase’s algos since the individual audio files are simpler to stretch.

Again, it might just be that I’m trying to do this with a particularly difficult file. I don’t know.