TAPE-STYLE VARISPEED

+1

WOW. I just had a flashback to 2008, and the MANY attempts of doing live exports while holding the old playback speed/scrub knob at JUST the right spot in Cubase 4. Ha! We all swear it sounded so much better than doing a basic time stretch to the mix, but we may have been on a trip of some sort…

As heard here:

+1000

This has been an ‘Annual Request’ of mine for may 12 years.

Just checked this very forum after a long time because of THAT… Have to learn/record complex drums using a laptop installation of Cubase and most stuff is quite fast so slowing down 10 or 20% would make it way more easy.

No - those workarounds are NOT doing the trick… I have full songs with quite some snippets, parts, takes, stuff and all I need is a field in the transport bar to slow down the stuff a bit…

I consider bouncing stuff out and using Logic for that task but this would blow up the workflow A LOT. Because I loose the arranger track, color coded parts, stuff, poop, etc - and in addition this would mean to use Logic and well, I never understood Logic completely :wink:

Sorry for the OT - but we NEED that varispeed. I was hoping it is in C9 now since the window management seems to be very “Logic style” now :slight_smile:

+One Million

Why does all programs, including 60$ Reaper have it since ages?

+1

For entire tracks, I prefer to do it for free with Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch.

YES!! Please.

This is one of the few features left that Logic X has and I wish Cubase would implement.

And pay attention to Logic X varispeed…what is really cool is the varispeed option with Midi. It takes your midi tracks (i guess temporarily streams them to audio) and plays them pitched back too.

There isn’t any rendering time or wait in Logic X. Just like a real varispeed knob you change it and go.

I actually wanted to use it today on a session…(wanted to slow down the track to overdub a arpeggio synth part which would be tough to play in real-time) … which is why I was looking it up.

That wouldn’t really be tape-style though, which also drops the pitch. If your other tracks were MIDI, you’d just drop the tempo … if there’s any audio track, then you’d want it to maintain it’s pitch when slowed down while you play along. Tape-style would both slow the tempo and drop the pitch.

Tape drop effect, is that what “varispeed” is?

I used “Glitch” to do that recently. It’s 32-bit and it seemed buggy to me. It was a freebee so can’t complain.

It’s not like you can’t do it in Cubase, but an easier way is always welcome.

The “tape drop” or vinyl spin-down is like cutting the power to the motor driving the turntable, while still listening to what’s being played back, until it comes to a halt. Varispeed, on the other hand, is being able to control the entire playback speed (without pitch correction) by means of a knob – a speed control. The sound plays back either faster (at a higher pitch) or slower (at a lower pitch) and can be varied continually.

PS A good replacement for that “drop” effect in Glitch is the “spin down” in Izotope’s Vinyl (also free). Glitch 2 is 64-bit, by the way.

Cool, thank you. If Izotope also has a “spin up” to complement their spin down, that’s what I’ll use next time. Or Glitch 2, if it’s also free.

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Well, when I lower the tempo in Logic or Reaper the pitch will leave untouched. I do not know if there is a “real tape style” option which will alter the pitch as well…

Just lowering the tempo is of course more complicated for audio but I quess easy for midi… However -it is extremly helpful to track short complex part - or maybe only practice them.

NO, just changing the tempo in Cubase will NOT do it. With midi, ok… with audio - well, then it starts to get complicated in a bigger session with lots of events & edits.

AND it usually not that easy regarding the tempotrack. Some folks might have a fixed song tempo but my clients including myself usually have complex tempotracks with lots of different tempi and lots of metric changes.


I can just dial a knob in Logic or Reaper and the playback speed (of the full song, of everything) changes. Not more and not less. We need that in Cubase.

If you place all the audio in musical mode (Pool > select all > Musical Mode), do you get the same effect when you then adjust the tempo (in the Tempo track, or the CTRL-T tempo editor)?

Or do you have to select all the audio and Set Definition From Tempo (from the Audio > Advanced menu) first?

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depending on some details (placements on the grid, “initial” tempo embedded in the audiofile (as you can see in the pool regarding “tempo”) this procedere might end up with a big mess…

I do it like this often when tweaking preproductions, when trying to find the right tempo… here it is the best idea to bounce all the events first in the place were they are… then open the pool and select all files, click in “set tempo to musical” - then they will playbacked according to the changes in the tempotrack… this is, as I mentioned, a possible scenario in demos/preproduction were you might have to deal with a limited amount of events/tracks…
That way you can fiddle around finding out a proper tempo for individual parts etc…

What we all want is just changing the global tempo with a jog wheel - keeping for instance 120bpm but speeding it up by 10% or slowing it down by 5% - with all the project UNTOUCHED… so you can just reset that jog wheel at any point and everything will playback at regular speed again.

Playback of what?

Cubase Pro 9 has tape-style time stretch.

Thats something completely different and has nothing do do with the Varispeed thing :slight_smile: