varispeed pitch without changing tempo

[andymunro73]

hi there,

I've recorded some acoustic guitar and vocals and I want to add some bass.

Problem is the guitar is not in concert pitch. (ie A=440)

It's a semi-tone and a bit flat. But I like the sound at the odd pitch.

So I could varispeed up the track til the Bass is in tune but then the track is too fast and I lose feel in the recording.

Ok, you say, so why not just de-tune the bass? Well I could, but isn't there a way to tune up the track and record at 440. Then I wouldn't have to mess about detuning for any electric guitar overdubs.

Thanks.

[camillo jr]

This may take some experimentation. The simplest solution for your outcome - correcting pitch while retaining the original tempo - can be done in the Sample Editor > Factory > Time and Pitch Machine.

 

In the pitch field near the bottom, + 100 = one semitone so you may need something like 120 or more. Make a copy of the original file before you do this. Sometimes T&P works great, other times it's grainy sounding with various artifacts. The greater the pitch shift, the more likely the artifacts.

 

OK, that's one way. If that doesn't work, try this. You'll be bouncing and re-importing your guitar track with this method.

 

Make sure your guitar part starts and ends on an even bar line. Or just enable the bounce zone to start and finish at those points. You'll need that for fitting it in later.

 

Change the speed of song with varispeed with both speed and pitch enabled until you can hear the guitar at concert pitch.

 

Bounce the track and re-import to a new track in the arrange with the new file positioned right to the same start position as the bounce zone. You should have the track sounding at the right pitch but it's now too fast and is out of sync with the song. Flex to the rescue here.

 

Enable Flex for the new track; use Polyphonic with the Complex box checked.

 

After detection, stretch the file using Option-drag on the right corner so that it ends up matching the original bar for bar and transient to transient. At this point everything should line up simply by dragging to the end of your original bounce zone. If it doesn't you may have to finesse things by tugging the file around with Flex Markers.

 

The second way may seem complicated but it's not that hard to pull off and it has the advantage of being able to easily verify, with Varispeed, when you've got your guitar up to the right pitch.