Lesson 4. Tempo and Pitch Matching
Working with music in the digital domain lends itself well to collage, making it effortless to combine multiple sources of material into a cohesive whole. It has become increasingly common in modern music production to incorporate audio material from disparate sources, whether it is material from sample libraries or excerpts from existing recordings. The major production stumbling block has been the need to match the dissimilar tempos and keys of the sound sources. When a tape is slowed down or a digital audio clip's sample rate is increased, the pitch is altered as well. Not too long ago, it was impossible to alter the timing and pitch of a recording independently. Recent trends in audio production technology have attempted to address this, incorporating features that specifically deal with the tempo and pitch matching of audio material. Modern techniques utilize complicated computation that transposes, extends, or compacts audio material, giving you the ability to alter pitch or time (or both) without changing the character of the original file. These operations are quite complicated, requiring an analysis of the audio data in order to make decisions as to what to leave or cut out, and where to insert material. These decisions aren't always suitable for a specific piece of material, however, and unexpected results (whether desirable or not) can occur. In order to achieve a better outcome, you need to manipulate the available parameters to help the computer make appropriate decisions. In this lesson you will utilize Logic Pro's time-stretching and pitch-transposition features to match up disparate elements within a song. |