Slow voice after recording

Question

Slow voice after recording

My problem with Logic pro X is very strange, I recording one voice in one channel with the follow configurations:

Then when I finish my 2:30 hours of my recording in certain pieces I listened slow voices like a drunk or lazy man. So, I was looking for a solution into the logic pro x's preferences to know if some parameter was moving from the right place. Logically the only thing I decide to think was an incorrect buffer size and I decide to modify it to the following:

After the problem was solved in some pieces but not the whole line recording. So I decide to take that pieces or audio squares an placed it into a new audio channel activating the flex time tool and of course modified manually that pieces, but the sound continues imperfect.

I was looking for a solution trough the internet but apear to be that this problem is non-existent.

I request to this community that help me in this unexpected Logic pro X audio problem, and I hope a good solution for this.

Have a nice day and please write me back if anyone has a compact answer.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), M-Audio Fast track ultra

Posted on Dec 3, 2014 4:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PurpuraStudios Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2014 8:06 AM in response to Arnaud Le Boulanger

Hi dear Arnaud, I hope you are so fine.

Excuse me for the long time I leave to answer you back, but I'm here again with the solution. I'm going to tell you the tale; after I read your above answer I was checking to see if this solution was helpful for me but I remembered that in the past I had done this, and really the result was bad. Then I sat down in my studio's chair to think and I though "Tempo", yes, that should be the answer; so I did this:

-First I selected the track I needed to get out from the tempo change.

-Second I went to the menu/edit/delete tempo information of the audio file (I'm using the software in spanish for some motive).

And then really works, my recording back to normal.

I hope this answer going to help some people that works with this DAW like me.

Have a nice day.

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Answer 2

Dec 4, 2014 3:31 AM in response to PurpuraStudios

Not sure whether it's the right thing but, instead of a buffer size matter, I would have suspected that, in case of slower voices than original, the culprit could be a sample rate mismatch, i.e. for some reason you would be listening to your audio (after recording) at a lower sample rate than the rate at which it was recorded.

Example : audio recorded at 96kHz, listened to at 48kHz, would result into a 100% slower (takes twice as long as original to go from beginning to end), and one octave down (way deeper, Darth Vador-like) voice.

You could compare your project's audio sample rate (for instance in the transport bar display, using a fully detailed view), with the audio file's sample rate (as displayed in the Project Audio Browser). Are they the same?

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Answer 3

Dec 4, 2014 7:38 AM in response to Arnaud Le Boulanger

Hi Arnaud, thanks for your soon answer. This is really important.

Ok, I understand your appreciation, but I have a thorough care with sample rate of my projects that in this case are the same at the recording (44.100Khz/24Bits), that's why this problem is estrange. For example today I was cutting and cleaning the audio waves and again some pieces going slower that the others in the same channel; Why?, I don't know. I understand the problems that the sample rate change cause to an audio after recording, but this bug goes beyond. Could be the tempo change affect the time stretch of an audio, after recording?, because I am working in an audio book and I'm using diferents kind of tempo to produce the music of this project. If this could be a possibility, What I have to do to change the tempo without affecting the audio wave after recording?.

Thanks for the values help.

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Answer 4

Dec 4, 2014 8:45 AM in response to PurpuraStudios

OK, I see then. Tempo change might indeed cause this, especially if the voice is slower but the pitch stays (roughly) the same : when recording audio in LP, in my understanding it is "time stamped", meaning that the audio tempo will change if you cvhange the tempo later one (example : you regord a guitar in a song, which in its current state is at a 140 bpm tempo ; later on you change your mind and decide to change the tempo of the song to 120 bpm ; as a convenience, LP affects the guitar track so that it is played slower, at 120 bpm instead of its original 140 bpm tempo).

This is all very fine for musical tracks, but not desirable in some cases (music to video, or, in your case, book audio). There's a feature somewhere to "time lock" specific tracks so that they are not affected by tempo changes. There's somewhere in the manual, I just don't use it often so can't remember exactly where. I'll try and have a look but if you use the Web or PDF version of the manual, you should try searching with the "lock" keyword to see what you get.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 5

Dec 4, 2014 3:02 PM in response to PurpuraStudios

OK, maybe I'm wrong but I looked into the manual and I think I've got something, in case what cases the problem is tempo changes in your project that would slow down recorded audio.

Select an audio region which sounds "slower" than it should, open the inspector, and in the region's parameters, check whether the "follow tempo" check box is ticked. If it is (it should by default for audio recorded in LP since), uptick this box.

Let us know if this solved your problem, hopefully it should.

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Answer 6

Dec 11, 2014 12:29 PM in response to PurpuraStudios

Hi Purpura, good to know you found the solution. So it was the tempo information in the file indeed. I'm not sure why deselecting "follow tempo" would not solve this as well (it should have the same effect as what you did, but not on a permanent, irreversible basis), probably it is one of the oddities of Logic (which I find a marvelous piece of software in many other respects).

best regards,

Arnaud

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