Using old-school timestretching and pitchshifting to make an atmospheric DnB intro

1 In this tutorial, we’ll be looking at timestretching and pitchshifting and how they can be used as sound design tools rather than just for audio correction. I’m going to be using two free programs, the first of which is Paulstretch, an incredible timestretch tool that allows you to stretch any file to hundreds of times its original length with very little degradation.

2 First we need to find an audio sample to stretch. As we’re making an atmospheric bed for a DnB intro, something with no beats will work well to stretch into a long pad sound. I’ve used a house vocal – If You’re There Soft C 126, available in the Tutorial Files. I’ve created a ‘favourites’ link within the open window for quick access to the song folder I’m working on.

3 The preset Stretch amount in Paulstretch is 8x, which instantly gives you an idea of the stretched result. Hitting the Play button in the bottom left of the screen will preview the result. It sounds good, but still sounds a bit like a vocal. Move the Stretch slider up to 40x, and the vocal now sounds like an eerie pad sound from a movie.

4 Clicking on the Process tab brings up some other useful functions. Freq Shift moves all the frequencies up or down rather than the pitch, adding a new texture to the sound; 600Hz sounds higher and more string-like. The separate Pitch Shift control can create interesting effects due to the fact that it can go up or down three octaves.

5 The Octave Mixer is a very clever tool too – it gives you multiple octaveshifted versions of the stretched sample to mix in with the original. With this vocal sample, it makes it feel much more like a pad or synth sound, as it adds frequencies you wouldn’t associate with a voice. I find that just slight touches on the octave sliders gives the best result.

6 Sometimes the sample will audibly clip after processing, but activating the Compress parameter and boosting the slider helps to keep the sound levelled and clean. I’ll save a few different versions of the pad sound with different pitch, frequency and octave options to load into a song as an intro. Just hit the Write to File tab and then Render Selection.

7 I’ve loaded the files into a song and selected some parts I like. If you’ve kept the Stretch amount the same, the different versions of the rendered files will line up in the arrangement and these can be mixed together as well for a blend of any of the variations. If you’ve changed the pitch on some, a chord could be made out of the layers.

8 Next I’ll use another stretching program for beats, Akaizer. This emulates the Akai S series sampler’s timestretching algorithm, heard a lot in 90s jungle. I’ve opened a WAV file of a breakbeat I made in Addictive Drums. Changing the Transpose amount will instantly give a great metallic pitchshift effect. Hit Preview to hear the result.

9 I’ve saved a couple of pitched-up versions and one with the Time Factor set at 50%, which makes the beat play at double speed. Changing the Cycle Length with the Transpose altered will give some interesting metallic effects too. I’ve loaded these files into the song and arranged various drum edits with the different pitched and stretched versions.

10 Akaizer can also be used to create timestretched vocals with that mangled metallic sound heard in many classic jungle tracks. I’ve loaded the same vocal sample from earlier and set the Time Factor to 1000%, leaving the Cycle Length at the default 1000. You’ll hear a slight difference between the two algorithm options (Revised or Classic).

11 For a weirder effect, set the Time Factor to 2000% and make the Cycle Length very short – the lowest is 20, but I’ve gone for 50. This turns the vocal into a stretched high string sound. It has a real horror movie atmosphere and sounds nothing like the original. Loading these into the arrangement brings some dark experimental flavours to our intro.

12 One last idea is to repeatedly timestretch or timesquash a whole track or large portion of music into a short FX stab or drum hit. The sound may be quite degraded, though. I’ve bounced the stretched vocal pad intro I made and timestretched it with Akaizer set to 25% Time Factor and repeated three times to create a short FX sound.