Hey guys, what DAW or plugin you think has the best pitch shifting & timestretch algorithm, especially for vocals?

 

See a thread called "How to slow down a voice recording without pitch change, while preserving quality?"
I made just one suggestion in that thread here... https://audiosex.pro/posts/439772/
but there are many good suggestions in that thread, including the standard Zplane, Zynaptiq, Melodyne, etc

 

I forget which all I've tried, but I tried at least a half dozen of the big name DAWs (Studio One, Logic, Audition...), and the clear winner was Reaper.

I probably slowed this one down a bit too much and you can hear some aliasing, but this is just a test I did in Reaper. At least you can still hear the music. The other DAWs would have spit out garbage at this speed.

 

Most DAWs have zplane elastique so should be moot, main consideration is whether they have v2 or v3 (better)

 

I've tried a lot of different ways (Logic, Ableton, Melodyne, autotune, throat, alterboy, nectar 3, rx5, wavestune, quikquak pitchweel and reaper. Reaper is the winner in my case!!

 

from REAPER blog - comparing versions of Elastique found in Reaper

Pitch and Time Stretch Algorithms Compared for Music Production

and a video on extreme stretching (for comparing algorithms and exploring creative glitchiness)

 

'Most' DAWs - yes
but here's one - MuLab8 - that uses its own algorithm and seems to be an interesting challenger to Elastique

 

Dude. A niche DAW made by one guy that nobody supports (look at any plugin manufacturers DAW list) vs three guys with PhDs and 10+ years teaching music technology and contributing to research who have became the only real option on the market for timestretching in 2000 and haven't been beaten since?

 

Fair comment - and agreed my phrase 'interesting chalIenger' is misleading. But I wasn't actually suggesting MuLab8 niche DAW's timestretch algorithm was any kind of commercial challenge to Elastique (now used almost everywhere). What I was suggesting is that if you personally do a hands-on comparison, you may be surprised and may be prepared to regard MuLab8's algorithm as an effective usable alternative. And given the way the specific musical context can deliver surprising results (sometimes even soundtouch can still sound more interesting than elastique) then the more options the better.

 

Your comment is common sense, but sometimes is more complex than that.
I don't know about MuLab's algorithm but perhaps the developer did a good implementation of another algorithm made by great scientists/engineers, even not being the de-facto standard.
Still the chances of outperforming solid algorithms with solid implementations is quite low.
Also, there're like 10 versions of the Elastique algorithm. I'm sure the last ones are still patent-buried. Meaning you need the money-patent-digger not every DAW company can afford.

 

Some info here... http://www.mutools.com/info/M8/docs/mulab/timestretching.html
It might be fair to loosely describe it as a nicely implemented cheap and cheerful refinement to the old classic REX approach, but with more emphasis on preserving transients. Used appropriately, in the right context, this does work really well.
(REX seems to get sneered at now, but I still find it to be very effective - in the right context)

 

Last edited: Feb 15, 2020

From what I've tested for timestretch the best are rx7 or the serato algo.