Hi, there are few times when to get by ear all notes in a fast solo I slow down / time stretch pieces , and mostly works, but in extreme fast cases for percussive sounds like piano that means that the attack time is smeared so much (could be 0.5 secs) that is difficult to get the right timing.

So IF I export the slowed audio, what can I do to restore at least a bit of the sharp attack?
Transient shapers?
BTW if also decay could be shortened a bit it won't be that bad.

If possible I would prefer standalone sw, but in case it's not possible also daws / vsts.
Windows only.

 

You can use Transient Shapers, but you are wanting a standalone solution so a Spectral Editor is probably where you want to go with it. So yeah, RX or Spectralayers. Still, if you time stretch something past a certain point, fixing the smear and attacks is only going to get you so far. You might stick something like SPL Transient Designer, or something like that, and maybe even Newfangled Punctuate at the end of a chain you will probably have to build each time, or close enough with reconfiguration of it.

Would Zplane DeCoda help you not break it in the first place at all? That would be a workflow thing.
Just a couple of ideas. More details about the workflow might help someone who does this too. (I do not).

 

Any stretch tool at that level of slow down (even 1/4 or less) I tried work the same way, that is not a faulty behaviour, I mean if I input a snare and stretch it down a lot it becomes puffy, for a piano much more than that.

So I'll try some tool as you explained, but I don't expect great results.

 

Try it with TBTech Trinity Shaper. Enable multiband mode and then try to find the transients. There's a lot of fine tuning controls, you might have good luck with it.

 

Any stretch algo you use is going to affect the transient, depending on how much you stretch it and the algo itself. I suggested Decoda because to me, your first post sounds like you are trying to learn songs, to increase readability when you say "by ear", which is what is is really for. Instead of repairing the damage, you could also try lessening it, but you did not specify the workflow. Are you using Elastiquepitch, your DAW, Serato Sample, etc? Sometimes the best way to fix damage is to reduce it or eliminate it happening in the first place. Since you are on PC, are you using old Protools ever? R2R released Pitch N Time from Serato, but it is AAX only iirc.

 

Last edited: Jun 3, 2026 at 10:09 PM

I don't think that with a 0.5 second stretching the there is much you can do to sharpen the attack, but one can more easily in my mind shorten the length of the note to help maintain the imposed slower bpm. Someone else might recommend a plugin (envelope follower?) for that as my mind is fairly mush around about now. You can perhaps also after the stretch add a fresh and in time click track in the now slowed track to help orient yourself with your playing along with it, something that is transient rich.

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2026 at 2:58 AM

^ For shortening hits, you can use an envelope, a transient designer, a gate, or even a de-reverb plugin. They all reduce the apparent length of the sound in different ways. With transient designers, controls like Decay, Sustain, or Release.. whatever the plugin actually calls them, usually affect the tail of the sound, making the hit shorter and tighter. It's a good trick to use on fast stuff where you want space, but also for cleaning up the "midi spam" if you convert audio to midi data.

But a .5 second stretch wouldn't pose a problem, he is actually talking about a .5 second smear. It sounds extreme to be that much, but he is slowing down a lot if that is a real time measurement.

 

I use Transcribe! for learning solos, it will even show peaks with note names. It's very good at retaining the audio quality when slowed down and it has other tricks such as changing octaves. Also easy to add placement tabs along the timeline and loop sections.

 

ASAP I'll try all the suggested tools, though I don't expect nothing awesome.

For ensemble tracks, in tools like decoda and similars the piano roll is most of times cluttered and garbled, it's not much useful, though the time stretch function is really precious.

With solo instruments it's much better but I found Aurally Sound Prism the best among them.
I played a piano piece, then fed in, the midi result was astonishing, even pedal was retained in let's say 98%.

 

Your best bet is using an audio to MIDI solution.
so you can slow it as you want.

But of course, the software do the transcription itself.
If you combine it with track demixer when there are different instruments, it can works even better.

 

I have used Prism quite a bit and in dense mixes or strongly separated material you still tend to get what I call MIDI spam, meaning lots of small fragmented note events that are not played notes in the audio file. It does not outperform Melodyne Studio for polyphonic detection. It is not magic.

A key point that often gets overlooked is that polyphonic transcription depends heavily on transient definition. The clearer the separation between note start, the more stable the pitch and note extraction will get . When attacks are smeared or blurred by stretching or separation, transcription tools lose reliable extraction and start producing fragmented or unstable results. Sometimes I will set a very fast Midi arpeggiator on them and bounce it again, and it works a decent amount of the time.

Like @Lois Lane already mentioned, SPL Transient Designer can help shape the notes onset clarity. More advanced processing in tools like Accentize, RX, or SpectraLayers can improve separation and reduce masking, but it also comes with a more manual workflow.

Also, when people talk about ensemble tracks, it is important to mention whether they are being stem separated first or not. If you are using UVR5, the model choice and build version matter a lot. Different Roformer builds and models can produce very different transient behavior and separation artifacts, and that directly affects how usable the material is for transcription or as midi note data to trigger another synth/drum machine.

Results vary less because of the transcription tool and more because of how clean the source material is before it enters the transcription stage. If it really is an issue of your timestretching everything first, I'd really consider PT and Pitch N Time from Serato. It's an old tool and algo, but it's like 700 bucks still for a reason.