Semitones: Need to remove 'echo' & render sync problem.

MyNameIsJim wrote on 6/22/2003, 10:13 AM

I have searched this and the DMN Forum with no luck.

1)
I have an audio track with a childs voice which I wanted to sound lower, more adult. So I used the Track FX and added "Pitch Shift", and set the semitones to "-5". This creates the lower sound effect I desire, but it also adds an echo sound to it.
Is there something else I can do to suppress the echo sound?

2)
When I play the project in realtime (from the beginning), the audio for this track gets out of sync (runs past the desired placment). If I place the cursor at the start of the voice, it is synched OK, but eventually becomes out of sync. It is also out of sync when doing a full render. My solution was to render just ths track in another instance of Vegas then using the rendered file in the original project.
So it seems that Vegas can't manage this within a project?
Is this too CPU intensive, or is this normal for this type of pitch shift?

Thanks!

-Jim.

Comments

mikkie wrote on 6/22/2003, 10:36 AM

FWIW, I think I'd try one of the voice altering fx you get with often cheaper software, or with creative cards using eax. Usually thought of as more a toy, it's still fine tuned to what you're after. Might also post on the best way to lower pitch in Jay Rose's forum at DV.com. Otherwise might want to play around with your audio, using gates etc. to more isolate the frequency and harmonics of the child's voice before doing the pitch shift, or perhaps remove some of the background noise if there is any beforehand, anything to isolate the voice itself. Might also search out some other plugins etc. on the web -> there's a bunch of 'em.

RE: sync problems, sounds like you might want to match audio and video clip lengths, which Vegas handles better then anything else. Way I do it is drag the end of the audio clip so that it ends before the video -> hit the arrow button that takes your cursor to the very end of the last frame on the timeline -> use the shortcut key or go to the edit menu and click undo, bringing your audio track back to original length -> holding down the control key, drag the end of the audio until it snaps to your cursor position.

Might sound complicated I guess, but in practice it works fastest for me as I don't have to worry about zooming in or anything - takes just a second or two. Vegas will then time shift your audio clip without screwing up the pitch or anything, and it'll do it in real time, not adding anything to render, playing back correctly etc...

MJhig wrote on 6/22/2003, 11:48 AM

Pitch Shift is not recommended by SF as a real-time effect so try this;

Right-click on the audio event > Apply Non Real-Time Event FX > Choose Sonic Foundry Pitch Shift > select as you did -5 Semitones > check "Preserve Duration" > Click the dropdown arrow in the Mode field and select "Speech 1".

Now click the play button in the plug-in to preview, adjust the Mode if need be then click OK and save the file.

Preserve Duration should solve the synch problem and I don't get any echoes with Speech 1.

MJ

BillyBoy wrote on 6/22/2003, 11:50 AM

By chance did you at some time also drag the event on the timeline to alter its time span? That works fine for video, NOT audio and can introduce something that can sound like echo and/or other distortions You need to disassociate the audio from the video FIRST if grouped (part of the same source file) and use the FX audio tools to change the time span to conform to whatever new time span you need.

MyNameIsJim wrote on 6/23/2003, 8:29 PM

Thanks, guys. Preserve Duration with Speech 1 did the trick!

MJhig wrote on 6/28/2003, 4:13 PM

Spiff, thanks for the thanks, you're welcome.

MJ