Best way to warp acoustic guitar?

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

A friend of mine sent me an acoustic guitar recording to work on but it drifts in and out of time with the beat. I'm about to warp it to correct the timing issues and I was wondering what the best way to go about it is. It was recorded with a click track so the bpm doesn't fluctuate much, but it drifts ahead of and behind the beat every now and then.

I was wondering how you guys and gals usually warp guitar tracks and what algorithm works best for keeping the quality from getting too bad. I know how warping works in Live, but I'm not sure what the best way to do it is. Any advice or links to guitar specific tutorials would be really appreciated. Thanks.


While on the topic of acoustic guitar, is it common practice to compress it to make louder sections quieter? I know this is done for vocals but what about guitar? I know compression can harm the tone, but some sections in the recording are far too loud. Would it be better to just automate the volume?

[crumhorn]

The best type of warp for guitar depends a lot on the style of playing.

If the style is fast and rhythmic strumming I would try beats mode first.

For slower or more melodic playing I would try complex and complex pro

either way you will need to fiddle with the settings to get the best result

I nearly always put compression on accoustic guitar otherwise it can easily get lost in the mix with only the initial attack sound being heard. Again it depends a lot on the type of music, and what else is going into the mix.

[Angstrom]

I tend to use different modes for different sections, rather than one mode for the whole thing.

If possible I will cut and edit the problem segment manually and avoid warping altogether. Sometimes you might have only a small part where the player has lost touch with the beat, then they lock back in. Often it's better to cut that segment and simply move it back on beat without a warp. Alternatively, find a chunk where they played it correctly and swap it.

Sometimes if you do use warping you will develop issues with transients, the note decays might be filled with grainy artifacts and then still have to invest time in making the warped timing natural again (ie not too artificially 16th note 'straight'). Sometimes that's not an issue at all, but acoustic guitar is quite unforgiving.

If I do have to fix the note timing I try to make a groove map of what the real timing was intended to be and apply that. It's rare that the intended playing is a straight 16th grid - so I might begrudgingly have to make a midi pattern with a one-note pattern beating out the correct groove and drag it to the groove pool.

/notes from a terrible guitarist & bassplayer

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

Thanks so much for the helpful advice guys! I'll make sure to put it to good use

[k-toh]

If using Live to do all the warping then I'd tend to insert warp markers around the affected areas and just move those slightly. You'll want to zoom in super tight so it gives more room for minor adjustments, you don't want it perfectly quantized as it'll loose it's natural feeling. This can be done so soley fix the problematic parts, or you can also combine it with changes in the tracks overall timing ( + or - delay).

As with all these things there's lots of ways in which it can be addressed. Have a play and see what suits