Ableton Forum

Hello all...

Been using ableton for a while now, and usually I never worry about the sound quality of a complex warped sample, because the tunes Im using the samples from are one-offs or not really that serious of tunes, but I just finished a remix of Souls of Mischief's "'93 Till Infinity" and the artifacts on the vocal are really buggin me. You can hear my remix on my virb page - www.virb.com/kidlogic - the part in question is the vox that come in after the breakdown. There is no accapella for this tune as far as I can find (and Ive spent hours looking now... ) So I had to use the full tune and eq out as much as I could.

The mixdown on this is a lil loud in the midrange, which is being corrected tomorrow (dont mixdown with tired ears kids ). The artifacts earlier on in the song are from the source being recorded from an old piece of vinyl, which I like (although I know it needs to be cleaned up a bit more yet).

Any tips for getting a lil better sound quality out of a 'complex' warped sample?

Because its buried in the mix a bit and eq'd, etc, techniques that might not be acceptable for a 'bare' warp (meaning if you were pitching the whole tune and not just the sample) are welcomed too. Ive tried quite a few different things and it still sounds muddy to me no matter what I try.

Thanks in advance!

Well I haven't tried this one myself but some blog (?) suggested mixing 2 same tracks simultaniously with one track on complex and another on beats mode ... claimed that it sounded a lot better ... try and report!

Cheers,

Hmmm... thanks... I would think that would add more artifacts myself, but I guess it is worth a shot.

At current I have gotten it to sound a bit better with using effects to mask the artifacts a bit... the song allowed me to use some delay, a touch of reverb and a lil vinyl crackle along with changing the high hats to shakers and eqing them to fit near the freqs that were giving me the problems in the sample.

I got it to a point that im happy with it, its not something I made for a release, just to play and give to some friends.

If anyone has suggestions though, it would be much appreciated for future songs!

nice job ... wicked to hear this song remixed.

this is a hard sample to deal with but in general with my remixes I set everything to beats mode and when it sounds weird I split the problem area and set it to another warp mode (usually tone). If you make 2 differently warped tracks and automate a fade between them you can achieve better results.

The other approach to samples that aren't perfectly on groove is to only tone warp the original sample and warp the remix audio to fit it.

Why not change the tempo of 93 'til Infinity in an audio editor (I would use Cooledit Pro - you can change the tempo without affecting the pitch. Like complex mode but without the artifacts...), then bring it into Live and use repitch to warp it?