If you’re looking for pitch- and speed-independent warping and other sonic effects, and Max 5 is your modular patching tool of choice, a new tool is now available to add to your arsenal. elastic~ is an object similar that allows high-quality audio warping. The developer claims it uses the “same algorhythm as software giants Cubase, Ableton Live, and Kontakt.” I’m personally still quite happy with granular tools in software like Reaktor — and have recently gotten interested in exploring implementations in the free and open source SuperCollider, but of course there are great advantages to working in Max, and the implementation here seems unusually elegant and easy to use.
The developer writes:
With elastic~ it’s easy to tempo match loops together (either to each other or a global tempo); create a sampler that doesn’t change the speed of your sample as you change pitch; correct out of tune samples; create harmonizers; and just generally loop and bend and warp and stretch and……
The software is the creation of Simon Adcock and Joe Jarlett.
Product price is GBP20 — though thanks to the US Dollar surging against the Sterling, that’s not so bad. If you grab this and make stuff with it, let us know. Got an external you prefer, or other tool (a la SuperCollider) for audio warping, let us know that, too. (Warping audio is a personal and intimate process. I can’t imagine you’d share it with just any tool.)
Update: The engine in question is Elastique — quite nice, in fact, to have this “ported” effectively to Max/MSP! (And check out how many places it’s used — fascinating.)
This is using the élastique efficient V2 engine made by zplane:
http://www.zplane.de/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,…
i think it's worth mentioning some limitations that this object has, namely only forward playback, and limited range for pitch and speed.
the latter is apparently in place to fit with the goals of the developer: elastic~ is supposed to sound realistic. i can't really argue with that except to say "well, what if i don't want it to sound realistic? what if i want to experiment and hear what a speed of 0.025 and pitch of 10.0 sounds like?"
the absence of reverse functionality is apparently due to the large overhead that reversing the object's internal buffer would consume, but quite frankly, i'm not buying that. sure, it's a non-trivial problem, but there HAS to be a way to reverse playback without having to reverse all of the data in the buffer.
the third drawback, which compounds the other two immensely is that it is a closed source project. if the project were open source, i'd guarantee their forum would have more than 9 topics since june, and i'd be willing to wager that reverse would be well on its way to being implemented in a processor unintensive way.
that said, i did have a positive balance in my paypal account, so i purchased it and look forward to seeing what it can do.
Sounds like good feedback to me, and yeah, I'd want both of those (and you do get them with other options I mentioned). 2.0?
Incidentally, anyone know which part of Ableton Live uses elastique? I'm guessing it's the "complex" warp engine, since it coincides with Live 5.
I am sorry to say, but "creativedigitalmusic" is so much behind in news department to "http://www.synthtopia.com/"…
What's up "creative"…?!
Well, Heylo, I've been on the road for the past 10 days, getting back now.
"I am sorry to say, but “creativedigitalmusic†is so much behind in news department to â€&oelig ;http://www.synthtopia.com/â€â€¦"
Must be busy looking into one more way to make Apple MacBook BAD…;)
[…] Create Digital Music » elastic~: Pitch, Speed Control Module for Your Max 5 Patch (tags: tutorial) […]
the complex warp engine uses elastique yeah. quite funny that its using the nonpro version when software companies like cockos (reaper fyi) uses the pro version, seeing how ableton is a big company whereas cockos is not. the difference between the two is immense.
this elastic object sounds really nice btw.
A very similar Ugen call "TGrains" is in the SuperCollider standard-lib..
For those who want to try out, 'cause SC was named in the article.
K.
A pitch/time object that costs money?
I'm new to the max scene but nigga~ plz
Here's a free one for the CDM community that is more customizable and allows reversing: http://devinkerr.com/2008/10/30/free_elastic-inde…
I linked this in the other thread, but for my money (namely "free") I really like Mattijs Kneppers' natural-sounding one a LOT more:
http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/Share/Mat…
– from tight shifts and such into BIG granular clouds of repitching and goodness. Great interface and so on.
– and yes, it'll do reversing, too 😉
Andreas.
[…] Well, this is the first time I can remember this happening. Tuesday, I covered a GBP20 Max object for independent tempo and pitch modification in Max 5: elastic~: Pitch, Speed Control Module for Your Max 5 Patch […]
[…] Well, this is the first time I can remember this happening. Tuesday, I covered a GBP20 Max object for independent tempo and pitch modification in Max 5: elastic~: Pitch, Speed Control Module for Your Max 5 Patch […]