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Time-stretch trendsetters
By the ’90s it might have seemed to some like all of the possibilities for subverting playback had been done… or were they?
Photo Katja Ogrin/Redferns
The option to change pitch and time independently in the form of time-stretching/ time compression and pitch-shifting was a game changing development for music production.
Even so, early options had major limitations, including short sampling time, slow offline processing and unpredictable sonic outcomes.
Still, one person’s junk is another’s gold, and this didn’t stop cutting edge producers embracing them warts and all. Over time, processing quality improved and shifted from digital hardware to software, but this just created another wave of opportunity for the creatively inclined. Let’s take a look at a few tracks that make creative use of these effects.