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Pitch correct multiple samples at once at various levels of detune

Jack All

New Member
Hi

I got the following problem:

Over the last year I have been sampling over 400 gb from one of my favourites analog synth (crazy many samples). They are all slightly a little bit out of tune but not the same amount. Within an instrument the detune can change from -0.40 to +0.40. It will take a lot of time to pitch correct all the samples individually. I have therefor been searching for a way to pitch correct multiple samples at once. I thought that there must be away to batch process the samples to the nearest pitch.


I just bought Wavelab Pro 9.5 for that purpose. The program got this function:

Pitch Quantizing Dialog (This dialog allows you to automatically detect and correct the pitch of an audio file. The input signal is quantized to discrete notes). Unfortunately I now realize that it is not a pitch tool. So I can’t use it for my purpose.


If I use Wavelabs Pitch correction on a batch I can only correct with the same value on all the samples.


Do any of you know any way to pitch correct multiple samples at once at various levels of detune?

I have already read the following threads on the forum:

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/batch-pitch-correcting-samples-help.73939/

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/where-to-start.73698/page-2#post-4262187
 
Thank you Healey. I will look into it.

By the way I will soon been being your kontakt scripting courses. As far I can see they should be the best to lear Kontakt Scripting.

Best, Jack
 
Reaper + Reatune will work wonders. Simply load all your samples onto a single track, drop ReaTune on it, (you can drop another on top of the first one and then reduce its mix level to zero, just so you can see the result of the first one), adjust the parameters as you wish, then render to file. Use the $item wildcard in the filename and all your files should come out separate with the exact same filename they have (you can add other wilcards or text in the filename, but this is in case you already mapped them in Kontakt and don't wish to do it again).

Very simple procedure. If you already have some silence at the end of your samples you're good to go, but if not, I'd have silence equal to or longer than your set attack time in ReaTune (you can add silence to all your samples by just dropping them into Reaper and rendering them with the same "Selected media items" mode, but with an added tail.

Maybe I'm just too cautions; try it out and see how it works. Reaper has a free trial and is an ~11 MB download.
 
Hi Aaron

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. This is just what I was looking for. Like you assumed I already mapped the samples in Kontakt so the solution about using $item wildcard in the filename is so helpful for me.

Best, Jack
 
My suggestion would be: don't tune all those samples flat to 0.0 cents difference between them. Allow for some leeway (say up to +/-5 cents between different round-robins), it'll sound more analog :)
 
Yes - thanks. I would like to keep the analogness for sure. When I manually pitch correct them I just tune the whole sample down. That means the leeway keeps the natural swing up and down on the tune. I have sample each note 3RR. When I use Reaper it keeps that leeway right? Or is there anywhere in the settings I have to change in Reaper?
 
My suggestion would be: don't tune all those samples flat to 0.0 cents difference between them. Allow for some leeway (say up to +/-5 cents between different round-robins), it'll sound more analog :)
Yes - thanks. I would like to keep the analogness for sure. When I manually pitch correct them I just tune the whole sample down. That means the leeway keeps the natural swing up and down on the tune. I have sample each note 3RR. When I use Reaper it keeps that leeway right? Or is there anywhere in the settings I have to change in Reaper?
ReaTune will do its best to tune everything to 0. It will not 100% kill all pitch fluctuation if there is any, but it will do its best to set the average pitch to the nearest semitone based on the reference frequency you set in the Tuner tab. You can play with the attack time value and monitor the results on a second instance of umixed ReaTune, as I explained above.

If I'm following correctly, EvilDragon's advice is for manual tuning?, ED, are you talking about the average pitch? In that case you can't batch process everything with Reatune.

However, if you don't have multiple layers for crossfading or something like that, you can do that in Kontakt. Just add a random bipolar modulator in the "Source" tab for each group and set it to 5 cents. That way you get a random -5cent to 5 cent difference in pitch every time you play a note and naturally, all your natural pitch fluctuations get shifted as well.

If you have multiple layers and need multiple groups to have that random pitch change be the same for them (since each random bipolar or random unipolar modulator has its own random seed), pick a controller number you're not using (let's say 110), drop in a set_controller (110, random (0, 127)) in your on_note callback and then use CC 110 instead of random bipolar as the modulation source for the groups you want to have the same random pitch change.
 
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Thanks a lot to all of you for taking the time to reply. Aaron sounds like a great tip regarding achieving the +5-5 pitch fluctuations. Some of my instruments are not crosfading others are. I have been working with Reaper the last couple of hours. I still haven't found a setting that gives me a satisfied result when I am Batch Pitching. It like the lowest octave can't be pitch corrected. And some of the loops sounds bad after pitch correcting. But I think it is because I have to understand Reaper better and try and error and get experience working with Reaper and it settings.. It gives me a lot of confidence to know that professionals like you are using it.
 
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Loops need to be done after pitch correcting (and any other processing) because by changing the pitch you are altering the sound at the loop points too, so it's unlikely that the loops will still be seamless.

To improve accuracy with low notes try increasing the window size.
 
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