Questions & Answers

closed Varispeed

+179 votes
4,274 views
asked Jan 4, 2016 in Completed Feature Requests by Funkybot (21,640 points)
recategorized Mar 31, 2021 by Fabian Kiesewetter
Would love to see Varispeed audio (like in Varispeed tape machines) added into Studio One. I'd ideally like a slider or knob that would allow users to increase/decrease the playback/recording speed and pitch.

Want to sing a vocal harmony that's above your range? Slow/pitch everything down while you record yourself singing in a comfortable range, then set the playback speed back to normal to hear your new high harmony. The Beatles tracked the high parts on Paperback Writer that way, same for the fast piano solo (that sounds like a harpsichord) on In My Life: playback was dropped an octave, piano recorded slowly and an octave lower than intended, then everything was sped back up.

There's a ton of creative uses for Varispeed in everything from the pop/rock to EDM and hip hop crowds.
closed with the note: This has been implemented with Studio One 5.0. More information on this here: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2020/07/10/big-fun-tape-resampler/

16 Answers

+24 votes
answered Jan 7, 2016 by AlexTinsley (925,230 points)
Thanks for the suggestion.

If anyone else agrees, or disagrees, please vote on it.
+9 votes
answered Mar 10, 2016 by danam2 (4,100 points)
I would also like to have this feature, but only if it is also possible to keep the pitch while slowing down or fasten up. This way you could practise or record difficult parts way more easily at a slower tempo than by messing up the tempo track with bpm changes. But even if you do this by the tempo track you have to make sure that all audio tracks follow the tempo changes AND that the audio events all got a tempo information (which imported tracks usually don't).
+9 votes
answered Mar 16, 2017 by danieljacobsparrow (330 points)
Being able to automate it would be nice
+10 votes
answered Jun 28, 2017 by thomasmann1 (380 points)

Varispeed Please.  Also simpler way to do the Tape stop effect, like logic and protools.  yes

+7 votes
answered Sep 6, 2017 by j0001s (710 points)

Please....

There's 3 use cases for me:

  • If I need to change the tempo of a song with a tempo track (varying tempo).  I'm dealing with live tracks not recorded to a click.  I tempo map with Melodyne, but then I'm stuck if I want to change the speed while keeping the tempo map.
  • If I need to slow a track down to learn it or pick it apart.  I do backing tracks for my cover duo, and start with tempo mapping the original track.  
  • If I want to do the varispeed vocal recording thing.  
+6 votes
answered Jan 12, 2018 by rogerhand (1,950 points)

I came here to suggest the same thing! There's not much that was easier about the old days when I used a cassette four-track to record, but this is one of them! 

I read recently that the Beatles used this trick for some of the piano parts on Abbey Road... they would adjust the tape speed slower to record a difficult part.

For the time being I guess we can ...

  1. Export a stereo mix of the song
  2. Import this audio file into a new Studio One project
  3. Time stretch this to be longer (ie, slower)
  4. Record new parts while listening to this
  5. Time stretch the new recording to be shorter (ie, faster, the original tempo)
  6. Export this new track
  7. Import it back into the original Studio One project
But I've gotta say ... Varispeed within Studio One would be a lot easier!
+4 votes
answered Jan 18, 2018 by hank18 (350 points)
I completely agree, I would love to see this done in the way Ableton has "repitch" as a timestretch option that locks the stretched playback speed to the grid just like the other options.

It seems all of the infrastructure is already there in studio one we just need a "repitch" mode and "fade in/fade out" speed like Logic.
+5 votes
answered Dec 20, 2018 by dirkabmeyer (320 points)

Oh yes! I want Varispeed as fast as possible. Especially for vocal recordings, the possibilities expand enormously here. Previously, in the "analog" times, regulating the tape speed was a natural and popular feature. Timestretching and/or pitching is not the same thing.

+5 votes
answered May 6, 2019 by NathanAlexander1 (770 points)
Sounds like tape style pitch shift. I want this so bad on audio events.
0 votes
answered Nov 28, 2019 by supereastwood (1,950 points)
connect tempo to midi keyboard knob..then its what daw you use
–1 vote
answered Apr 10, 2020 by Scoox (17,270 points)

Not saying it's a bad idea but wouldn't it sound like chipmunks once sped up?

0 votes
answered Apr 29, 2020 by alexandermackenzie1 (300 points)
Has this been implimented yet? There's so much creative potential in this funciton. I would find great use for vocal and instrument recordings alike. Slowing down to record a complex part and such trickery.
+1 vote
answered Jun 3, 2020 by godis (370 points)
I would totally love to see VARISPEED available in the next StudioOne version.  Right now I record all sessions in Logic , mainly because of the VARISPEED function.  If and when StudioOne has this feature, I will most likely switch over to StudioOne as it feels quicker and more CPU efficient than Logic.  
 

Thank you for listening to our requests !!!
+1 vote
answered Jun 17, 2020 by psychedelicalgorithm (740 points)
edited Jun 17, 2020 by psychedelicalgorithm
Four years have passed since your feature request and we still don't have vari-speed in Studio One :(

It's kinda strange, seeing as PreSonus is a company that listens to its costumers. However, I really respect PreSonus and I hope they add this feature soon :)
0 votes
answered Jul 24, 2020 by harrisonklein (190 points)

I asked about this feature back in 2017, pointing out the similar feature in Audacity called Change Speed. After learning about this thread and finding that the feature was unavailable in Studio One I forgot about it. The recent announcement of Studio One 5 prompted me to check this thread again, and I'm amazed to find that the feature still is not available. I have 78-rpm recordings that were digitally transcribed at 33-1/3 rpm (I had no 78-rpm turntable) and I would like to digitally convert them back to 78. Seems like the ability to digitally mimic a change in turntable speed ought to be easily implemented. And others have pointed out additional uses for such a feature. Please make it available!

+3 votes
answered Aug 11, 2020 by manncass (560 points)
edited Dec 19, 2020 by manncass
Was really hoping for this one on v5. Just variable global playback rate (percentage), with an option to preserve pitch (useful when transcribing/learning pieces or songs) as in Reaper, Logic, etc. Could even be an option for lower quality timestretch. This is the one thing that keeps making me go back to other daws.
...