Akai DD1500 User Manual page 202

20 - UTILITIES - DSP FUNCTIONS
A lot of these problems depend on the nature of the audio material being processed and
settings that process the spoken word perfectly could make a right mess of a percussive
music track. The converse is also true. The biggest problem is in material that has a
healthy balance of low and high frequencies because different timestretch parameters are
required to process different frequency ranges - in audio material that has a wide
frequency composition there is much adjustment to be done to obtain the correct
compromise so that both frequency ranges are adversely affected as little as possible.
Please be aware, therefore, that on occasions, you may never get absolutely perfect
results and there may be occasional side effects, especially with extreme settings of
stretch - of course, these side effects can be put to good use for the creation of special
effects!! Over smaller ranges, however, you will find the timestretch on the DD1500 yields
excellent results and will become an invaluable tool in your work, whatever application you
are working in.
Some applications are:
• You could use the timestretch function to lengthen or shorten a piece of dialogue or a
music cue so that it fits a scene more precisely.
• Likewise, in radio broadcast, you could stretch (or shrink) a jingle to fit an advert slot
more precisely.
• You can use the timestretch function to fill a hole between cues, lengthening a cue so
that it butts against the next one.
• In voice-overs and the like, you can use timestretch creatively to add some
excitement. For example, by shrinking the voice over, it will sound more hurried and
urgent and therefore more dramatic. Similarly, a voice over could be made more 'laid
back' by stretching it.
There are many other applications which you will no doubt find for yourself.
Page 194 Version 2.00 - March, 1996