Speed Control Pitch Correction Echo And Noise

[PrairieWolfe]

I just bought an NH900 and came home all excited about its ability to slow down a recording without changes to the pitch. This feature was a priority when I was researching which model to buy, since I am a celtic fiddler and slowing down tunes is mighty helpful (as you can imagine) for learning purposes.

Well, the NH900 slows it down all right... not as slow as I'd like, but still noticeably slower... and the pitch is retained... but there's so much echo and noice and "pinging" that I just can't make out things very well. It's pretty disappointing, but I wonder if it's an inherent problem when you pitch correct something that's slowed down... and I wonder if the NH1 does the same?

Any thoughts?

I know that there's pretty good computer software for slowing down stuff, but I like the idea of having a portable version for learning on the fly. When I'm at a festival or a camp, I don't have access to a computer. It might be a matter of "hear it today, perform it tomorrow"...

[KJ_Palmer]

If it's any help, the pitch control seems to work better on the NH900 than in the previous (non-HiMD) units that had it, (eg. B10, N910). To me it actually seems quite good with PCM and not too bad with Hi-SP compared to the older units (I also use pitch control for music practice), certainly around -10-15%. Then again sound isn't really good enough to play along with, outside of practice sessions. If you practice a tune enough though you'll hopefully get the hang of it eventually...

I would have thought the NH1 and later models would sound the same, it's basically the same technology...

Ultimately of course the speed control has to be done in real-time which is probably the main limiting factor (along with the algorithm)- I don't think it can get much better unless they build huge memory buffers or something in, which I would have thought unlikely... It is after all meant to be more for speech applications rather than music, where wobbly sound won't be so critical or noticeable...

[BobS]

Digital recording seems to have more problems with slow down / speed up than does analog. I have several MDs that do pitch change and none are as smooth as either my Sony or GE cassette recorders.

[PrairieWolfe]

The only thing I managed to do to slightly improve the slowed-down sound was to use a custom EQ setting and tweak it enough to cut down on the echoing. But then the whole sound becomes muffled as a necessary consequence. The noise is almost like a combined delay/reverb effect. Does it have anything to do with what they call a bass roll? I wonder? I don't know about that. There isn't too much to be done EQ wise to counteract this, but it seems to help a teenie weenie bit.

Anyway, Kevin, it's a consolation to know that it's still better slow-down than old models.