Looking for pitch control without speed change

[ActOne]

Hi, i would like to do two more things with minidisc recorder/player than I have achieved.

i have the mds jb920 and the mds je520 and a MZ R70

maybe someone out there will know if it’s possible.

i would like to pitch change without changing the speed and I would like to change the speed without changing the pitch.

is there a machine out there that can do any of these things.

many thanks in advance

ActOne

[kgallen]

I'm not sure you can get these functions truly separate, even on the best decks.

MDS-E12 (and MDS-E10) have "Vari Speed" but this alters pitch (and speed creeps with it), +/- 12.5%

Tascam MD-350 also has "Pitch Control" but this is the same, alters pitch and speed, +/-12%.

I just tried my MDS-E12, MDS-E10 and MD-350 for this. Very nice implementation, sounds good, no distortion or sound aberrations.

The portable MZ-B10 does have a speed function, presumably for dictation use, but the sound quality suffers horribly as you slow it down or speed it up.

Tascam MD-CD1 Mk1 and Mk2 (NOT Mk3) also have MD pitch function. As I have (a Mk1) these too (what a surprise on this forum!) I'll have a play in a bit, but as it uses the same Sony chipset as above I think the results will be the same.

Happy to hear from others who have found a machine that can!

Kevin

ETA: Confirmed Tascam MD-CD1 Mk1 is the same Pitch Control as the Sony decks.

What I also need to note here for completeness, is that these pitch/speed control functions only work with SP tracks - not MDLP LP2 or LP4 tracks.

MZ-B10 has a true speed control that does not affect pitch - but this is not a function you'd want to use as a backing track source, since the sound is altered. The machine trims off the bass and the sound becomes a little aberrated at the more extreme settings. It sounds pretty bad through the inbuilt speaker, but actually listening to an Ian Dury MD using headphones, it's not quite as bad as I thought. But it's still not usable for performance, this is a feature to help the transcription of a dictated message.

[sfbp]

If sound quality really matters you need Audacity.

[kgallen]

I use Audacity a lot and even pitch and speed shifts using Audacity can be pretty horrific. The shift done by the MD players was pretty impressive if you want the pitch shift with the corresponding speed shift.

[kgallen]

For completeness, the MDS-JE530 (which is the next model along from your 520 and is near identical, but with the newer Type R codec) has pitch shift. As I have a 530 too, I just gave it a go and whilst again it’s pitch+speed, again it does a great job of it. The function is accessed from the setup menu rather than having dedicated controls as on the pro models. This might be a more affordable machine.

Kevin

[sfbp]

To be truthful I actually use CoolEdit which was what Adobe took over and made into Audacity. It's always worked perfectly for resampling, stretch, pitch+speed. I think.... now you've got me worried, will (OCD) go and check.

Update:

Slowing it down or speeding it up by 10% were both absolutely no problem. I took "Where corals lie" for Soprano and piano by Edward Elgar, used medium precision. Both the singer and the piano sounded full and rich.

I think something which is compressed such as mp3 will just about die when you do this, and MDLP won't be a lot better. But MDSP should be fine.

[kgallen]

10 hours ago, sfbp said:

I think something which is compressed such as mp3 will just about die when you do this.

(Off topic, sorry OP!). This is probably the reason, good shout. Our MD would give me their final cut (i.e. a rough-as-a-badgers-hind-quarters cut) with some pitch shift on a chorus and it would be horrific beyond belief - horrible splashy percussion and garbled vocals. So I'd have to start again and try and reproduce from the original (supplied) tracks - but you're right these were probably MP3 from t'internet.