Logic Pro 9 Flex time questions

[ryguy76]

I recently used flextime on a fingerpicking guitar track for the first time, and after some tweaking and fiddling, I got it to sound pretty good. However, there was a "phase-like" warbling issue I was having in the beginning that only was solved using the "complex" option in the polyphonic algorithm. Is this a common artifact?

After I had used flextime, I thought that the region would need to bounced to conserve CPU, so I bounced the region to a new track and opted to keep the orignal region & original track muted. But it occured to me that even if it was muted, flextime is still on and could be increasing the CPU load. Would it have been? To be sure, I removed the flexing from the original region.

How do you all finish/tidy up your flex edits?

 

[Markdvc]

I recently used flextime on a fingerpicking guitar track for the first time, and after some tweaking and fiddling, I got it to sound pretty good. However, there was a "phase-like" warbling issue I was having in the beginning that only was solved using the "complex" option in the polyphonic algorithm. Is this a common artifact?

One of the first crucial decisions to be made when using flextime is choosing the correct mode. in the case of polyphonic, the Logic Pro 9 user manual states (Ch. 16 Page 530) :

Polyphonic
The Polyphonic flex mode time-stretches material based on a process called phase
vocoding. It is the most CPU intensive of all the flex modes, but it delivers high sonic
quality with suitable polyphonic material. It is recommended for complex polyphonic
material and is good for all kinds of chords-such as guitar, piano, and choir-and also
complex mixes.
• Complex: Enables internal transients in the audio material.

There are many other important tweaks, including extended parameters such as Q strength, and (particularly when using slicing on multitracked drums) deciding which transient markers to use, which to deselect. Learning to use Flex correctly IMO is not to be underestimated, it is a very complex and powerful function and takes quite a lot of practice.

kind regards

Mark

 

[ryguy76]

Thanks Mark, but I'm not sure if you clarified anything for me though. I realize that picking the right algorithm is key,and I've read to try them all, in case one works better than another, even if it doesn't make the most sense.

I used the polyphonic cause it made the most sense... got the phasey artifact, and switched to complex for the next go'round. It could have been something as simple as the way I moved the transient markers that resulted in the warble I was hearing. Dunno...

Am I missing something in the paragraph from the manual you included?

 

[Eli]

What's the problem? You checked the "complex" button and it solved your phasing problem. It worked - that's the answer! 😀

In terms of conserving CPU power, I'm not sure what the demands of flex are on a muted track. But you can easily just switch the flex mode to "off" in the track header. That way you're certain to be freeing up any potential lost CPU resources.

 

[ryguy76]

I hear ya Eli.

I'm happy that it eventually worked, but it's always been in my nature to get to the bottom of my dilemmas and know the why and how stuff. It can be incredibly frustrating at times though. 🙂

 

[musiclab]

When I'm done flexing something , I bounce it, check it and turn flex off on the original track and put the original audio in a folder I call unused items, and then I'm done with it.
As far as artifacts and such, sadly these things take time and patience, because every piece of audio has it's own demands. The more you know about flex the better chance you have to make it work well for you. There is no "auto" mode for this. But In my opinion, there are times when it just won't get you there because of issues with the original audio.

 

[ryguy76]

thanks musiclab, good to know I'm not far off then.