Logic Pro 9 How to restore original pitch and speed from tape?

[Andre Favreau]

Hi,

I recorded some music from an old tape and now for some reason the music is a whole step higher! I guess the original tape was recorded that way and/or my tape deck is playing too fast.

I know there's the Time and Pitch machine in the audio editor and I also discovered the Varispeed function in the Transport bar. There's also Speed in Flex mode

So I'm wondering now what would be the best way to restore the pitch and speed of the music?

Any tips on how to approach this to keep the best quality?

Thanks

Andre

 

[georgelegeriii]

Are you sure you are playing the session back at the correct sample rate?

 

[Andre Favreau]

Yes. It was recorded and is playing back at 44.1. It really was an old cassette that I had to change the casing.

 

[georgelegeriii]

I would use a 2 track editor app to do the conversion. Too bad Peak isn't around any more, it was awesome for that.

What audio interface are you running? I ask because I'm thinking that I would try and do some kind of pitch correction in one software in real time, and re-record it back into another at the correct sample rate. I could do that with my RME totalMix software.

As for how well Logic does this, don't really know, sorry.

 

[Andre Favreau]

I have a RME FireFace 800 with Total mix.

But what do you mean "at the correct sample rate"? I played the tape from my tape deck in real time and recorded it in Logic at 44.1Khz.

 

[Pete Thomas]

If this is actually caused by the tape running too fast, then using Logic's Pitch and Time machine but set to Classic mode should be exactly what's needed. Bear in mind it's a destructive edit.

That mode works like a tape , ie pitch is related to time. And better still, I believe it's actually a less lossy conversion than Free mode, which converst pitch and time indepently of each other.

 

[Andre Favreau]

How would you compare it to varispeed?
Is it technically the same quality?
Or is it even the same algorythm?

Thanks.