Logic Pro 9 Time Stretch & Flex Changes Volume?

nautonnier

Logician
I am doing a digital dj mix in Logic. I have a song in MP3 format that I've imported and Logic converts to aif (wish it converted it to my Logic preference of wav but whatever). This is a commercially released dance track so it is compressed pretty hard and rides 0.0db fairly steadily. Now, I want to change the tempo of this song to match the tempo of the project. I have used two methods and both radically alter the volume of the track:

1. Flex: I turn on Flex mode, set the track to Polyphonic (with Complex checked). I Option+drag the lower right corner to the left some. Result: the song is now clipping at 4+db.

2. Time Machine: I set the original BPM and the target BPM and click Process and Paste. Result: the song now only tops around -3db (plus this is a destructive edit--I did make a copy).

Am I doing something wrong here? There is no way that altering the volume of the audio file is acceptable. I use Traktor all the time and the volume is not changed at all no matter what speed I change it to? Bad algorithm in Logic? Id10t error? I guess I could just use Time Machine, put a limiter on the main bus (was planning on doing that anyway) and boost the gain of the track back up. I was also thinking of re-recording the song out from Traktor at the desired speed but I was also hoping to import the songs as Apple Loops so I could fiddle with the key.

Any help would be appreciated.

Some suggestions that would NOT be appreciated (so kindly keep them to yourself) would be:
- Use Ableton (I don't own it and I'm not going to buy it)
- Use Traktor (I want to do some extra-fancy studio tricks so I'd like to keep it in logic)
 
I would definitely go with the Apple Loop approach as it offers more possibilities. The Gain/Limiter solution sound viable and rather easy to implement and offer better control on the end result...
 
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Atlas: all of what you say is true. But it still doesn't explain why the crazy jumps in volume.

Has anyone else noticed this volume change when time stretching using flex or function? This isn't a Logic deal breaker but I'm pretty bummed.
 
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