Published by PitchChanger · Updated · How these guides are made
Hear the difference
Original synthesized diagnostic material, authored at 48 kHz, 16-bit PCM. These are controls for the worksheet, not measurements of this tool or real instruments.
Pause your workspace preview before comparing these clips.
Start quietly. Download the WAV files for external comparison; no listening outcome is asserted.
How to use this workflow
Locate an isolated onset
Choose a clear hit with context before and after it. Listen to the source first to establish whether the attack is already soft.
Export one change
Keep pitch at 0 st and choose a slower speed. Save the processed file and record the speed setting.
Align corresponding events
Map the original event to its new timeline, then compare equal musical context rather than equal absolute timestamps.
An authored attack at exactly one second
Attack contains a damped 1 kHz sinusoid beginning at 1.000 s. Its exponential envelope has a 20 ms time constant and is cut off at 1.300 s; everything before onset is zero. The 4-second file is a known source control, not a rendered slowdown.
At 75% speed, the ideal mapped onset is 1 / 0.75 = 1.333333 s. An implementation can add boundary effects or alignment offsets, so inspect the saved result. Looking at 1.000 s in both files would compare different musical events.
Swipe or scroll sideways to read all columns.
| Checkpoint | Action or value | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Source onset | 1.000 s | Known synthesis boundary |
| 75% mapping | 1.333333 s | Calculated expectation |
| Listen around onset | Short context before and after | Spread differs from displacement |
Write an observation that can be checked
Log file, speed, event time and a plain description such as “the hit sounds less distinct on repeated comparisons.” Do not label every softened attack an algorithm failure: bandwidth changes, gain and the original envelope can contribute.
The speed changer has no dedicated transient-preservation control. If the change makes the passage hard to practice, compare a smaller slowdown or a different excerpt, and retain the source. Research on time-scale modification distinguishes transient and tonal impairments; this worksheet does not measure detector accuracy.