Stretching and shrinking events

The Process > Length command can be used to stretch or shrink a portion of a project. Process > Length lets you stretch or shrink the selection by a fixed percentage and makes the adjustment by altering the individual events. A value of 200 percent, for example, stretches the selection to twice its original length, while a value of 50 percent shrinks the selection to half its original length.

The Process > Length command offer the option to stretch audio clips along with the MIDI information. Sometimes you don’t want to adjust the speed of your audio.

Here are some examples:

If your project contains background music and a voice-over, you might want to change the tempo of the background music without altering the voice-over

If you’re trying to modify the speed of some MIDI tracks to match a sampled drum groove, you want to leave the audio unchanged

If your audio consists solely of sound effects, you most likely do not want to adjust them

Audio can be stretched or condensed up to a factor of 4 (e.g., it can be shrunk to as little as 25 percent of its original length, or expanded to as much as 400 percent of its original length).

You can also use the Process > Length command to alter only the start times or the durations of notes. For example, changing the durations of notes to 50 percent of their original length can create a staccato effect.

To stretch or shrink using percentages

1.	Select the events you want to change.

2.	Choose Process > Length to display the Length dialog box.

Figure 221. The Length dialog

3.	Choose to change the Start Times and/or Durations of selected notes by checking the boxes.

4.	If you want to stretch selected audio clips, select the Stretch Audio check box.

5.	Use the spinners or type in the desired percent change in length.

6.	Click OK when you are done.

Music Creator modifies the length of selected events.

 

While dragging, a clip icon in the top right corner of the clip shows the stretch percentage (25% to 400%).

 

 

Note: You cannot stretch MIDI Groove clips. If you want to stretch a MIDI Groove clip, you must first either disable the clip’s Groove Clip Looping property (select the clip and press CTRL+L) or bounce the Groove clip to a new regular MIDI clip (use the Track view Clips > Bounce to Clip(s) command).

To stretch Note events

You can stretch the duration of all selected notes in the Piano Roll view.

1.	Select the track you want to edit, then go to Views > Piano Roll View to open the Piano Roll view.

2.	Select the Note events you want to stretch. For details, see To select MIDI notes.

3.	Do one of the following:

To stretch all notes proportionally. With the Smart tool , position the pointer where you want to split the note, then hold down the CTRL key and drag the end of any selected note.

To stretch all notes to the same absolute duration. With the Smart tool , position the pointer where you want to split the note, then hold down the SHIFT key and drag the end of any selected note.

Tip: You can easily create tuplets by stretching note events. First draw the desired number of notes, then select them and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the end of any selected note. For example, draw 5 quarter notes, then stretch them to fit in the space of 4 quarter notes.