Rephrase - Concept

Time and pitch have been inseparable for a long time. Play a tape faster and not only is it shorter, but it is higher in pitch too. Play it slower and it is longer and lower in pitch. Aka, sampling.

Most electronic instruments available now, are one of two kinds, synthesisers or samplers. Only now are instruments starting to appear which take the advantages of both these techniques - resynthesisers.

Our high quality resynthesis engine, used in Rephrase, allows the separation of time and pitch. It allows to sculpt and control sounds in a way which cannot be achieved with sampling alone. And it does so whilst maintaining sampler-like quality.

The resynthesis engine also allows for pitch changes, without what is commonly referred to as the "chipmunk effect". Pitch changes of over an octave can be made, whilst maintaining the realism of the sound. This is achieved by a technique known as formant preservation, whereby the spectral structure of the sound remains unchanged.

Using Rephrase, these technologies allow you to control monophonic audio in a much more convenient manner - as midi. Rephrase can load a monophonic phrase and split it into notes (sometimes referred to as slices, to avoid confusion with midi notes). Then from a midi-controller or your sequencer, you can change the pitch/timings/volume of each individual note.

Rephrase also allows you to edit audio in many other ways, by changing formant, brightness, partial tuning, partial amplitude, vibrato, time stretch, etc..