In February 2021, zplane offered the Production Expert community the opportunity to win one of three copies of their élastiqueAAX time and pitch manipulation plugin designed exclusively for Pro Tools. We can now announce the 3 lucky winners.

What Is ElastiqueAAX From zplane?

élastiqueAAX uses the élastiquePro V3 time-stretching and pitch-shifting engine which is integrated into many DAWs and used by millions of users around the world. 

The plugin interface has been designed to allow quick and intuitive interaction with all parameters for maximum control. élastiqueAAX is an offline AudioSuite plugin, therefore allowing to apply time-stretching and pitch-shifting much faster than real-time. élastiqueAAX offers multi-channel support for synchronous pitching of up to 8 audio channels. It also features handy presets for typical film pull-ups/pull-down tasks.

This combination of quality and features and a simple Pro Tools workflow makes élastiqueAAX the optimal pitch-shifting plugin for film and video conversion applications.

Features at a Glance -

• Audio formats: 1-8 channels (I/O)

• Supported sample rates: 32-192kHz sample rate

• Supported plugin format: AAX32/AAX64, AudioSuite offline

• Stretching: 25% - 400%

• Pitching : ± 24 semi-tones or 25-400%

• Formant preservation feature

• Presets for typical film pull-ups/pull-downs

• Integration with the Pro Tools Multi-Tool

With V2 zplane, brought integration with the multi-tool and a brand new setting especially for dialogue manipulation. 

Winner - Tim Miller

There’s not much more I love than a good vinyl record and hot sauce, but crafting great cinematic stories comes near the top of the list. My name is Tim Miller and my passion is capturing emotional performances and crafting soundscapes unique to a specific story.

After completing a doctorate degree in Music Composition from Indiana University - Bloomington in 2013, I became a production sound mixer, film composer, and post-audio sound designer and editor.

I have recorded and mixed audio for numerous short films, documentaries and feature films in the Kentucky/Southern Indiana area. I currently reside in Louisville, KY with my wife, daughter, two cats and three ferrets.

As a sound designer, I’m always looking for tools to help me craft the perfect soundscape for my current project. Manipulating a sound’s time and pitch always results in something interesting, but I’ve never been happy with the stock plugins inside of ProTools.

When stretching audio, I’m always searching for that right moment before it starts to sound fake with artifacts. With ElastiqueAAX zplane seem to have delivered something special with their algorithm and integration directly with Pro Tools. I’m excited to use it to help create something unique!

Winner - René Meister

Hi, my name is René Meister. I’m a professional composer, musician, sound engineer, sound designer and audio post engineer.

I have my own studio where everything takes place. For almost 40 years now I’ve been working in the music and radio/television industry. I’ve played in several well-known bands in the Netherlands and have recorded music since I was 16 years old.

At the moment, we are writing and recording a new album with Bear Project, our 6th album, which will feature a further exploration of musical colours and depths. I’m also writing and recording a new album with Dutch writer/singer Henk Westbroek.

I am editing and mixing a live album with my other band, the Glamrocks, that features the Glamrock repertoire of the early ’70s.

Two other very inspiring projects also complete my studio work at the moment:

1. For television, I’m working on a documentary, for which I do sound design, audio post and write music.

2. For a famous artist we, as Bear project, are re-arranging her songs for a new collaboration album.

zplane élastiqueAAX is a plugin that will help me in many ways in my daily work. A dedicated and pristine sounding tool for my pitch-shifting and time-stretching needs. Because I work a lot with alternating pitch and length of my own samples and recordings I need a tool that gives me what I want without any unwanted artifacts.

I chop up recordings and play around with them to create new sounds and phrases. Often I want to change the tempo of a finished mix, which is always too slow in the morning or too fast late at night.

Sometimes I need to convert audio for post-production from NTSC to PAL or from 24 to 25 FPS. With the presets for typical pull-ups and pull-downs this will be a breeze, and you can convert up to 8 channels at the same time, not forgetting the Pro Tools integration which will also greatly enhance the workflow.

Winner - Patric Favreau

Patric Favreau started in the audio industry as a keyboardist, singer, songwriter in 1993. Being interested in recording, sequencers and sound, I graduated with honours in recording and audio production at a professional institute near Montreal (Quebec) in 2001.

I started in live sound before moving across and focusing on studio work, offering clients audio mixing, transfer and restoration services.

Just over 10 years ago I founded Atakama Studio, adding video and film transfer services to the list of audio services. Its clientele is varied; both individuals and institutions mainly in Quebec, but also across Canada and the United States.

We concentrate on audio post-production for short films, documentaries, web and TV capsules. Audio mixing for music, audio restoration and remastering for re-release, as well as transfers of professional audiovisual archives. I am planning a new studio space in the spring of 2021.

In my workflow, I’ am looking forward to using élastiqueAAX for time expansion/compression when I need to sync audio for film transferred from a Super8 magnetic or 16mm magnetic/optical soundtrack.

I’ll usually follow the cuts on the film, splicing the audio by section and adjusting the sync with the builtin time expansion/compression tool in Pro Tools.

In audio post-production for video, it will be really helpful to use élastiqueAAX to stretch the audio when I need to cut away a small bit of content to remove an unwanted noise. For example, I’ll do a splice a few seconds before my new empty space and stretch the audio to fill the gap.

A manual pitch correction plugin is also a great way of adjusting a note from an instrument or vocal track while keeping control and a natural sound. Thank you zplane and Production Expert!

How About You?

Would you like to win a prize like Tim, René or Randy? If so, check out our dedicated Win page and it is something that would be useful to you then enter the competition and you might be a winner.