Paulstretch

Parameters

[Parameters not yet documented — likely declared in source outside register_animatable(). Add an override in _overrides/ if needed.]

Additional controls

Stretch Factor — How many times longer the output is than the input, 1–50 (and the algorithm holds together up to 1000×). 2× is mild slowdown; 10× is dramatic; 50–1000× turns even a short percussive sound into a long ambient drone with no recognizable rhythm or pitch movement. Unlike normal time-stretching, Paulstretch maintains spectral content perfectly at any factor — the result stays smooth and dense rather than developing artifacts.

Window Size Ms — STFT window size in ms, 100–2000. Controls the time/frequency tradeoff specific to Paulstretch — longer windows produce smoother, more “frozen” output (better for ambient drones); shorter windows preserve more time-domain detail (slightly grittier, with a more recognizable source character). 250–500 ms is the standard Paulstretch window; push to 1000+ ms for extreme ambient smoothing.

Output Gain — Output level in dB, −12 to +12. Compensates for level changes from stretching — extreme stretches can sometimes produce quieter output due to phase randomization.

About Paulstretch

Paulstretch is a specific algorithm (named after its creator Nasca Octavian Paul) designed for extreme time-stretching. Where normal stretching breaks down past 2–4× with audible artifacts, Paulstretch is built to stay coherent at 100×, 1000×, even higher. The trick is phase randomization within each STFT frame — the magnitude spectrum is preserved but the phases are scrambled, which removes the “comb-filter ringing” that plagues other algorithms at extreme settings. The output sounds like a smooth, frozen, drifting version of the source spectrum. Use it for: ambient pads from drum hits, frozen drones from vocals, dark cinematic textures from noise, sound design beds. Not suited for transient-preserving stretching — at 2–4× stretch, regular time-stretching algorithms produce more natural-sounding results. Paulstretch’s superpower is everything past 5×.

Generated 2026-05-05 from K2K_Dev@96730bdc by scripts/gen_lexique.py. Edit _intros/ or _overrides/, not this file.