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Do you have a manual for TimeStop?
Yes, we do. Download our in-depth TimeStop PDF manual for full usage instructions and an in-depth guide to all features and functions.
Do you have a video tutorial for TimeStop?
Yes! Also check out our YouTube channel, where you'll find lots of additional tips-'n'-tricks videos.
Why isn’t TimeStop doing anything when I play a virtual or live instrument into it?
TimeStop only works when the host DAW is in playback mode, so you need to start playback in your DAW’s transport, even if there’s nothing in your project to actually play. It won’t have any effect when playing a virtual instrument into it with the DAW in stop mode, for example.
What are the differences between Classic, Modern and Loop modes?
TimeStop’s Classic mode is your traditional tape-stop effect, where pitch and tempo both fall together.
Modern mode, on the other hand, pitches the input down without changing the timing, so that each kick and snare in a drum loop, say, remains locked to the beat. It does this by dividing the signal into independently pitched-down segments, each of which maintains its position on the timeline. The segments can be divided at a range of tempo-synced note values, or set to Auto mode, whereby the signal is divided at its transients.
Loop mode grabs and loops a slice of audio as soon as the Pitch knob is clicked and held, and drops it in pitch when the knob is turned.
Why do I get a ‘click’ when Pitch control automation returns to 100% on a low-frequency sound (an 808, say)?
The sound you are hearing is TimeStop fading back to the actual real-time input signal when automation reaches 1.0. TimeStop applies a short fade to make the transition from the repitched signal to the unprocessed input signal, and with a bass-heavy sound like an 808, this can produce a quick shift in level that sounds like a soft pop or ‘click’.
However, we’ve designed the Pitch control so that the automation value 0.99 plays back at the original pitch (primarily to enable stutter effects without pitch-drop in Loop mode), but it can also be used to choose exactly where the fade should happen. Simply automate Pitch to 0.99 until a point in the track at which the plugin is producing no output or the fade can be masked by another sound in the mix, then automate to 1.0.
Why does Classic mode sometimes delay the audio, or Loop mode sometimes output silence, when I hit play in Cubase?
In Cubase, if playback begins at a point where Pitch is below 100%, you may get a silent gap at the start. This is because, unlike other DAWs, Cubase has a “pre-fetch” stage that starts internal playback a little early, feeding silence through the audio chain. This is in addition to normal latency and the latency of the ASIO Guard feature.
For example, if you start playback at the beginning of a bar, Classic mode’s buffer fills with silence from before beat 1 that is slowed, and beat 1 comes out late compared to the metronome. In other words: from TimeStop’s perspective, the user hit play just before the beat.
Similarly, in Loop mode, TimeStop thinks you want to loop an audio slice from just before the beat, which will be the silence from Cubase’s “pre-fetch” stage.
The workaround is to start playback earlier, or modify the automation so that Pitch is at 100% before the playback point. If you’re using TimeStop in the very first bar of the project, you may need to add a bar prior to that (using the Insert Time command) to facilitate this.