Disabling time-stretching links pitch transposition to tempo change, creating rhythmic variation from a single sample

Modern samplers separate pitch and tempo via time-stretching. Pre-time-stretching samplers were constrained: raising pitch also raised playback speed, and lowering pitch slowed it down. This ‘bug’ is a feature: transposing a rhythmically complex sample (a breakbeat, a two-note phrase) to different pitches also changes the internal rhythm of those notes. A phrase transposed up a minor third plays its internal rhythms roughly a fifth faster; transposed down, slower. DJ Rashad’s ‘Leavin’ demonstrates this: a two-note phrase transposed across four bars creates four different rhythmic interpretations of the same melodic material, producing variation unavailable from time-stretching.

Examples

Take a 2-bar breakbeat sample into a hardware sampler or a plug-in set to non-time-stretched mode. Trigger it at root pitch in bars 1–2, up 3 semitones in bar 3, down 2 semitones in bar 4. The rhythm changes with the pitch.

Assessment

Disable time-stretching on a rhythmic sample. Trigger it at three different pitches (root, +3 semitones, -2 semitones). Describe how the internal rhythm of the sample changes at each pitch. Is the result more or less interesting than a time-stretched version?