Browsing through piles of samples to seek out the right sound for your beat is like looking for a needle in a haystack. To hear the way a sample sounds in context with your beat it has to match your beat’s key and tempo. The best way to do this is with pitch shifting and time stretching. The best part is free time stretching and pitch shifting tools exist that will help you independently change the tempo or key of any sample you discover. It’s remarkable how this technology changes all the things about beat-making. In this article, we’ll explore why time stretching and pitch shifting tools are so useful to every music producer—and we’ll take a look at specific ways you should use them in your music-making workflow.