Change Pitch

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

Hi Guys,

Newbie here still finding my way round Audacity, I have recently recorded my friend playing adams song by blink 182 which is tuned down to D. However I thought I would be clever and record him in E and tune him down later.

I am now wondering if I have made a mistake in doing so… Will I loose sound quality if I de-tune the whole song 2 steps to D?

He has flown back to the UK now so I wont have another chance to record for another few months :frowning:

Would appreciate anyones opinion,

Thanks

2

Yes you will lose some sound quality, but you will use less if you use the “Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift” effect than if you use the ordinary “Change Pitch” effect. The “Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift” processes slowly, but it generally produces higher quality results.
Keep a high quality (WAV or FLAC format) backup copy of the original recording before you start working on it.

3

Hi Steve, Thanks for your help, I will go and have a play now and let you know how i get on…

I fear i may have changed the pitched and saved it as the original recording >.<

4

Hi Steve, I have checked and luckily i have all my original recordings untouched / unmodified.

I went to the tool you suggested but I cant see how to detune the guitar to a D?

Is there anyone on this forum that I could pay to de-tune / mix and render the guitar part to adams song for me?

Thanks!

5

change_pitch.png

6

Hi Guys,

I’ve just used this tool to detune our fiddle player by a full octave to imitate a chello. It works really well.