convert music to 432 Hz

I tried this step http://truthconduit.weebly.com/convert-music-to-432-hz.html to convert the music to 432hz through these steps and i got a mp3 file nearly 4 x the size i expected and the music came out real strange…unlike the music I recorded… :question:
Anyone experienced in this
I am running Chrome with windows 7

To begin with you are using a tutorial for an obsolete 1.2 version of Audacity which makes it harder to follow.

Are you sure you applied -1.818 percent change in Change Pitch? Scientifically, that is only a small change. What you think it does to your brain is your decision alone. :wink:

If the exported MP3 is larger than expected or larger than an MP3 file you already had this will be because the bit rate you chose for the export is higher than the bit rate of other MP3’s you are comparing it with.

All MP3 encoding loses quality, but the higher bit rates lose less quality and take more disk space.


Gale

…and the music came out real strange.

Changing change pitch and tempo independently is mathematically complex and you can sometimes get artifacts (side effects). Instead of using the Change Pitch try the Change Speed effect (at -1.8%). This will change pitch & tempo together and it’s usually foolproof (no side-effects). The slightly slower speed may not be noticeable.

The pitch change might not be that noticeable either… :wink: Even if you can hear the pitch change now in an A/B listening test, unless you have perfect pitch, a week from now you won’t be able to tell if you are listening to the original or the pitch-shifted version. If you do have perfect pitch, COOL!!!

i got a mp3 file nearly 4 x the size i expected

The tutorial tells you to use 320kbps*, which is the best** MP3 setting. But, you still may notice some quality loss from compressing a 2nd time (assuming your original file was MP3).




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  • The bitrate is kilobits per second. There are 8 bits in a byte and 60 seconds in a minute, so 320kbps works-out to 2.4MB per minute.

** We can’t really say it’s “best” unless it actually SOUNDS better. Often a lower bitrate (or variable bitrate) will sound identical to the higher bitrate, and sometimes it will sound identical to the uncompressed original.

Artefacts when changing pitch without changing tempo (or when changing tempo without changing pitch) get worse the more extreme the change. Whatever artefacts there are will be added to if you export to MP3 instead of WAV, but there should be little perceptible quality loss with a small change like -1.818 %.

If you want a better quality way of changing pitch without changing tempo, try Effect > Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift . Just enter -1.818 in the % boxes in “Initial Pitch Shift” and “Final Pitch Shift”.


Gale

Of course, if the music that you are processing is not tuned to exactly 440 Hz (very likely for some types of music) then shifting the pitch by -1.818 % will not tune it to A 432 Hz.

shifting the pitch by -1.818 % will not tune it to A 432 Hz.

Thats what I thought.
Many thanks :slight_smile:

Is a simplistic retuning of music recorded at A=440Hz to A=432 Hz by a -1.818% pitch change really adequate?

There are no 432 Hz partials in the recording, so will the pitch change somehow create them, or even audibly preserve the transposed 440 Hz partials?


Gale

It is not and does sometimes the contrary.
The spectrum of the music is like a worn brush. At the fix point, all bristles are lined up and at the other end, all split and fork and do not have the same length anymore.
The fundamental frequencies are the bristles starting point and can be set to 432 Hz tuning. However, the tips will end rather randomly at non-integer multiples of this frequency.
The only way is to use the scissors to make the bristles (or partials) fit into the tuning grid.
It is clear that a trumpet won’t sound anymore like a brass instrument. The timbre will change for each single pitch.
Music that should stay in “universal 432 Hz harmony” has to be created synthetically.
Existing music had to be “auto-tuned” such that the majority of tones lies on the tuning grid.
It is a horror to think that Beethoven eventually would sound like Madonna…