I’m not sure if i’m posting in the right section for this question but anyways.
How exactly do I change the frequency of my music and or note A to 432hz?
From A 440 where it is now? It’s the Change tools under Effects. Change Pitch, Change Speed, Change Tempo.
Koz
I’m new to this program and sound stuff in general and more detailed explanation would be appreciated/direction.
Would changing the project rate do the trick? the song i’m editing is at 44100hz originally so would changing it to 43200hz do it?
If you want to change the pitch of the music without changing the speed, the Change Pitch effect is what you want.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Change_Pitch
Put 440 in the “Frequency from” box and 432 in the “to” box.
If you change the sampling rate of the track (using the Track Drop-down Menu), not the project, the speed of the track will change as well as the pitch.
– Bill
Ok thanks, when i try to change the from and to boxes it won’t let me, I have to copy and paste the numbers I want. Also, so for what I want with the song being at 432hz, does the project rate being 44100hz make it not a true 432hz?
The “From” box is automatically filled in by the effect attempting to detect the note at the start of the selection. Depending on the actual audio it may not be successful in finding the frequency. The first box is not intended to be editable even though it looks like it is (bug 309).
Why do you need to change it? (the reason will probably be an important factor in “how” to change it).
A standard “A” is 440 Hz.
432hz is apparently more in harmony with life itself and is said to have positive effects on the individual that is listening.
Use the Change Speed effect and change the speed by -1.818182 %
That will slow the track down very slightly so that an original pitch of 440 Hz will play at 432 Hz.
The way to calculate the % change is:
100 x (new frequency - original frequency)/original frequency
so for 440 Hz > 432 Hz that is:
100 x (432 - 440)/440 = 100 x 8/440 = -1.818182
Not only will this not allow me to change what is in (either) input box, but any time I try to change one setting at the bottom, it flips the “down” button (at the top) to “up,” which as you can imagine is purely infuriating when the numbers you’ve input in the bottom also indicate a down shift.
I say this whole plugin is buggy.
I have no idea how so many people are allegedly using audacity for this conversion when it doesn’t seem to work. Maybe with the “slow down” method (thank you for that, btw) but that would further alter the sound of the song.
I guess my only option is to use a different DAW software. Oh well, I’ve been needing to set that stuff up, anyway. Why do audacity plugins seem more iffy than when I first started using it? Maybe that’s just my memory…
I presume that you are talking about the “Change Pitch” effect?
If you’ve not used it for a while, perhaps you need to refresh your memory about the operating instructions:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/change_pitch.html
Note that it says: "If modifying by frequency, modify only the “to”. "
If the “To” frequency is less than the “from” frequency, then that is a downward shift in frequency.
If the “To” frequency is greater than the “from” frequency then that is an upward shift in frequency.
Th disadvantage of using the Change Speed effect is that it causes some audible distortions.
The “Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift” effect is much higher sound quality: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/sliding_time_scale_pitch_shift.html
For some reason in the latest version of Audacity it won’t allow a user to ‘type’ in the ‘from’ and ‘to’ frequencies in the ‘Change Pitch’ Dialog, only copy and paste. If you want to ‘convert’ your music into 432hz=A using Audacity, I’m not sure ‘Change Speed’ is the solution… USE ‘Change Pitch’ … It previously to allow a user to alter these ‘From’ and ‘To’ fields (without having to copy/paste, which is a total pain, why not allow typing in the fields as well anymore? Are we trying to deter people from conversions?). So yes, it works just as well to manually calculate the frequency difference in percentage and enter that in the corresponding field as well, BUT not in the ‘Change Speed’ Dialog. It needs to be done in the ‘Change Pitch without Changing Tempo’ Dialog. I am not saying it is ‘bad’ to change speed. It might even be better than using the pitch only. Not sure… What we should probably try is testing it using a nice sine wave recording fed into a cymatics device to observe the resultant geometry BEFORE and AFTER ‘conversion’. I, however, so far have only used the ‘Change Pitch without Changing Tempo’ to ‘convert’ my A=440hz tuned recordings into the latter (A=432hz). Anyone with a cymatics device that reads this ought to consider doing this experiment. Create a recording of scales of notes (strong sine wave style notes) based on A=440hz, record it, Then ‘convert’ using ‘Change speed’ and ‘convert’ using ‘Change Pitch’. Then observe all versions of recorded scales on the cymatics device. Whichever creates the most well defined geometrical waveforms on the cymatics device is the best ‘conversion’.
Wholeness.
In the current version of the Change Pitch effect, the “From frequency” is not intended to be editable. The fact that it “looks” like it should be editable and will accept pasted values is a bug. The fact that you can’t type to change it is intended. The “from frequency” is intended to be an automatically detected frequency value based on the analysis of the first part of the selection.
We realize that this behaviour is confusing and not very helpful, so it is being changed in the next version of Audacity. This effect is currently being worked on.