Hello,
What I would like to do is level out the pitch on a few songs I have. Please note that I don’t want to raise or lower the pitch of some parts, I just want the song to have, roughly, the same pitch throughout.
Is there a way to level out the pitch without having to go through the song section by section?
I’ve tried using Equalizer and Automatic Gain Control, but I’ve had only limited success. Since I’m a complete beginner, maybe I’m missing something.
Are you trying to even out loudness or volume? Pitch is which note on the piano. E is higher pitch than C.
You might try Chris’s Compressor.
http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss-dynamic-compressor-plugin-for-audacity/
Chris is a broadcast compressor that gently evens out loudness variations in your show. Change the first slider “Compress Ratio” up to get a denser, louder show.
Koz
Koz,
Thanks for the reply. No, I’m not trying to level out the volume. I’m trying to level out the pitch (frequency). Any ideas?
Perhaps you should tell us more about what you are trying to do,
Even a single note of an instrument contains a wide range of “frequencies”, and if there are multiple instruments playing in a song there will be multiple notes and a broad spectrum of frequencies at each point in the song. Are you trying to reduce the song down to a rhythm with one frequency, or indefinite pitch?
Steve,
I have a few songs that have large pitch shifts. In other words, some parts are squeaky high, and some parts are too low. I don’t know if that was due to the artist’s choice, or if the recordings are defective (I actually suspect the artist). But I find it very unpleasant. I wouldn’t care so much except some of these are otherwise my favorite songs.
So I want to level out the pitch - bring down the squeaky high parts, and raise the low parts. I’ve tried modifying the pitch going part by part, but I wonder if there isn’t some way to level things out all at once.
I’m still not sure that I understand.
As Koz wrote, Pitch is which note on the piano. E is higher pitch than C. If you change the pitch then the tune changes - it would be like playing a tune on a piano that has only one note, which will not be much of a tune. Are you perhaps talking about “Equalization” http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/equalization.html
We have to build your problem in our heads, in our imagination in order to help you. We can’t do that with you.
Where did you get the show from and can you post some of it here so we can listen.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1
Koz
[u]Auto-Tune[/u] or [u]Melodyne[/u] might be able to do it, but it can be tricky, especially when you have one element in a mix that’s out of tune (such as a voice), with everything else in-tune. Melodyne can apparently do some amazing things similar to that, but I’ve never used either of these tools. These things work best if you have a single vocal track, or a single instrument that needs to be re-pitched.
These are serious tools for professionals… They are not cheap and they will take some time to learn, and some more time to get the best results.
Auto-Tune will not correct a portion of a song that’s “high and squeaky.” There’s something about this we don’t understand. Koz
Koz,
Let me try to restate my problem. It’s something like this. Suppose you have a song sung by three singers. And suppose that one of the singers was singing in a very high-pitched falsetto voice. What could be done to bring that one singer’s pitch down a bit?
I don’t want to cut the high-pitched voice out, or bring down everyone’s pitch. The song’s volume plays no part here. I just want to reduce the pitch of high-pitched parts of the song.
Thanks for your patience with what, I’m guessing, must be a very unusual question.
You can’t bring down the pitch of just one voice if it is mixed in with the other voices.
You can bring down the pitch of all the sound by using the “Change Pitch” effect.
Imagine that you have some red paint, some blue paint and some yellow paint and you mix them all together in a big bucket. That is like the “mix” of three different voices. Now lets say that you want to heat up the red paint to make it hotter, without heating up the blue or the yellow paint - you can’t do it. Once they are mixed together, what you do to one you do to all. Similarly once they are mixed together you can’t take the red paint out of the bucket, and you can’t extract that one voice from the mix of voices.
Steve (and anyone else),
I guess that I’m looking for an application that will allow me to set a maximum frequency. Anything above that maximum would not be cut off, but just reduced to that maximum. This does not seem to be an impossible request to me. There must be a way to analyze frequencies, even if Audacity does not have that ability.
Or am I expecting too much of modern technology (LOL)?
Unless the person with the falsetto voice is singing on their own, or you have that person in their own track, there is nothing you can do.
If the person is solo, you can reduce the volume of frequencies above a certain level to the point where the frequencies above that level are no longer audible. That doesn’t move down the pitch of frequencies that were previously above that level, just makes the same frequencies quieter. There is no time stretching involved, so it doesn’t change the pitch of that person’s voice.
Was it Effect > Change Pitch you were trying to use (you want to change the pitch without changing the tempo)? If the person is solo, it might achieve something of what you want, but you do have to apply it just to those sections you want to change (but not to each note).
I would think some professional (expensive) programs might have an envelope type of tool with a curve to adjust the pitch of parts of a recording - that still seems to me to be what you are asking for, not to affect the pitch of everyone singing at other points in time. I certainly know one program that does this with pure speed change, therefore affecting pitch and tempo.
Gale
I think that Melodyne can do what you are asking, but it is labour intensive, note by note process and the software cost around $300
http://helpcenter.celemony.com/editor2/en/singletrack_tour_42_1.html