Audacity Forum

Well I've been tinkering with it and I still don't get it.I think when I was asking the question here about how to do this I should have put it another way.What I meant to say is can I Change the Pitch of the Voice While still keeping the voice in the Same Key as the Music just at a Higher pitch.That''s basically what I was trying to ask.
Sorry.I hope that helps if no one understood what I was asking.
Thanks

Weird...I see a lot of people have read my post and no one is replying.Is there something wrong or am I double posting or doing something wrong where no one wants to help?I'm sorry if I've double Posted or whatever..i told someone here before that I was new and didn't know how this worked and aplogized if I did anything wrong.I hope no one is mad or anything stupid like that because then I won't be able to get any help with this program anymore here and I don't know anyone else That has even heard of Audacity.It seems like a cool program if I can just figure it out.i've been reading the Help and the Tutorials and Tinkering with it to try to get some hands on experience but the Pitch Change thing is still a mystery.
Ok then well,I'll keep checking for replies.
Thanks..I Guess.

Hey
I have Posted in the Audio Processing Forum a few times and I have seen like 6 views on my post but no replies.
I am getting the hang of Audacity a bit..I'm new to it.there's a lot more to learn I know.It's a really cool program.
What I am tring to see if can be done is changing the pitch of the vocals (like the Range of the voice) without changing What Key I am singing in that needs to be in the same Key as the Music recorded on the 1st track.
I hope I am explaining this right.I want the Voice to be higher (or lower for that matter if I needed,it could be both ways) But I don't want to change the Key that I am singing in.I was messing with one of the Plug ins and was had Pitch Change.I tinkered with it a bit but it seemed to Change the Key when I approached what Pitch I wanted so it was useless.Like the Music was in D and I wanted to sing in D but with a Higher voice range.I have been looking at the numbers and Keys that are displayed and have been trying it but I get kind of close to doing it but never get there..it always goes up too high and I change key completely.No Good.
So I am wondering if it can be done,if there is some way the numbers and the Keys Have to be in a certain correlation or something else entirely.
I don't know.
It's not the end of the World I just would like it to work if it can.
Thanks,I'll check for replies.

Unfortunately there are only a few people on this forum that have the knowledge/experience AND the time and willingness to answer questions. Audacity and this forum are powered by volunteers. We hope that others are sufficiently inspired by Audacity to help out where they can.

Sometimes it can take a few days for your questions to be spotted by someone that is able to answer. If the question is read by someone that does not have a useful suggestion, they are unlikely to post a reply. Please be patient, most posts get answered eventually.

Double posting is confusing (posting the same question more than once) and does not increase the chances of getting a useful response. Please post your questions once only. (I have merged these posts into one topic as it seems to be the same question).

SKing14 wrote:i told someone here before that I was new and didn't know how this worked

That's OK, the information above is not an admonishment, it is intended as guidance so that you can use the forum effectively.

SKing14 wrote:I was messing with one of the Plug ins and was had Pitch Change.I tinkered with it a bit but it seemed to Change the Key

I think the problem here is about "music theory".
"Pitch Change" does exactly what it says - it raises or lowers the pitch of the audio by an amount that you specify. For example, if you select to change the pitch UP by a major 3rd (5 semitones) then ALL pitches that are selected will be raised by 5 semitones. The effect does not analyse the frequencies present, but simply changes the pitch up or down by an "interval" that you select. Thus, if you sing a part in the key of C Major and "Pitch Change" the entire track up from C to D (2 semitones), then all pitches will be raised by 2 semitones and the processed song will play in D major.

You can work this out on a piano keyboard. For example, in C major, all notes of the scale are "white" notes (played on the white keys. However, if you transpose each note of a C Major scale op by 2 semitones, you will notice that the 3 note (E) will now land on a black note (F#) and the 7th note (B) will now become C#. You can not create proper harmony parts simply by pitch shifting the melody by a fixed amount - you would need to process notes individually so that the processed (pitch shifted) note fits with the desired chord.

Hmm.
I understand about Music Theory a little bit..amd Thanks for the reply.
Iguess what I need to be able to do is not as much change the Pich but the Frequency.
I think that it what I mean to say.I am trying to explain this the best way I can.See,on my Tape Deck Tascam 4 track I learned how to do this:I would record a Music track strait up,in it's key.
When I went to add the second track for the Vocals,I didn't want to use my original voice.It wasn't high enough to sound the way I wanted it too so what I did was Start recording again with the 1st Music Track Playing and sing on the 2nd track with it but this:Before I sang and Began to enter the Vocals,I turned the Pitch Control (that controls the speed of the tape itself that was running;it was being recorded onto a cassete) down like 25 percent or so.Now the Music would of course be slower as I am listening to it.I sang along with it with my original voice taking into account the speed and compensating as needed (like singing slowly but in my voice).
OK.when That was done I rewound the Tape to the Beginning.Before Playback I turned the Pitch Control Knob back to normal,the speed that I recorded the Music to Initially on the 1st track.Now when I played Both tracks together now at the Normal speed,the Music was Of Course was Normal;concert Pitch.The way I had recorded it.My Voice however was Higher in Frequency,thus I sounded like I was 10 years younger and was able to sing at a higher pitch.The Beauty was that I did this and changed the Sound (frequency I guess) of my voice but I was Still In Key with the Music because I had Compensated for it by singing slowly in the Slow dropped key that was there when I had the pitch down 25 percent.
Thus the Efect was like I was singing along to the Music in Key,but it sounded like I was 15 years younger with a High Pitch.I can sing fine but what the project called for needed a Higher voice.
This was an experiment at first just to see If I could do it and it was succesful.So I was just hoping that maybe I might be able to do the same thing didgitally.Maybe not.I Hope I explained what I am trying to do correctly I don't mean to confuse.It's quite simple really and the result is really cool when it works.
So any Response or thoughts on that appreciated.
Thanks again for replying.

Yes you can do that in Audacity.

With that detailed description I can tell exactly what you are wanting to do.

1) Record your first track
2) Press Ctl+D to make a duplicate of the track (this is so that we get better sound quality by not doing a double conversion on it)
3) Mute the original track
4) Select the copy and apply "Change Speed" and set it to -25% (minus 25)
5) Record the second part (track 3)
6) Select track 3 and apply "Change Speed" set to 33.33333%
7) Mute or delete track 2 and un-mute track 1
8) Play back track 1 and track 3 together.

Ok stevethefiddle I think I understand! Thanks a lot! I'm still in the Dark to a degree though.
After Checking a few times I see that the Default Speed is set to 0.000 before you make any adjustments.It took me a few to find How to change speed..It was In the Effects Pull Down Menu! OK so when I did what you said I Dropped it down to 25%. I then recorded Track 3 (the track I wantyed to change).When I was done and then I unmuted The 1st track and Muted the Copy and then selected track 3 to Change the Speed.I couldn't get it to goto 33.3333 it would only goto 33.896.I couldn't get 33.333.It seems to be on time though.Here's a couple of questions:
I first said I wanted to gow down to 25%.Well what If I didn't want that Much of a dramatic Frequency change? I tried to go down to like 15 or 20 percent instead odf 25 and the result was disater;it wasn't in time,I was ahead of the Prompt for me to repeat the numbers.I hope you understand what I mean.25% is cool but It's a little Chimpmunk..it doesn't sound like reality..more like a Cartoon.I love it thopugh I just wonder if I can bring the Frequency of the voice up but not so dramatic.I wouldn't think that 25% is the only way it can work so My guess is that it would have something to do with the Speed you Originally dropped it down to and the speed you are bringiong it up to after.Like I said 25% does the Effect but it's a little too Dramatic of a change so I am open to suggestions.The Timing is off when I use anything other than 25% when I play it back.
My 2nd Question is yes I can Do 1 and 3 or whatever But let's say that I want 3 tracks of Music (different instruments,maybe different vocals as well like Back ups).How Would I select all 3 tracks to Slow them down before I add the Track that will have the changhe effect?I only know how to select the One.
I hope I'm not confusing..I am close to figuring this out.
I am wondering as well if I can successfully select All 3 Music tracks to slow them down and add the Changed Voice,Well let's say I wanted to add another voice and change that too!
Onre thing at a time,I am getting ahead of myself here Sorry.
So That's the situation.I just want to know how to use different percentages other than 25 and still stay in time and also how to select more than one track before adding the one Track.
Thanks again.

Oh By the way I may have confused you about something.When I read my Post a moment ago I noticed I may have deleted some of the message because I had to fix it.
What I meant by My 3rd track being "Ahead of the Numbers" was that in Track one there was no Music,I was experimenting by asking myself to repeat After me 1,2,3,4,etc. and Allocating the time for my response that would be on Track 3 (the changed Voice).I was right on time with 25% when I repeated the Numbers when I was at 25% but when I tried 20 or 15 percent I was Too Fast ..or ahead of track one.
I hope that clears that up I didn't want to confuse you you have been a big help.
Thanks again and I'll keep checking for a relpy.
Almost there!
Thanks again

SKing14 wrote:I couldn't get it to goto 33.3333 it would only goto 33.896.

Click on the number, delete it and type in 33.3333333 (I'm not sure how many decimal places it will take notice of, but it's quite a few). Typing in the numbers is much more accurate than using the slider.

The speed change can be a bit confusing to work out - it is based on the idea of slowing down a vinyl record on a turntable (hence the presets for 33 1/3, 45 and 78).
To make a record play at half speed you need to change the speed by -50% (the minus indicates that it is 50% slower) (50% slower is half as fast = half speed)
To make it play at double speed you need to increase the speed by 100% (100% faster is twice as fast = double speed)

That's simple enough to work out for half speed and double speed, but next you will ask me how to work it out for a 10% or 15% change.

OK, so lets say we reduce the speed by 12%
The original length of our recording is 100%, so if we reduce this by 12% we might be tempted to think that the result will be 112 seconds long. That is incorrect !
Let's go back to the idea of a record turntable.

• The original speed of the turntable is 100%
• If we slow the turntable down by 12%, the turntable is now rotating at 88% of the original speed (100 - 12 = 88)
• The length of the original was 100%, but now that we have slowed the turntable speed down to 88% of the original speed, the new length will be 100/88 x the original length.
• 100/88 = 113.636363636 so the slowed down track will be 113.636% longer than the original.

Now for speeding it back up again.

• Let us imagine that the original speed of the turntable was 100 rpm (100 rotations per minute - a bit fast for a turntable, but never mind, it makes the maths easier)
• We slowed the turntable down by 12% so that the turntable was now spinning at 100-12 rpm = 88rpm.
• As far as the "Change Speed" effect is concerned, the current speed is always 100%, so 88rpm is now 100%.
• We now want to speed the turntable up so that it is spinning at 100rpm again so we need to increase the speed to 100/88 x faster.
• As we worked out on our calculator before, 100/88=113.63636363 which is 13.636363636% more than 100%
• To get back to our original speed we therefore need to increase the speed by 13.636...%

Let's work some examples:

We slow the track down by 10%, (Change Speed set to -10%), how much do we need to speed it up by to make it the same?
The new length = 100/(100-10)
=100/90
=1.111111...
(multiply by 100 to get it as a %)
=111.111...%

To change the speed back to normal we need to increase the speed by 11.1111%
______________________________________
Another example:
We slow the track down by 15% (-15)
New length = 100/(100-15)
=100/85
=1.176470588
=117.6470588%

To get back to our original 100% we need to increase the speed by 17.6470588 %
______________________________________
Another example:
We slow the track down by 18% (-18)
New length = 100/(100-18)
= 1.219512195
= 121.9512195%

To get back to the original speed, change the speed by +21.9512195%

Man I just wrote a whole respone and it didn't get posted it asked me to Login!I lost a Post that Took me 20 minutes to write!Why did it Log me off?
Ok then,Wow.Let me see if I can recap what just took me a half hour to type for nothing..
I am getting the hang of it but I realized that you have to record something before you can change it.
I recorded a bit and then went to change speed.I changed the Number to 33.3333 .You can't start from there though I found out because then if you go down in percentage from 0 to negative whatever the result when trying to bring it back is Way fast.So I had to (after I recorded) set it to 0.000 .Then drop the % down.I hope that it did change to 33.333 though to default but when you start Audacity it is set to 0.000.
So I have been doing it and I believe what you were saying as a formula for calculating the speed is Divide 100 by the number that the percent was subtracted from and then Multiply the result by 100 giving you the percent you need to bring it back to normal speed.
The Problem is that with the slider it won't give me the correct numbers I get from doing the Math.
It gets close most of the time but when I tried to drop it to 10 percent after trying to add a 3rd voice it was a whole percent off either way.Like i was trying to get 11.111 bit it would only give me 10.somthing or 12. something.It wouldn't stop at 11.
So do I need to type in the exact number or take the closest one!
That seems to be the biggest problem.
I have figured out how to select multiple tracks as well.See my second thing is I wanted to add a 3rd Voice with it changed as well!A Different percent that Both of the 1st and 2nd tracks so that is sounds like 3 different people of different pitch voices are talking together.
I think I've got the Idea but I'm still off.
I need to know what to do with the Numbers and the Formula and what and what I can't change
Thanks for the help.Anything you can think of I appreciate!
Thanks again.I'll be looking for a reply.Whenever you can if you have the time.
Thanks
ez...