Changing pitch and temp in 3.2.3

I am a total audacity novice. I recorded a piano accompaniment from 8notes.com (Proverai di che fiere saette) using Windows Direct Sound as the host. I would like to convert the pitch from C major to Bb major (i.e., baroque tuning) and reduce the tempo from 150 to 130 and 110 for practice purposes.

So first, I’m mystified because audacity thinks that the starting pitch is B major, which is a little weird – the key signature indicates it’s clearly written in C major and my pitch sense, though not perfect, tells me I’m singing in C-major. I can deal with this (sort of), but when I try to change the pitch to Bb, the progress indicator stops 1/2 way through the process and the recording disappears. It is recoverable using Ctrl Z. The same thing happens when I try to change the tempo. I have seen postings for this for 3.2.1 but I honestly couldn’t follow the troubleshooting steps and I don’t know how to troubleshoot it myself.

The file is 179MB. Audacity is installed on the C drive, which has 31.6GB free. I have tried saving the recording on the 3 different drives I use for files and the same thing happens on all 3 drives. The D drive (computer hard drive) has 165GB free, the E drive (external hard drive) has 1.6TB free, and the G drive (second external hard drive) has 144GB free, so there should be plenty of space regardless of where the temp file sits, and plenty of space for saving on any of the storage drives. I am not getting any kind of out of space message.

Please help and give me very specific, understandable troubleshooting guidance or a solution that a software moron can understand.

So first, I’m mystified because audacity thinks that the starting pitch is B major, which is a little weird – the key signature indicates it’s clearly written in C major

Don’t worry about that. Audacity is just changing by a factor or percentage. A change of two notes or two half-steps is the same no matter what notes you enter.

It’s also possible that the recording is off-pitch and doesn’t match the standard scale. Not super-common but it happens and in that case you’ll have to fixe that if you want to play-along.

The file is 179MB. Audacity is installed on the C drive, which has 31.6GB free. I have tried saving the recording on the 3 different drives I use for files

You didn’t say what the problem is, but the AUP3 database file has some drive requirements. I don’t remember exactly but I THINK it doesn’t work on a FAT32 drive.

But you should be able to export an audio file (WAV, FLAC, MP3, etc.) anywhere and you should be able to temporarily copy the AUP file from the C drive to another drive (and you’ll probably have to copy it back before opening it.)

…If you do a basic Change Speed effect you can bring down the pitch and slow it down at the same time. The Change Speed effect is “simple” and free of side effects (except for the pitch change). …I may have this wrong but it looks like two half-steps is about -10.9% and that would bring the tempo almost-down to 130 BPM. If it’s not enough you can use the Change Tempo effect.

This shouldn’t be happening. Are you able to export the track ? I would like to see your .aup3 project file (zipped).

Try using the Sliding Stretch. Enter the Tempo Change and the Pitch Shift - use the same numbers for Initial and Final values. If Audacity hangs for some reason, try selecting a smaller section of audio (also, see my comment above).