level out pitch

[Michael Z.]

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.

[kozikowski]

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- ... -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

[Michael Z.]

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?

[steve]

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?

[Michael Z.]

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.

[steve]

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

[kozikowski]

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.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 49&t=64936

Koz

[DVDdoug]

Auto-Tune or Melodyne 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.

[kozikowski]

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

[Michael Z.]

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.