Pitch change in recording

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TulsaMJ
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:27 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Pitch change in recording

Post by TulsaMJ » Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:47 pm

I've started having a weird problem - I've used Audacity for years with an old Tascam USB audio interface (US-428) to record into various computers - my current computer being a fairly recent-vintage Windows 10 machine. Last week I attempted to record several minutes of audio from my keyboard into Audacity, and on playback I found that partway through the recording, the pitch shifted down about 3/4 of a pitch (input was in the key of D, and the recording had shifted to the crack between C and C#). On another try I got the first stereo track to record correctly, but now every time I try to lay an additional audio track, the new audio is pitch-shifted down. I can reproduce this by starting a new project, recording a "D" from my Tunity app (playback plays "D"), adding a new track, recording "D" on the new track (during recording I hear the original "D" and the new one) - when I playback I hear two distinct pitches. On the current version of Audcity, the second recording shows a bunch of "dropout points" after it is recorded. I tried all kinds of things to fix it:
  • Toyed with various controls in Audacity
  • Plugged USB cable into a different USB port
  • Checked every control on the US-428
  • Researched audio latency
  • Uninstalled unrelated but unused software
  • Ran dpclat and LatencyMon to see if they could find a latency problem (they didn't)
  • Tweaked sample rates between 44100 and 48000
  • Checked the battery in my mic direct box (!) (Hey, it was worth a shot!)
  • Uninstalled and reinstalled Audacity using "reset my preferences" (so now I'm on 2.2.2)
Nothing helps! I should mention that I have Anvil Studio installed, and I can record multiple audio tracks in that without seeing this behavior. It seems like Audacity is the only common denominator, but like I said, I've used Audacity literally for years and never seen anything like this.

Trebor
Posts: 9852
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: Pitch change in recording

Post by Trebor » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:08 pm

Windows enhancements can shift the pitch, and should be disabled ...
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 32#p317032

TulsaMJ
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:27 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Pitch change in recording

Post by TulsaMJ » Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:44 am

Well, I may have solved the problem, so wish me luck. There are no Windows Enhancements on the drivers for my device, but I did discover that the "Default Format" for the playback for the device was set to 48000 Hz somehow, when I always run in 44100 Hz. When I matched that up, the problem seems to have gone away. I'm too tired to work on recording tonight, but I'll post a follow-up here when I get back into it and do some more multitracking.

slimothycricket
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:37 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: Pitch change in recording

Post by slimothycricket » Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:40 pm

I had this problem and I found out that it only happens when there are tracks layered with different sample rates in the same window. You either have to change those before adding them or find a way to change them in audacity.

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 68941
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Pitch change in recording

Post by kozikowski » Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:40 am

Pure pitch change is pretty hard to do. But Speed Change, pitch and duration, is a snap. Just mess up the sampling rate.

Precisely defining the problem is good.

Koz

steve
Site Admin
Posts: 80752
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:43 am
Operating System: Linux *buntu

Re: Pitch change in recording

Post by steve » Sat Feb 06, 2021 12:08 pm

slimothycricket wrote:
Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:40 pm
I had this problem and I found out that it only happens when there are tracks layered with different sample rates in the same window.
Perhaps you were using an old version of Audacity. I don't see this problem with the current Audacity 2.4.2.
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

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