What's up, here's my problem: whenever I want to change the pitch of a sample, whether directly on my turntable or on softwares (FL Studio, Virtual DJ, Acoustica Mixcraft, Sonar, Audacity...), I just can't find an option that will let me change the pitch by semitones while ALSO changing the tempo. So a lot of my beats end up being somewhere between 2 keys, so trying to add instruments to them is a fucking mess. Any ideas?
Changing the pitch of a sample while still maintaning a "real" key
- Thread starter Big Thier
- Start date
MrWrenchey
New member
What on earth does tempo have to do with keys?
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
I think he's saying that he's limited in changing the pitch because the tempo changes with it.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Have you ever pitched up a sample? What happens is it sounds higher pitched right, like a "Chipmunk" effect.... And the tempo goes up as well. That's the whole reason why I'm messing with the sample's pitch in the first place. What I wanna do is, let's say I got a sample that's in E minor, 60 BPM... I want it faster, so I turn the pitch up. So my sample is now let's say 90 BPM, but the key, I have no idea what it is now. So anything I add to it will sound like crap. Get it?
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Can't you control both pitch and tempo individually?
Yes, of course, but the way I used to do it was on Virtual DJ, and I would just change the pitch and the BPM would change with it. How do I get them to the same level, individually? I hope I'm making sense.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
I really don't understand the grammar of your question, I must be honest.
I'm trying.
I'm trying.
Lol ok look here:
1. I got a sample. It's 60 BPM.
2. I want it at 90 BPM, so I use Virtual DJ to change the pitch of the sample. I turn it up until I reach my desired tempo. (Any time you change the pitch of a song, it automatically changes its tempo too, right?)
3. My sample is now 90 BPM. The problem is it's out of tune with any other instruments or samples I would add to it.
4. How can I take a sample, change it's pitch by semitones so it stays on a real key (for example: F), instead of somewhere between F and C?
1. I got a sample. It's 60 BPM.
2. I want it at 90 BPM, so I use Virtual DJ to change the pitch of the sample. I turn it up until I reach my desired tempo. (Any time you change the pitch of a song, it automatically changes its tempo too, right?)
3. My sample is now 90 BPM. The problem is it's out of tune with any other instruments or samples I would add to it.
4. How can I take a sample, change it's pitch by semitones so it stays on a real key (for example: F), instead of somewhere between F and C?
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
And this is where you have me confused. Do you even want the pitch to change to begin with?
Do you want to keep the same pitch the track already has but raise the tempo, AND JUST THE TEMPO, 30 BPM? There is software that can do that.
Do you want to keep the same pitch the track already has but raise the tempo, AND JUST THE TEMPO, 30 BPM? There is software that can do that.
MrWrenchey
New member
This is the issue I'm having.
You don't HAVE to change the tempo to change pitch, and vise versa. I mean shoot, Pro Tools has an audio suite plug-in to change pitch in a rendered way and an RTAS to do it in real time, as well as X-Form to change tempo while retaining pitch. I'm confused what the issue is here. Are you trying to just change the speed, or just change the pitch, or both?
jonny deep
Disappointing Member
What you want to do is called time-stretching. I think you are trying to make the sample faster or slower without altering the pitch, right?
You can do this in wav editing programs like Goldwave. I would think you can do it in most DAWs as well, e.g. in Cubase, it would be found in the process menu.
You can do this in wav editing programs like Goldwave. I would think you can do it in most DAWs as well, e.g. in Cubase, it would be found in the process menu.
DM60
Well-known member
So, I am not 100% sure, but when using Ableton, I can do variations of what you are saying. I can change the tempo of a song, clip (Ableton Talk), etc. Without changing pitch. I can change a pitch of a clip without changing tempo, I can change the actual timing of a clip without changing anything except the wave (non-destructive) timing of a clip.
I have toyed doing tempo manipulation/key matching in Ableton. Taken a 60 minute set and making them all 110-120 and then mixing them to to the circle of 5ths as I walk from say a C major (going clockwise) to an F (sometime using its minor compliment) so you can mix in the middle and the keys and tempo matches. I even changed the keys in some (didn't sound right, but I tried).
So, I am not sure what you want to do, but using Ableton it pretty much runs the gamut of options. Anything beyond what I described would be beyond my comprehension. Plus, what can't you drop in your samples and set them to match the key you are in? Lots of options.