Pitchshift. Translate units please?

[commanda]

Can somebody please explain exactly what is meant by "8 cents" as it applies to pitch shifting a vocal track. I use Audacity, and the pitch shift algorithm only works in terms of percent.

Thanks in advance,

Amanda

 

[WhiteStrat]

Think of cents as pennies (or percentage points). There's 100 in a half step. So between Db and D there are 100 cents. Cents are used to fine tune a track that's just a bit off--as opposed to completely pitch shifting it. But if that's all you've got to work with, move it by 100 cents for each half step.

 

[commanda]

Ta.

100 cents = one semitone. That's the bit I was missing.
So, if there are 12 semitones in an octave, then a change of one semitone would be 100/12, or 8.333 percent. Taking 8 cents of that would be 0.667 %.