A pitch shifter moves every note of a recording up or down by the same interval while the speed stays the same. Load an audio file above, turn the Shift knob up to 24 semitones either way, fine-tune in cents, press the footswitch to compare with the original, and download MP3 or WAV. Nothing is uploaded.
Pitch Shift Pedal
Load audio, turn the Shift knob, press the footswitch to compare, download.
Processed in your browser. Your audio is never uploaded.
Start here: load an audio file from your device.
File: none yet
The waveform appears here.
0 semitones (no shift)Turn Shift or tap a quick setting.
Footswitch: effect on, or bypass to hear the original at the same position.
Download
Load a file first. The download gets the shift in its name; speed and length stay the same.
More options dry/wet mix, formants, file format
For voices: keeps the vowel colour, so shifted singing sounds less like a chipmunk or a giant. Leave it off for instruments and full songs.
By default the download matches your file: MP3 for compressed files, WAV for WAV and FLAC. The sample rate is kept.
Related tools
How to use the pitch shifter
- Load audio. Choose or drop an MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG or FLAC file, or a video, whose sound is used.
- Turn Shift. Drag the knob, use the arrow keys, press −1 / +1, or tap a quick setting: octave, fifth or fourth, up or down. The Fine knob adds ±50 cents.
- Compare. Press Play, then the footswitch: the red light means the effect is on; off means bypass, the original at the same position.
- Download. The file keeps its length and gets the shift in its name, for example
riff_+7st.wav.
More options holds the dry/wet mix, formant correction and the file format (WAV, or MP3 at 128 to 320 kbps).
What a pitch shifter does: three methods
Every pitch shift multiplies all frequencies by 2n/12, where n is the number of semitones. The methods differ in how they deal with time:
| Method | How it works | Speed | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varispeed (resampling) | Plays the sound faster or slower, like a record or tape at the wrong speed | Changes with the pitch | Clean, but a song at +12 plays twice as fast |
| Phase vocoder (this tool) | Cuts the sound into overlapping FFT frames, stretches it in time, then resamples it | Stays the same | Smooth on music and chords; drums can soften slightly on big shifts |
| Granular / time-domain | Repeats or skips tiny grains of the waveform and crossfades them | Stays the same | Fast, fine on single voices; can warble or flutter on chords |
Varispeed is what the linked mode of the pitch and tempo changer copies; pitch vs tempo explains why the two are tied in a plain speed change. This page keeps the tempo, so a 3:20 song still lasts 3:20.
Harmonies, octave doubling and detune
The dry/wet mix turns the pitch shifter into a harmonizer. At 100 % you hear only the shifted sound. At 50/50 the file is exactly half original plus half shifted, sample for sample, so a melody and its copy a fifth higher play together.
| Shift | Interval | Frequency ratio | A4 440 Hz becomes | Use at 50/50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +12 | octave | ×2.0000 | 880.00 Hz | Octave doubling: a fuller lead line or a brighter synth |
| +7 | perfect fifth | ×1.4983 | 659.26 Hz | Power-chord harmony; fits every note of a song |
| +5 | perfect fourth | ×1.3348 | 587.33 Hz | Harmony a fourth above; fits almost every note |
| +4 | major third | ×1.2599 | 554.37 Hz | Sweet harmony on some notes; clashes on others (see below) |
| −12 | octave | ×0.5000 | 220.00 Hz | Octave below: thicker bass, darker vocal double |
| ±10 cents | detune | ×1.0058 / ×0.9942 | 442.55 / 437.47 Hz | Chorus-like double-tracking (Fine knob + 50/50 mix) |
Why a third can clash: a pitch shifter moves every note by the same distance, but in a key the third above a note is sometimes major (4 semitones) and sometimes minor (3). Octaves and fifths always fit, which is why they are the classic pedal settings; the circle of fifths shows the pattern. To work out another interval, use the semitone calculator, or look up how many semitones to change key.
Formants: why big shifts sound like chipmunks
A voice has two parts: the notes (pitch) and resonances of the throat and mouth (formants) that make an “ah” sound like “ah”. A plain pitch shift moves both, so +5 semitones sounds smaller and −5 sounds bigger than any real singer. Formant correction keeps the resonances where they were and moves only the notes.
In our test on a synthetic vowel shifted +5 semitones, the spectral envelope moved 8.9 dB away from the original without correction and only 2.3 dB with it. Use it for vocals, not for full songs or instruments. It is not pitch correction: tuning each note to the nearest semitone is a different job, covered in pitch correction software. Singers can read the pitch shifter guide for singers.
Hardware pedals vs offline shifting: latency
A pedal or plug-in has to answer while you play, so it works on very short slices of sound: every extra millisecond of analysis is a millisecond of delay you feel under your fingers. That forces short windows and faster, rougher methods on chords.
An offline pitch shifter sees the whole file, so it can use long windows (85 ms frames here, 43 ms with formant correction) and align the result exactly: the download starts on the same sample as the original and has the same length. There is no latency to compensate when you put it back in a DAW. The same shift in an editor takes more steps: see Audacity or GarageBand.
Which tool should you use?
| Tool | Use it when | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch shifter (this page) | You want an effect: shift, harmony or octave blend, formants | MP3 or WAV |
| Online key changer | You think in key names, not semitones | MP3 or WAV |
| Audio pitch changer | You want a waveform editor with a loop | MP3 or WAV |
| Video pitch changer | You need the video back | Video |
| YouTube pitch changer | The song plays on YouTube and you have no file | Live playback |
| Major to minor converter | You want a minor version: a pitch shift cannot do that | Chords and notes |
Questions about pitch shifting
What is pitch shifting?
Pitch shifting raises or lowers every note of a sound by the same interval. A good pitch shifter keeps the speed and length the same; a plain speed change (varispeed) moves pitch and tempo together.
How far can I shift the pitch?
Up to 24 semitones up or down, which is two octaves, plus ±50 cents. Up to about ±3 semitones sounds natural on full songs; larger shifts are for effects, octaves and sound design.
Does the pitch shifter change the speed?
No. The tempo and the length stay the same. In our tests every downloaded file had exactly the same number of samples as the original.
How do I make a harmony with a pitch shifter?
Set +7 (a fifth) or +12 (an octave), then open More options and choose the 50/50 blend. The download then contains the original and the shifted copy together, like a harmony pedal.
Is the pitch shifter free, and is my audio uploaded?
It is free with no sign-up, and your audio never leaves your device. The browser does all the processing, so there is no upload, watermark or daily limit.
What is the difference between a key change and a pitch shift?
They are the same operation described in two ways: a pitch shift counts semitones, a key change names the keys. Read key change vs pitch change for when each word fits.
Tested: what we measured
- 13 downloaded files re-measured, from −24 to +24 semitones and ±50 cents: pitch within 0.1 cent of the target (440 Hz −24 → 110.00 Hz, +24 → 1,760.00 Hz), length identical to the sample.
- Dry/wet mix at 50 %, 25 % and 0 %: the file matched original × dry + shifted × wet within 2 steps of 16-bit audio.
- Formant correction on a synthetic vowel at +5 semitones: envelope error 8.9 dB → 2.3 dB.
- A 3-minute song starts playing shifted in 0.7 s; the whole file is ready in about 4 s on a desktop computer.
Last updated 27 September 2026 by Mayer. More tools on the online pitch changer home page; how we test: how it works.