Finding the key of a song.
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Posted on Aug 21, 2007 01:58 pm
Swappo
Member Since: Aug 15, 2007
If you have a backing track and don't know what key it's in is there a way for the software to know? For example, with Audacity you can change the pitch, but what if you don't know what the original pitch is?
I want to try out GSnap, but I don't know what key I was singing in.
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Aug 21, 2007 04:12 pm i don't know much about pitch correction software, but eveything i've ever seen about it says you have to tell it the notes of your melody first, right?
it shouldn't be too hard to find the melody on your guitar (instead of your voice) and from that determine the key...
Aug 22, 2007 04:57 am if you have ANY KIND of tuned instrument (keyboard, synth, guitar that is tuned with a tuner etc.) find the note you can play continuously through the whole song and it still sounds good. (subject to change though).
otherwise, match pitch with the chord progression (be a bass player) and you'll see where the key center is.
Aug 22, 2007 06:58 am i never thought of that before. interesting, but surely that can't work consistently...
just listen for the place where the song sounds most 'at rest' with the least tension. listen for where it sounds completely resolved. very often that chord will be the I chord of the key you're in. or else it'll be the relative minor (3 half steps down)
Aug 22, 2007 07:50 am ask the person that wrote it...
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Aug 22, 2007 09:03 am Many times the tonic of the first and or last chord can be a clue. I like dB's answer, but quite frankly moste of the 'authors' I have bumped into in rock and roll don't have a clue what key their composition is in. They know what frets to cover, and sometimes they know the name of the chord they are creating.
I've never used your plug. The plugs I have used will sample the relitive pitch of a note and report it in terms of frequency. A frequency chart of notes will guide you to the diferential between the pitches.
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Aug 22, 2007 11:28 am When using pitch correction tools it's most common to use the chromatic setting so you don't really need to know the key.
Dan
SwappoMember
Since: Aug 15, 2007
Aug 22, 2007 01:19 pm Quote:
ask the person that wrote it...
I'd have to hold a séance.
And I don't play any instruments and can't read music for crap. The best thing would be to stay on pitch, whihc I usually do. When I'm off it's not by much and it's often a difficult note that would be murder to do over.
I've found some success using Audacity and just playing with the semitones.
Thanks for the replies, gents.
Aug 22, 2007 05:35 pm If your at least close to the right note I would suggest Antares autotune. It works pretty well as long as your not waaay off and your not doing a bunch of crazy runs or extreme vibrato.
