Arranging for Songs Pitch-Shifted a Bit Lower/Higher than Standard

Started by WaluigiTime64, August 17, 2016, 01:58:07 PM

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WaluigiTime64

Ok, so I've encountered songs which aren't in standard pitches, either raised or lowered half a semitone. This makes arranging really annoying and I'm wondering if there are any really good methods for arranging these songs.


Here are two examples of what I'm talking about.
I'm aware that you can find normally-pitched rips of the second one, but that's not what matters.
My Arrangements (All Outdated)
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Quote from: WaluigiTime64I strive for second place and I will fight for the position.

Maelstrom

Use Audacity.
Load up the MP3, then:
effect>Change pitch.
You can adjust by fractions of a semitones.

I use Transcribe!, but it's not free or useful for everyone, but it lets you change it by cents. (100ths of a semitone)

Dekkadeci

If you want to decide which home key they have, you can post their original Youtube videos in the "What key/time signature is this song in?" thread and I or someone else with absolute(/perfect) pitch can help you out.

IMO, the start of EoSD Stage 4 is in A minor and Angry Aztec starts off by soloing on the dominant of B flat minor.

WaluigiTime64, you're not alone in finding out-of-tune VGM--here are two I've found:
IMO, this is around halfway between B minor and C minor to me (as in it's in B-C quarter-tone minor to me), but arrangers tend to lean towards B minor. Heck, the entire Final Fantasy Mystic Quest OST seems to suffer from the same out-of-tune problem.

Toby Fox pitch-bends his original .ogg's like nobody's business, so the Undertale OST is full of out-of-tune examples like these. I thought this was in C sharp minor at first, but it starts sounding like D minor towards the end...
(By pitch-bend, I mean he slows down (or maybe speeds up?) songs as necessary. Death by Glamour is in D sharp minor in-game but E minor in the OST because Toby Fox probably composed it in E minor at first, but Mettaton (EX) speaks in-game in D sharp.)

WaluigiTime64

Quote from: Maelstrom on August 17, 2016, 02:16:40 PMUse Audacity.
Load up the MP3, then:
effect>Change pitch.
You can adjust by fractions of a semitones.
I was hoping for something that wasn't Audacity, because I don't like arranging from it, but it works, and that's all that matters. Thanks!

Quote from: Dekkadeci on August 17, 2016, 10:21:01 PMIf you want to decide which home key they have, you can post their original Youtube videos in the "What key/time signature is this song in?" thread and I or someone else with absolute(/perfect) pitch can help you out.
The main problem I was having was figuring out chords. I can generally figure out what the key signature is in these sorts of songs, but if I'm having a really hard time, I'll ask. Thanks for the suggestion!
My Arrangements (All Outdated)
My Compositions (All Outdated)
Quote from: WaluigiTime64I strive for second place and I will fight for the position.

Maelstrom



Quote from: WaluigiTime64 on August 18, 2016, 12:43:12 AMI was hoping for something that wasn't Audacity, because I don't like arranging from it, but it works, and that's all that matters. Thanks!
If you want, you could just export the MP3 and use that in whatever you want

Tobbeh99

I know what you're talking about. I've encountered one myself. See if it leans a bit more towards either tonality, or if there are other arrangements which have it to a certain key. But these ones are really annoying, you get a headache when transcribing them because of each note being so dissonant. Maelstrom's tip seems really useful however, to change the pitch, you might want to try it.

here's the song I arranged:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5DP1h8jsg
Quote from: Dudeman on August 16, 2016, 06:11:42 AM
tfw you get schooled in English grammar by a guy whose first language is not English

10/10 tobbeh


WaluigiTime64

All of these suggestions work (or will work when I need to). Thanks!
My Arrangements (All Outdated)
My Compositions (All Outdated)
Quote from: WaluigiTime64I strive for second place and I will fight for the position.