Is it possible to adjust the pitch of streamed music?

[DC-Choppah]

While I am all set up to adjust the pitch of CDs, and tapes, and wav files loaded into Protools, these days so much music access is from online streaming from the cloud. I find myself playing along with streamed music to learn tunes, and to share with other folks to learn, but with no way to adjust the intonation to match the real instruments (which are in tune).

So is there a good way to access streaming music and adjust the pitch on the fly from the PC?

I was hoping for something that worked directly with the sound interface (I use an Avid/M-Audio Ultra 8r interface) so that it would work with any software source of music. I think it is just a matter of adjusting the sample rate? Just like adjusting the speed of the turntable to match the pitch, or the speed of the motor in the tape deck. Is this possible?

[Pete Kaine]

Ok, I've not tried this but its probably worth a punt if the are no better suggestions.

Foobar2000 will stream audio and it'll take VST plugins via a wrapper solution.

So it might be possible to stream audio and then load a plugin like "Pitchwheel" (or any other pitch tool of your choice) to make the change. No idea if it'd work, but I can't think of anything better right now!

Oh... VLC I think has pitching ability built in. Just not sure if it'll work on a live stream.

[Exalted Wombat]

Merely changing sample rate would change pitch AND speed. If you wanted it higher in pitch (and therefore faster) it would require accessing streamed data that hadn't arrived on your computer yet!

True pitch-shift functions in a wav editor can, however, be monitored in real-time. There seems no conceptual problem in buffering a little of the streamed audio and treating it in the same way as a saved wav file.

CD players with pitch-shift are available, here's one:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul03/a ... mcdgt1.asp

(slowing down playback while maintaining pitch is only the flip-side of changing pitch while maintaining tempo)

If exactly what you want is out there, I'm sure we'll hear about it soon!

[Gerhard Westphalen]

A while ago I was playing with altering pitches for a song I was working on. I had one plugin which could change pitch but I can't remember what it was. It was a plugin for creating harmonies I think. I believe Uhe has a plugin in their Uhbik package that can transpose. The granular pitch shifter. You'd just need to get the streamed music to go through your DAW. If its too difficult to do in you computer you could connect an output of your interface into an input but then you'd have to be careful to avoid feedback.

[DC-Choppah]

Yes, we have one of those. It's great. It can play a CD and adjust pitch and time independently. Wonderful little gadget. There is nothing better for learning tunes than this where you can slow it down but keep it in pitch.

But if the music is only on a streamed audio file, you can't get it to CD. And it just seems that more and more folks are sharing music via streamed audio to learn. But man, it's out of tune usually!

[Exalted Wombat]

Yes, we have one of those. It's great. It can play a CD and adjust pitch and time independently. Wonderful little gadget. There is nothing better for learning tunes than this where you can slow it down but keep it in pitch.

But if the music is only on a streamed audio file, you can't get it to CD. And it just seems that more and more folks are sharing music via streamed audio to learn. But man, it's out of tune usually!

I guess if you're going to play the music repeatedly for learning, it's not too much extra work to capture it to a file on your computer, after which any of the usual slow-down techniques can be used (isn't there even one in Windows Media player?). It may take a little ingenuity to record streamed audio, but ultimately anything that comes out of your speakers can be recorded one way or another!

[DC-Choppah]

Thanks for that obvious (hind sight) tip. Yes I can just record the audio from the PC. My Mackie mixer has a little button called 'send to mix' and I can send them main PC output back to the mix and just record it in ProTools. I do lose a bit of mojo though.

I mean, it's just another example of how something that is trivial in the analog world (turn knob) takes 10 minutes and 25 steps in the digital world.

And I have no idea why so much streamed music is out of tune?!?

I still would love a little knob on my cloud player called 'pitch adjust'.

[DC-Choppah]

I just read your post again. Are you saying I don't need to record first? I can insert a plugin to change the pitch? That sounds much better. Less loss of mojo.

Getting the streamed audio back into ProTools is one little button. Done. OK, so now I just need a plugin. Hmmm?

[DC-Choppah]

Yes, for the stuff I need to give to people to learn and for seriously hard stuff and transcriptions I will put it on CD and use the CD equipment that is good at this. Thanks for the (hind sight) obvious tip. But for the more casual, 'I want to learn that lick' kind of thing, it would be great to be able to adjust the pitch of the stream just because there is so much music available that way.