Hi Jmone -

It'd be nice to be able to say "Each increment is a semitone" and in very rough terms that's about right... but not if you're a concert pianist.

If we assume that we don't have to tune our videos to the rest of the orchestra, let's call it a semitone.

If I put a recording of a pure A (440Hz) tone and shift the pitch one notch I get something akin to A#.

If I shift it 6 notches (end of the scale), in theory, I'd get a D#... but by then I'd be seriously out of tune with the rest of the orchestra.

Let's call each notch a rough semitone

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony, If each "notch" is a Semitone then this control is quite "coarse" for pitch shifting to correct the audio for Video Speed Up / Down. I know that other packages have a "Semitone" and then a file tune "Cent" adjustment as well.

From what I understand each the formula for "semitone -> % Change" is "2^(#ofSemitones/12)*100-100" so it looks like this

Step % Change
-6 -29.29
-5 -25.08
-4 -20.63
-3 -15.91
-2 -10.91
-1 -5.61
0 100.00
1 5.95
2 12.25
3 18.92
4 25.99
5 33.48
6 41.42

...and here are some potential Speed Up / Speed down pitch changes that would be needed

Original --> New = % Change
24 --> 25 = -4.17
25 --> 24 = 4.00
24 --> 30 = -25.00
30 --> 24 = 20.00
25 --> 30 = -20.00
30 --> 25 = 16.67

Note: I may have my polarities around the wrong way in either or both the tables above! (I've not checked it yet).

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I'll concur with Tony, a semitone, but I actually think it is rather accurate. What one does for the "quality" of the FFT comes to play.

220Hz, +6 pitch change in WaveEditor, yields 311.6Hz wave when produced in PD, +41.6%
440Hz, -6 pitch change in WaveEditor, yields 311.6Hz wave when produced in PD, -29.2%

appears to agree with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies and jmone math, a semitone.

Again, to me another one of these cases that I wish they didn't have dummy sliders and allowed one to enter a number for real functionality. My same comments here with other audio controls, http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/26430.page

Jeff

It is interested that on the Video Side you can be extremely accurate as you have a couple of options for changing Video Speed in Power Tools:
1) Slider for easy and rough adjustment (accurate to 0.1x) and
2) Ability to enter an exact length that is spot on and results in frame accurate fps speed up / down (sure you have to calculate this new time yourself but that is not hard).

But without similar fine control on pitch shifting you will always be out a "bit" (and the "bit" will vary depending how far you are away from a whole semitone).

That said, I'd note two things:
- From my searching few people seem to want (or have complained about a lack of) this level of control anyway
- Pitch shifting creates audio artefacts anyway than many would not like.

Thanks for the feedback!
Nathan PD 64 Bit-Win10 64 Bit-32GB RAM-80TB HDD
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Canon HV20-HDV 25Mbps 16:9 1440x1080/25p MPEG

Quote: That said, I'd note two things:
- From my searching few people seem to want (or have complained about a lack of) this level of control anyway
- Pitch shifting creates audio artefacts anyway than many would not like.

The "Professional" AudioDirector gives you the input box in addition to the slider, they just limit the input to integers so no real benefit.

After a initial review and lack of some simple detailed controls, I take any audio editing other than simple volume controls to a audio editor as for me it was easier. My typical need is cleaning up audio be removing a voice, removing background noise, detailed FFT and removal of a very narrow frequency range, a local effect..... I've never adjusted pitch so it was worth a look. I found it had a lot of the tools, just lack of controls one would expect in a "Professional" offering which made successful application difficult. Maybe AudioDirector4 is much better, when a third generation AudioDirector3 failed to hit the mark for my needs, I never adopted. Maybe the next generation, AD5 would be worth another look.

Jeff

Hi Nathan & Jeff -

I found the flaw in my previous comment about inaccuracy in the semitone step. I was basing that on the playback in WE's preview, which differs marginally from the saved/produced file.

I still can't get that "D#" to align with any of my guitar tuners, keyboards or ears! I guess that's quite irrelevant to Nathan's original question anyway.

The pitch controls in ADR4 are effectively the same as WE...



Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony.

FYI - Woops - I had a slight typo in the constant in the formula, so have updated it with the correct formula using 2^(#ofSemitones/12) instead of the constant 1.0594.....

Edit: Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_root_of_two
PD 64 Bit-Win10 64 Bit-32GB RAM-80TB HDD
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Pana HS700-28Mbps 1080/50p AVC (High@L4.2)
Canon HV20-HDV 25Mbps 16:9 1440x1080/25p MPEG

I am also not too enthusiastic about these sliders either.

I think the only reason why most people aren't mentioning this is because we push the software more than others. (We are more demanding- not to disparage or put down others, we each use the software for our own needs.)

Or else we are just a bunch of picky bastids! Whichever moniker you prefer.

Rob
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