Free online tool

Lower the Pitch of a Song

Lower the pitch of a song in your browser by slowing it. Exact speed by semitone, when a speed-linked pitch drop works and when you need a DAW. Free MP3 export.

Open the free editor: upload MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG or FLAC, adjust speed, reverb, bass, tone, width and space, then export MP3 or a ZIP of many tracks. Everything runs in your browser.

You can lower the pitch of a song with the editor above, and it is worth being exact about how. Pitch in this tool is linked to speed. Slide Speed below 1.00x with Preserve pitch off and the pitch drops along with the tempo. There is no separate pitch control and no way to lower the key while keeping the song at its original length. For many purposes that is fine, for some it is a deal-breaker, and this page is about telling those apart before you spend time on it.

If depth is the goal and a slower tempo is welcome, the make a song slower and deeper page is the practical guide. If you want the opposite, slower but in the original key, read Preserve pitch. For the full behaviour of the slider, see the speed control page.

Why pitch and speed are tied together

The editor changes pitch by changing playback rate. When a recording is played at 0.84x, every waveform in it takes longer to complete, so every frequency is multiplied by 0.84. That is a drop of about 3 semitones, applied to everything equally: the vocal, the bass, the hi-hats, the room sound baked into the recording. The tempo drops by the same factor, so a 120 BPM song becomes a song at about 101 BPM.

This is the same thing a turntable or tape machine does, and it is the reason the slowed sound and the deeper sound always arrive together in slowed + reverb edits. The two are one operation.

Changing pitch while keeping tempo, or tempo while keeping pitch, requires splitting them apart. Preserve pitch does one half of that: it holds the pitch while the tempo changes, using the browser's time-stretch. The other half, changing pitch while holding tempo, is a pitch shifter, and this editor does not include one.

Speed to semitone reference

With Preserve pitch off. Each row is the speed that gives an approximately whole number of semitones.

The slider is continuous, so you can set any value in between. If you want a precise number of semitones, use the speed in the table; the values are rounded to two decimals, so expect a few cents of error either way.

When a speed-linked pitch drop is fine

Slowed edits. The entire slowed + reverb style depends on pitch and tempo falling together. Here the link is a feature.

Deeper versions for listening. If you simply want a song to sound lower and heavier, and a slightly slower tempo is acceptable or even welcome, the link does not matter.

Checking a key for a cover. A singer wondering whether a song sits better two semitones down can set 0.89x and find out. The tempo is slightly off but the key question is answered.

Mood work for video. Background audio for a montage or an intro does not need to hold the original BPM.

Sound design. Dropping drums or vocal chops an octave at 0.50x for texture is a classic move, and the stretched length is often part of the appeal.

When it is not fine

Karaoke and backing tracks in a new key. If you need the song two semitones down at the original tempo so you can sing along to a video or a click, a speed-linked drop will drift against your reference. You need a pitch shifter.

DJ sets with tempo matching. Changing pitch without touching BPM is a key-lock feature. This editor does not have it.

Matching to another recording. Layering a lowered track over a second track that stays at the original tempo will fall out of sync within a bar.

Precise transposition for study. If you are learning a part and need it in a different key at the same speed, this tool cannot do that. It can preview the opposite: same key, different speed, with Preserve pitch on. Preserve pitch changes the live preview only; exported files keep the speed-linked pitch.

Workarounds

There is no hidden mode that changes pitch alone. These are honest options.

1. Accept the tempo change. For many uses the tempo shift at one or two semitones is small. At 0.94x a 100 BPM song becomes 94 BPM. Decide whether that is a problem before ruling the tool out.
2. Lower pitch here, fix tempo elsewhere. Export the lowered MP3, then time-stretch it back to the original length in a DAW or with Audacity's Change Tempo effect. Two stages of processing cost some quality, so start from a good source.
3. Use a DAW with a pitch shifter from the start. Audacity's Change Pitch, or the pitch shifting in any modern DAW, lowers the key at the original tempo in one step. For release-quality results this is the right path. The Audacity comparison covers where each tool fits.
4. Reverse the problem. If your real goal is a slower song that keeps its key, you do not need a pitch shifter at all. Turn on Preserve pitch and slow it to find the speed, then make the file in Audacity with Change Tempo, because Preserve pitch changes the live preview only; exported files keep the speed-linked pitch.

How to lower the pitch here

1. Add the song. MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG or FLAC.
2. Confirm Preserve pitch is off.
3. Set Speed using the table. 0.89x for 2 semitones, 0.84x for 3, 0.79x for 4.
4. Leave Reverb at 0% if you only want the pitch change. Raise it if you want the room sound as well.
5. Optionally raise Bass a few dB and lower Tone a little. Lowering pitch moves energy downward and dulls the top, and these two shelves rebalance it.
6. Preview, compare with Dry, download the MP3.

Export is MP3 at 96 kbps and 32 kHz, encoded in the browser. Fine for social platforms, not a master. No WAV export.