Do you need to transpose the pitch of a song in your iTunes library? Then this post is for you! Be forewarned, though. You can make the song sound really bad by doing this, but if you stay within one or two half-steps (one or two clicks of the slider in GarageBand), you can get a song into a more playable (or singable) key.
If you recorded the song yourself, with your own “real instrument” or with a microphone, then GarageBand will transpose the key without any special intervention. The track will be purple in color, and you can just edit the track. But if the track is orange, you need to follow the steps below to transpose the song.
First, create a new song in GarageBand
Open GarageBand and create a new song. Command-N will create a new song, too.
Next, drag the song you want to transpose from iTunes into GarageBand
When you drop the song into GarageBand, it will create a track and color it orange. This means that it is an imported song. (In GarageBand a recorded song is purple).
Next, click in the track region to see the audio graph.
Here’s the trick! Press control-option-G and click the track again.
This trick is not documented in the help file for GarageBand, but it is a great tip for changing an imported track from orange to purple, making it available for more editing options.
Now we Edit the Track
Press the Show Editor button (or press Command-E).
The Show Editor button is highlighted in blue above.
Here’s how the Editor looks at this point:
Now, click the box for “Follow Tempo & Pitch”
Slide to Your Heart’s Content
But don’t get crazy. You can make the song sound pretty bad. If you want crazy vibrato or if you don’t mind the change in tempo, by all means, move the slider all the way to -12 or +12. A more reasonable amount might be (+ or -) 2.
There you have it. Your song has been transposed for you. It’s really amazing.
Press Play and Listen to your Transposed Song
That’s It, Take Care!
That’s all there is to it. Of course, this should be used with great care. The tempo and pitch are both changed. This might just be the gig-saving trick to get everybody playing in a new key. Let me know how you used this trick. Best wishes!
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
Works like a charm… exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much!
This is exactly what I was looking for! thanks, -RV
thanks alot! it works perfect
for our band, this was perfect! Thanks a million!
I don’t have a “follow tempo & pitch” check box! What version of GarageBand are you using? (Mine is GarageBand ‘08 4.1.2)
David: The example in this post is from iLife ‘08, so it should be the same as yours.
You must click on a track and then edit it (by pressing Command-E or by hitting the Edit Track button). When you are editing a track, the option to following pitch will appear. Since you are trying to edit an imported track, make sure it is purple (not blue) by pressing control-option-G as noted above.
Does this help?
I have upgraded to iLife ‘09 since writing this post, but it works the same way. The editing window looks different, but there is still a way to follow pitch.
We absolutely needed to transpose a key because the song was too low. This is the best! How do you figure it out?
You’re a lifesaver dude! Thanks for the heads up. It works great!
Wow this is amazing thanks!
I was looking for this functionality in August and was trying to find it in Garage Band 4, but I could not find it. (I found the steps for the purple files, but not the orange ones and there was no easy way to convert orange into purple.) Thanks for showing us this!!
Too bad I did not read this in August, instead, I ended up paying $50 for the software ‘Transcribe!’ to transpose songs to learn. (Still, ‘Transcribe!’ is streamlined to do what it does, and do it well, so it’s not money lost. )
OMG! You are a life-saver!!! Thank you so much!
Thanks for the great advice, it is just amazing the possibilities that this program offers [as long as there is somebody willing to explore beyond the limits]
I’m getting the track to go purple but when I change the Key it just doesn’t change. I’m in Garage Band 09.
Can you help please?
Thanks
Thats wat am talkn bout, thanx much love
I used this to convert a song from Coldplay from the original A-flat to G for practice.
What is actually happening when you press ctrl-alt-G?
It seems like it’s some sort of secretly hidden feature or something like that.
I love you so much!! this is going to help me with tons of work for my students!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU …THANK YOU….. THANK YOU……..
Thank you, thank you thank you! There is a song I’ve been trying to sing for years, but it’s simply too high for me. They don’t sell it in any other key, and I’ve been trying to transpose it using other means, but the quality was just so poor using any other software.
I used the help query in GB, but that was of absolutely no help. I had no clue about the orange/purple conversion until I Googled it.
This was exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks again!
Sweet! You’re a lifesaver!
AWESOME!!!! I just found this just in time to transpose a song for an audition later this week. I have a sore throat and was so worried I wouldn’t be able to sing it but now I transposed it down by -1 and its made all the difference. Thank you so much!
A little bit of advice.
If you are using musical typing make sure you have it switched off when you try to do this.
Doesn’t work otherwise.
peace,
mskm
That’s amazing. Just what I wanted, thank you sooooooo much! X
Thank you for this lesson!, I was really looking for such information!
By the way …
do you know how to convert a purple track to orange? that is, to convert a “real instrument recording” to an “audio file”
I also would like to know also how to change a “blue track” to an “orange track”.
I need this because sometimes if you have more than two tracks and you want to speed up some of them in different parts, then is a complete mess …
Thanks
In the last post I said
“I need this because sometimes if you have more than two tracks and you want to speed up some of them in different parts, then is a complete mess …”
because when you turn a track to purple, you can transpose it but also change the tempo, and so slow down or speed up a track.
OH great thank you so much for the lesson.
very helpful!
Now I have another question:
how do you lower a high pitch in a voice recording ?
THIS SAVED MY LIFE!
Just the info I needed. Precisely explained. Man, you are welcome in my house any time.
Many many thanks.
this is not working for me i press ctrl option g and the computer makes a noise and nothin happens
YOU SAVED MY LIFE, THANK YOU!
Wow! This was easy…thanks so much!
thank you so much for this!
This is helpful. I wanna give you a hug right now. hahaha. Thank you so much!!!!
David -
Thanks a bunch! You and your GarageBand rock! (Pun definitely intended.)
Changed the key on a soundtrack for our church choir. We were all singing DEEP bass. But, now we got it. This is great and quality isn’t too bad.
Thanks everyone for your comments! Keep them coming. And keep the music flowing!
Thank you SO much! Worked like a charm!
This tip worked wonderfully and saved my project. I observed that after transposing a tune two steps up, its tempo became slightly faster as you warned. The difference between before and after is so small so that the tempo does not increase a whole number. (146 -> 146.2 or something) This does not cause any problem while singing alone with a transposed tune but is enough to make a precise cut and paste work impossible.
I think that this is a simple trick to maintain quality of transposed tunes. In old days, playing an LP faster made its pitch higher.
Does Logic Studio or Logic Express have a function to transpose and maintain its pitch?
this is great!! thanks for the great tip. but what if i want to transpose the key by half only?
thank you, hear from you soon
practice tan: the transposition is in half-steps, so each “click” up or down is only one semitone away from the next. it all works out just as you would expect. happy transposing!
That’s great! Thank you so much – saved my voice!
Thanks for the help! This is awesome. So is there a way to slow the tempo and not change the pitch?
David Your amazing