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.
NOTE: If you have upgraded to iLife ‘11, see the comments beginning with the one dated November 9, 2010!
Click Here to go directly to that first comment for iLife ‘11.
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!
{ 105 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!
wow,you are so good!!!:)Thank you:)
Thanks for the help! This is awesome. So is there a way to slow the tempo and not change the pitch?
David Your amazing
Hi
I cant get my orange file to change to purple I am on garage band 08 is that why
cheers
Sonia
how do you convert the purple tracks to orange?
how do you convert a purple track to orange
Nice tip! But as you say yourself: “You can make the song sound really bad by doing this”. Please keep in mind that someone might have been working really, rally hard, night and day, putting all their creative effort into making the music sound as good as possible. Spoiling this work isn’t really a nice thing to do. And we have laws against it. Do yourself (and your students) a favor or two:
- Don’t EVER share other peoples work that you’ve been spoiling.
- Don’t teach your students to close their ears by present to them music that sounds bad.
As far as your own work, of course, feel free to play around and have fun with this great tip.
you amazing! i usually dont buy instrumentals which are 99 cents on itunes because most of the songs i like are not in my key, so i have to go to karaoke-version.com and pay a lot more so i can adjust the key. now i can just do it in garageband and pay cheap on itunes. thanks a lot!
thanks danny… just a reminder that it will sound like garbage-band instead of garageband if you get too crazy!
have fun with it.
Cindy: I’m curious as to why you would want to turn a purple track orange. Tracks that are imported are orange by default. But…
If you really must turn a purple track into an orange track, do this:
1. Export (from GarageBand) the track as a song (as an mp3, or some other format). In GarageBand ‘09: Share > Export Song to Disk…
2. Import the song into iTunes.
3. Drag the song from iTunes back into GarageBand.
It will now be magically be orange. Was that a trick question?
OH MY GOD!!!! you saved my life! i was trying to transpose a song for an audition, and…AHH THIS IS AMAZING! life saver!
MAGIC THANK YOU!
I just transposed a song successfully! Thank you! But have a question is it possible to transport the new song into my iTunes and how. Thanks a lot again!
What a great tip! I was looking to change the tempo of an imported track, and this saved me! Many thank yous friend!
You rock. Saved my day
Do you have to have a particular version of GB in order to do this? I’ve been trying the Command-Apple-G and it isn’t changing the color from orange. Thanks!
heyyyy thank you sooo much!!!! you`re rock!!!
Try Control instead of Command, that should do it
Jake,
It’s Control-Option-G, not Command-Option-G.
I did the same thing! LOL
Just a reminder… you have to click the track again after pressing control-option-G, otherwise it doesn’t change colors for you.
And what if the option “follow tempo and pitch” is not allowed?
oh, so close! got to the point you said “slide away” and it won’t slide. It won’t move off center? I just upgraded to iLife11 – could that be it? what am I missing?
Thanks!
Worked great but when I returned to iTunes same tempo. What step or steps am I missing?
Don’t do this. This sounds bad compared to the following method.
- Click your imported track in GarageBand to make it the active track.
- Click the i in the circle on the right of the interface.
- Click the details arrow at the bottom of the newly shown panel.
- Click one of the “none” boxes & change it to AUPitch.
- Click the pencil to the right of where it should now say “Manual.”
- Make sure your effect blend, smoothness & tightness is at 100%
To change a key up a whole step add +200, down -200.
Half step, 100.
Hope this helps.
Hi thanks for this help. I’ve been using this trick for a few years now, but suddenly it no longer seems to work with the most recent Garageband ‘11. Do you have any suggestions for the new platform?
Thanks for your time and consideration,
Kurt
Update – Just tried the method shared by Brian Burns and it works like a charm! Thanks for this discussion thread!
K
Brian Burns:
Thanks for the updated tip. How about writing a guest blog post? Let me know!
David
Does anybody know why iLife ‘11 broke the option-control-g transpose method? It sounds alot better than the AUpitch adjustment.
Yeah, the only way to transpose an mp3 in iLife ‘11 is to use the AUPitch method. I think it was stupid of Apple to remove that feature, but they did, so this is all we can do. I called Apple Care to see if they could help; the guy on the phone didn’t know anything; he just suggested doing the AUPitch thing.
THANK YOU!!! Happy holidays!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! I’m a dad who is trying to find a Karaoke version of a song for his son’s Christmas play that is in a kids range….duh, I did not realize that Garage Band can transpose. I followed Brian’s instructions and it worked!
I can’t seem to find what Brian is talking about. Is there any way I could get some screen shots or something? I click the “i” button in the lower left hand corner of the screen after I have selected the track I want to transpose, and I don’t know where to go from there.
I don’t see the “details arrow” at the bottom of a newly shown panel.
Thanks!!
So over the Holiday I upgraded to iLife ‘11. I used this tip before, but after the upgrade I can’t get the slider to move. Any thoughts?
Brian, see the comment by Brian Burns above. Good luck!
I had similar problems finding Brian’s method, but I did get it to work. Here’s what I saw step by step.
- Click your imported track in GarageBand to make it the active track.
- Click the i in the circle on the right of the interface.
- Click the EDIT tab. You’ll see Noise Gate, compressor, and 4 empty slots.
- Click one of the empty slots & change it to AUPitch.
- Click the orange and yellow picture next to AUPitch.
This will bring up the AUPitch dialog box
- Make sure your effect blend, smoothness & tightness is at 100%
To change a key up a whole step add +200, down -200.
Half step, 100.
Hope this helps.
Brian Tychinski: Thanks for taking the time to share your results! We all appreciate it.
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
YOU ARE A REAL LIFE SAVER!!!
Tnx Bryan burns and Bryan tanchinski!!!
I have a meaty sample / a track. There are 2 cases I mean:
1. The tempo of the sample is not known
2. I have a track from where I want to edit a part of it as a sample; again tempo unknown
How do I convert it into apple loops i.e for projects of variable tempo?
Pl help been searching since long. I have garageband 11. Thanks in advance
I open a new project with the slowest tempo possible. 40bpm if I am going to speed up a song from iTunes. I think the quality of the music is maintained better. Alter the speed a little only.
This doesn’t work for changing key. When changing key I find opening a new project at 240bpm has better sound quality, but there is a delay very audible with drum hits.
Can someone advice on key changing for best sound?
Using GarageBand ‘09 version 5.1
Sorry, last post should read; This doesn’t work for changing key. When changing key I find opening a new project at 40bpm has better sound quality, but there is a delay very audible with drum hits. Opening a new project at 240bpm has no delay, but poor sound.
Can someone please explain why?
Quote “To change a key up a whole step add +200, down -200.” Actually means pitch change by 200 Cents. This is found in the AUPitch.
E.g. type -200 in the Cents box, and press enter, to make it active. This will drop the pitch by two semitones.
Do make effect blend 100%.
I found you have to adjust the smoothness and tightness to suit.
Smoothness affects the tone, so less is best. I also found less tightness settings are best. To much tightness gave me distortion. You will have to play around. Try 0.2 tightness.
Yes I agree that this method works better than just the follow tempo & pitch slider.
In fact this is all I need now, after three days of my life researching programmes that can do this.
no luck can get into the show editor but all the slides will move except the one I want the pitch one !
To the two Brians — THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! forever and ever…this was driving me crazy and you totally solved my problem. You both rock!!
Thanks to Brian Tychinski for the explanation that will work for GarageBand 11.
Brian Burns’ post was probably excellent for older versions, but it does not work for GarageBand 11, because once you click on the little “i” in the circle, that’s as far as you can go in ‘11 because after that step, the rest of the steps are obsolete.
That information is not meant to disparage Brian Burns, but as a tip to those of you with ‘11 so that you don’t do like I did and spend forever looking for that “details arrow.” It isn’t there in ‘11, so follow Brian Tychinski’s steps at that point.
Thanks to both Brians.
Brian(s),
Thanks!!!! Worked w/9, upgraded to ‘11. Could not understand why Apple pulled the transpose feature.
You are a lifesaver!
I couldn’t find the comments after November 2010 here… how do I transpose the key from the iLife ‘11 version?
Wow — this is exactly what I was looking for. I can’t believe I couldn’t find it anywhere else. It’s so easy! Thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver.
Also, for anyone who wants to send their song to iTunes, go to the Share tab, click Send Song to iTunes, and type in which playlist you want it to go in, etc. Works like a charm — at least for iLife ‘09. Thanks again!
so so so so helpful!
Thankyou soooooooo much!!!
OMG! What a lifesaver! This makes it possible for my band to practice some of our covers in the key WE do them in! Thanks so much for the tip!
itunes wont let me drag it over
Hey thanks guys for the tip about iLife making everything differnt…I’m new to the Mac world and didn’t realize that that’s what I had that was keeping me from being able to change the key. I may have looked in the wrong places but there was NO WORD MENTIONED in the Garageband help about this solution. It was mentioned as an effect but not under transposing. Thank you Brian Tychinski…you are my hero!!! Well, at least today.
I just transposed a song successfully! Thank you! But have a question is it possible to transport the new song into my iTunes and how. Thanks a lot again!
Hi..I was able to transposed it to -3 but the result of the mp3 song is kinda distorted is there a way to make it sound quality the same as the original? Thanks!
Why won’t my iTunes library allow me to move songs into Garage Band???
I came across the same issue today and found out that since GarageBand ‘11 this won’t work anymore. So the AUPitch is the next best solution. Here’s a description on how to change pitch in Garageband ‘11: http://www.liferacker.com/garageband/2011/10/18/garageband-pitch-change-of-a-song/
I only transposed it +1. Is there a way to avoid the vibrato?
How good are you! What a gun! Awesome champ! You’ve helped me heaps!!! Thanks. Jordan
i needed this because of YouTube copyright!
Thanx
I’m with Kathy and Emily: Dragging an itunes song to garageband isn’t working. Why? And what can we do to fix it?
works perfectly! thanks so much!
when i click on control, it likes spotlights, garageband at the bottom and minimizes the other screens i have open! what is wrong with this???i need to do it!!
lexie – what version are you using?
sorry for being a noob but how do i save my track as an mp3 or export it after transposing? thanks for helping!!
GarageBand won’t let me drag & drop the song from iTunes!! :/