Pitch Shifting

Pitch Shifting is the technique of shifting the pitch of an audio file. This is different than speeding up/slowing down, as the footage is not going any faster or slower.

Usage

In Vegas

Pitch Shifting is very easy in Vegas, all you need to so is click on your footage of choice, then use the plus (+) and minus (-) buttons to increase/decrease the pitch. Simple as that!

In Premiere

Premiere requires a plugin to do pitch shifting, and it isn't very good. Be ready for audio stutters or nothing at all when working with it (especially if the footage is sped up/slowed down as well). Most premiere users will switch to a different editor like Audacity or even just Vegas to get the desired sound, render as a puzzle piece, then bring it back into Premiere.

In Windows Movie Maker

Due to different versions of WMM varying on whether they retain pitch when its speed is changed, you can render between versions to get a very primitive pitch shift:

• Render a clip in any other version of WMM at the desired pitch.
• Open the clip into WMM 6, then change back to the original speed.
• Because of the lack of pitch shift, the high/low pitch will be retained while the speed remains normal.
• You can also layer these using the music track to create chords!

Other Usage

Chords

A rudimentary form of Vocoding can be done by creating chords - copies of the footage where each one is a different pitch. If you know a little music theory and can line them up to create a chord, you can use this to create very pleasant sounding things (or really, however you'd want it to sound)!

G Major

The most famous 'chord', very common in YTP as well. This is exactly how it sounds, but its default layout makes footage sound "demonic" (sometimes referred to as "Gigyas Major" as a result). This is often done in tandem with an inversion or tint (usually red) of the video footage to add to the creepiness.

It was first coined by Gallers (citation needed) and described as such.

Starting from G8 for each:

• Down to G7 (-50 semitones)
• G down to D
• (no change)
• G up to B
• G up to D
• Up to G9 (+100 semitones)

In Vegas, this can be done by Pitch Shifting with the following values: +12, -12, +7, +4, -5.