[78-L] Pitch shifting

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Michael Biel wrote:

This is the problem with the terminology again.  You can't just pitch
shift.  You have to speed adjust.  The term "pitch shifting" was coined
to mean changing the pitch without changing the tempo. 

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The term "equalizing" was coined to mean a circuit which was employed to compensate for the action of an earlier stage which distorted the frequency response for some purpose - like recording characteristics.  Today an equalizer is any unit which manipulates frequency response and really isn't "equalizing" anything.

A Synthesizer used to refer to an electronic instrument which could generate an electronic signal with appropriate harmonics to simulate the sound of real acoustic instruments, (like electronic organs and pianos).  Now a synthesizer just refers to any instrument which generates electronic musical sounds which usually don't sound like any real musical instrument.

I think the action you're describing above is called "transposing", like what you can do with an electric piano or an electric organ..

Michael, I assume you work with Digital Audio Workstations, (DAWs), and anyone who works on these systems knows that any professional DAW has a plug-in called a "Pitch shifter", and any pitch shifter has a setting which allows it to adjust tempo along with the pitch, (like speeding up an analog tape), or change the pitch without changing the tempo, (which if it's done to any extent, usually introduces undesireable audio artifacts).  Obviously, in the case of a constant velocity disc recording, (and I realize constant velocity can have an entirely different meaning when applied to equalization), you will want the pitch and tempo to change together to compensate for the situation on the record when played at constant speed - where the pitch and tempo will lower as the record is played, (if from the outside in).

db