Pitch Detector

How to use the pitch detector

This pitch detector shows the note you sing or play in real time: allow the microphone and it gives the nearest note, how many cents sharp or flat you are and the frequency in hertz, with a 10-second pitch graph and a target note to match. Press Start listening and allow the microphone. Your microphone is analysed on this device and is never recorded or sent. Sing or play a note: the pitch detector shows the nearest note with its octave number, how many cents you are above or below it, and the frequency in hertz (Hz). Below that, a line draws your pitch over the last 10 seconds, newest on the right.

To practice a note, choose it in the Target list. It plays once and a green line marks it on the graph; press Play to hear it again. Lowest, Highest and Average keep a record of everything you sang since you pressed Start, until you press Reset session. On a computer: Space starts and stops, T plays the target note, R resets the session. Sharps and Flats change how black-key notes are named.

Reading the pitch graph

The graph works like a piano roll. Each horizontal line is one note, labeled on the left, and the darker bands are the black keys of a piano. The C lines are brighter so you can find your place. The view follows your voice up and down, keeping 15 semitones on screen.

A steady note draws a flat line sitting on a note line. A line that rises or falls slowly means you are drifting, a line that waves evenly is vibrato, and a line that starts below the note and climbs to it shows you are sliding into the note. Under the graph, Last second gives how much your pitch moved over the last second, in cents. The smaller that number while you hold one note, the steadier you are.

Cents, hertz and notes

Hertz count vibrations per second: the A above middle C (A4) is 440 Hz, and every octave up doubles the number. A semitone is the step from one piano key to the next, and a cent is one hundredth of a semitone. The detector colors the cents green within 10 cents of the note, yellow up to 25 and red beyond that, which suits singing; for tuning an instrument, where you want to be within a few cents, use the chromatic tuner. To hear any exact frequency, play it on the tone generator.

A simple voice pitch test

1. Choose a comfortable target note in the middle of your voice and listen to it.
2. Press Start listening and sing the note on an open vowel, like ah, for about five seconds.
3. Look at the graph: how close did your line start to the green line, and how flat did it stay?
4. Try again one note higher, then one lower. Compare the Last second number between notes.

To find where your range is, take the vocal range test. To train matching pitch without the screen, try ear training. To see whether you can name a note with no reference at all, take the perfect pitch test.

Tips for a clean reading

• Sing or play one note at a time. The detector follows one pitch, so chords and two voices confuse it.
• Keep about a hand's width to an arm's length from the microphone, in a quiet room.
• Breathy or whispered sounds have little pitch to measure, so the line breaks up. A clear, supported tone reads best.
• The detector reads test tones to about 1 cent. With a voice, the natural movement of the note is far larger than that, so read the trend of the line, not a single number.

More for singers: Vocal Range Test · Ear Training · Perfect Pitch Test · Tone Deaf Test · Note Reading

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