Pitch detectorBeta
Online pitch detector
Sing or play into the microphone and see the note, how many cents you are off, and a trace of your pitch over the last seconds. Or drop a file to see its whole melody line.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing is uploaded
Loading the tool
How it works
- 01
Start the microphone
Press start and allow the microphone. Everything is measured in your browser; nothing is recorded or uploaded.
- 02
Sing or play
The note and its octave appear with the cents and the frequency, and your pitch draws a line over a grid of notes as you go.
- 03
Hold to freeze
Press and hold the trace, or the hold button, to freeze it and look at what you just sang. Or drop an audio file to see its pitch from start to end.
How a pitch detector works
A sung or played note repeats its waveform many times a second; that rate is its frequency, the fundamental. A4 repeats 440 times a second. We find that period with YIN, a well-known method from speech and music research: it compares the sound with a slightly delayed copy of itself and looks for the delay where the two match best.
Each reading also has a confidence. Breaths, consonants, noise and the gap between notes have no clear period, so they get a low confidence and are left out instead of drawing random notes. The readout is smoothed over a few readings so it stays calm on a held note, and jumps straight to a new note when you move.
Cents: how far from the note
A semitone is divided into 100 cents. Zero means you are right on the note; +20 means a little sharp, −20 a little flat. At 50 cents you are exactly between two notes. Most listeners notice an error of about 10 to 20 cents on a held note, and a trained ear hears less.
Singers naturally move around the note: a scoop into it, a vibrato of about half a semitone either side, a fall at the end. The trace shows all of that. A good habit is to look at the middle of a held note, not the edges.
Practise singing in tune
Play a note on an instrument or the reference tone of the guitar tuner, then sing it and watch the line settle on the same row. Sing a scale slowly and check that each step lands in the middle of its row. Hold a long note and try to keep the line flat, then add a gentle vibrato and watch it wave evenly.
Freeze the trace after a phrase to see where you went sharp or flat. Most singers drift flat on long descending lines and sharp on high, loud notes. Seeing it is the fastest way to fix it.
The pitch of a file
Drop a recording, such as a vocal take, an a cappella or a solo instrument, and we draw its pitch from start to end. It works best on one voice or one instrument at a time; a full mix with many instruments has many pitches at once, and the line will jump between them. To get a vocal out of a song first, the acapella extractor separates it in your browser.
What you get
- The live note with its octave, its cents and its frequency in Hz
- A scrolling pitch trace over a grid of notes, the last eight seconds
- Hold to freeze the trace
- Drop an audio file to see its pitch over time
- A steady readout: a confidence gate and smoothing ignore breaths and noise
- Works for voices and instruments from about 50 Hz to 1.6 kHz
- Runs in your browser: nothing recorded, nothing uploaded, no sign-up
A pitch detector or a tuner?
| Pitch detector | Tuner | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows | The note, the cents and the line of your pitch over time | The note and a needle |
| Best for | Singing practice, melodies, checking a note | Getting a string exactly on pitch |
| Follows a melody | Yes, the trace shows every note | No, one note at a time |
| From a file | Yes | No |
Use the pitch detector to see how you sing a phrase, and the guitar tuner when you need a string spot on.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the pitch of my voice?
Press start, allow the microphone and sing a note. The pitch detector shows the note, its octave, how many cents you are off and the frequency in Hz.
Is it accurate?
On a clear, steady tone the measurement is accurate to a fraction of a cent. With a voice, the readout moves with your natural vibrato and scoops, which is real, not an error. Noise and several sounds at once make any pitch detector less reliable.
What is the difference between pitch and frequency?
Frequency is the number of times a sound repeats per second, in hertz. Pitch is how high or low we hear it, named as a note. They map one to one: A4 is 440 Hz, and each octave up doubles the frequency.
Can it detect the pitch of a song?
It follows one main pitch at a time, so it works on a single voice or instrument. On a full song it jumps between the instruments. For the key of a whole song, use the key finder, and for its chords, the chord tools.
What does hold to freeze do?
While you press and hold the trace or the hold button, the line stops scrolling so you can look at what you just sang. Let go and it continues.
Can I use a file instead of the microphone?
Yes. Drop an audio file under the tool and we draw its pitch over time. It is decoded and analysed in your browser and never uploaded.
Is my voice recorded?
No. The microphone is analysed live in your browser and nothing is recorded, saved or sent. It stops when you press stop or leave the page.
More free music tools
- BetaVocal range testSing your lowest and highest notes and see your range on a piano.
- BetaGuitar tunerTune a guitar, bass or ukulele with your microphone, or any instrument in chromatic mode.
- BetaKey finderFind the key of a song with its Camelot code and the keys that mix well.
- BetaAcapella extractorIsolate the vocal of a song as an acapella.
- BetaMetronomeA free online metronome with accents, subdivisions and tap tempo.
Finish the track
Learn more, or get a person on it
Read the mastering guides, comparisons and data, or send your tracks to an engineer with OBRA ULTRA.
Happy with the result?
Master it on OBRA Audio Mastering: three masters measured in LUFS, free to listen, in your browser.