Playing along with a song that doesn’t use A440 by design, or with one that is out of tune (and therefore isn’t at A440), can be very difficult as the human ear is quite sensitive and can easily hear this. When it does your well-tuned instrument can sound out of key with the recording. When you encounter this situation you have two options.
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Option 1 : Adjust Your Instrument to Match Non-Standard Tunings
To play along with songs that aren't tuned to A=440 Hz, you'll can retune your instrument accordingly:
- Determine the Song's Tuning Frequency: Identify the exact tuning frequency of the recording. Song Surgeon 6 has a tuning module that will scan and detect a song tuning.
- Next, Adjust Your Tuner Settings: Many modern tuners allow calibration to frequencies other than 440 Hz. Set your tuner to the song's identified tuning frequency.
- Retune Your Instrument: Using the adjusted tuner, retune each string of your guitar or ukulele to match the new reference pitch. For instruments like pianos, retuning is more complex and might require professional assistance.
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Option 2: Retune the Recording to 440
Retuning your instrument isn’t always feasible but even if it is, you will have to retune back to A440 when you are done so it’s inconvenient to say the least. The better option is to simply return the song to A440 tuning.
Song Surgeon 6 Pro can not only measure the tuning of a song, it can also automatically retune the song to A440 or any other alternative frequency that may be of interest.
In the example on the right, Song Surgeon has detected this song to be at A445. Assuming you want to return it to A440, that frequency can be selected from the drop-down list and Song Surgeon will retune the file to A440. You can hear this retuned file immediately when play the song in Song Surgeon.
To make this change permanent, use the Export command in Song Surgeon and create a new file. This newly created file will have this tuning change embedded in it permanently
Some Background on Tuning and A440
While not an international standard, the American Standards Association recommended in 1936 that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz. This standard was taken up by the International Organization for Standardization in 1955. Although not universally accepted, since then it has served as the audio frequency reference for the calibration of acoustic equipment and the tuning of pianos, violins, and other musical instruments.
There are exceptions to this such as where period instrument are tuned differently. There are also certain composers that preferred and used a different tuning such as Verdi tuning which is 432. However, for the vast majority of contemporary pop, rock, country and jazz music you hear across the globe today, all of these recording use A440 tuning.
Reasons Some Songs Deviate from 440 Hz
Several factors can cause recordings to differ from the standard 440 Hz tuning:
- Studio Practices: In some recording sessions, instruments were tuned to a specific piano or another instrument that wasn't set to 440 Hz. Consequently, all accompanying instruments would match this reference, leading to a recording in a different tuning.
- Artistic Choices: Musicians might intentionally tune their instruments slightly higher or lower than 440 Hz to achieve a particular tonal quality or feel. This deliberate detuning can impart a unique character to the music.
- Technical Adjustments: During the analog era, altering tape speeds was a common practice to adjust a song's tempo or fit it within a desired duration. Speeding up the tape would raise the pitch, while slowing it down would lower it, resulting in recordings that don't conform to the 440 Hz standard.
Notable Examples of Non-440 Hz Recordings
Several renowned tracks are known for their unconventional tunings:
AC/DC's "Highway to Hell": This track is notably tuned slightly off from the standard pitch, a characteristic observed in many of their recordings from that era.
- The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever": This song was recorded in two different keys and tempos. Producer George Martin combined these versions by adjusting their speeds, resulting in a final track with a unique pitch.
- Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker": The solo section of this song was recorded separately in a different studio, leading to a slight pitch variation compared to the rest of the track
- "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos: This classic track is tuned slightly sharp, making standard-tuned instruments sound out of tune when played alongside it.
A demo version of Song Surgeon 6 is available. This demo runs as a fully active Pro model and gives you four hours of run time which is sufficient time to open multiple songs in the program to try the tuning module for yourself. Here is a link to grab the demo. Also, shown below is a brief video on how the tuning in Song Surgeon works.
Mac OSx 11.X – 15.X
Win 10 – Win 11