Singing Pitch Test — Check Your Pitch Accuracy

Singing Pitch Test — workflow

A singing pitch test: sing into the mic or choose a recording, and your held notes are compared with the nearest semitone for a 0–100 pitch accuracy score and your average cents off.

1. Open the Autotune panel in the editor, press "Record with the mic" and allow the microphone. A recording you already have can be chosen as a file instead.
2. Sing a phrase with some long notes for at least 5 seconds. If a backing track is playing, listen on headphones. Recording stops by itself at 10 minutes.
3. Press "Stop and score". When the in-browser analysis finishes you get the pitch score, average cents off, the share within ±20 cents, a flat or sharp lean, and up to three held notes that were furthest off.
4. Press "Sing it again here" on the score card and repeat the same phrase. The card shows the change from the last take and marks a new best.

Before you start

It does not know the song or melody you meant to sing, so a wrong note that is in tune still scores well. It is not a live pitch display and not a vocal range test.

How to correct the pitch of a recorded take →

How the pitch score is calculated

Only held notes are scored. For each moment of the recording the scorer looks at a window of about 0.3 seconds around it, and counts that moment only if a pitch was detected through most of the window and the pitch (ignoring the most extreme tenth at each end) stayed within 0.8 semitone. Short notes, consonants, breaths and quick moves between notes do not meet that condition, so they are left out. A slow slide can meet it, and is then scored as off-pitch singing.

At each counted moment, the middle pitch of the window (its median) is compared with the nearest semitone of equal temperament, and the gap is measured in cents. One cent is a hundredth of a semitone. The medians around each moment are then averaged, so a vibrato of ordinary speed (about four to seven swings a second) centred on the right note costs only a few points up to about 40 cents either way. At that speed a wider one does not count as a held note, and that part is left out of the score. This is decided for each 0.3-second window, so a vibrato right at the limit has only some of its windows counted and can lose around 20 points. A slow wobble of one or two swings a second is counted as drifting off pitch, not as vibrato, and lowers the score.

The score comes from the average gap: 100 at an average of 0 cents, two points lower for every cent, down to 0 at an average of 50 cents, which is exactly halfway between two semitones.

Pitches that have nothing to do with the semitone grid still land about 25 cents from the nearest semitone on average. So a score near 50 does not have to mean "half the notes were right": pitches chosen at random score about 50 too. A take that is 25 cents off everywhere and a take that is half exact and half far off both score 50, so read it together with the share within ±20 cents and the furthest-off list below.

The key of the song is not used for scoring, so a wrong automatic key detection cannot lower your score.

How to read each number

• Pitch score (0–100): the overall result of the calculation above. It describes your own singing, before any pitch correction.
• Average cents off: how far your held notes sat from the semitone on average, regardless of direction.
• Percent within ±20 cents: the share of your held singing that stayed within 20 cents of a semitone. With the same average, a high share means most of the take was in tune and a few places were far off; a low share means the offset runs through the whole take.
• Flat or sharp lean: when the signed average is 8 cents or more below, the card says you tend to sing a little flat; 8 cents or more above, a little sharp; in between, no overall lean.
• Furthest off: of the notes held for at least 0.3 seconds that averaged 25 cents or more off, up to three with the largest gap are listed with the time, the nearest note name, and how many cents flat or sharp. If no note qualifies, the list is not shown.
• Change from the last take, and new best: from the second take on, the card shows the difference from the previous entry in your history and marks a new best when you beat every earlier score. The comparison is with the previous entry, not per song, so it is meaningful when you repeat the same phrase.
• Earlier takes: the five most recent entries are listed with date, take name and score. Up to 50 are kept on the device.

What this test cannot tell you

• Whether you sang the right notes. It does not know the song or melody you meant to sing, so a wrong note that sits on a semitone still scores well.
• The true size of a large miss. Every note is compared with the nearest semitone, so a gap is never measured as more than 50 cents; a note almost a semitone away from the one you intended is treated as being close to its neighbour.
• Your vocal range. It does not look for your highest or lowest note.
• Your pitch while you are singing. Nothing is shown live; the score comes after you stop.
• Rhythm, tone, volume or expression. Only the pitch of held notes is scored.
• Phrases made only of short notes. A fast passage or rap whose held notes add up to less than about 3 seconds gets no score.

Recording a take that scores cleanly

• If a backing track is playing, listen on headphones. Sound leaking from speakers into the microphone is picked up too and spoils the result.
• Record one voice on its own. Several voices or an instrument on top are outside what it is built for.
• Sing for at least 5 seconds. A shorter take is not scored, and recording stops by itself at 10 minutes.
• The microphone is opened with echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain turned off, because voice-call processing bends sustained pitch. Room noise is therefore recorded as it is, so use a quiet room.
• Allow the microphone when the browser asks. In a browser that cannot record, the record button is not shown; record another way and choose the audio file instead.

A short practice routine with three takes

1. Take 1, the baseline: pick one 20–30 second phrase with some long notes and sing it the way you normally would. Note the score, the flat or sharp lean, and the note names listed as furthest off.
2. Choose one thing to change: the lean if the card reports one, otherwise a single note from the furthest-off list. Play that note name on a piano or tuner app and match it before going on.
3. Take 2: press "Sing it again here" on the score card and repeat the same phrase. Look less at the total and more at the one thing you chose: did the lean change, and is that note still in the furthest-off list?
4. Take 3: sing the same phrase once more and check the change from the last take. If the score drops twice in a row, tiredness or tension may be the cause; take a break.

Do not compare scores across different songs or phrases. How many long notes a phrase has, and where it sits in your range, changes how easy it is to score, so only takes of the same phrase are comparable.

Saving your history, and what it costs

Scoring needs no account and does not use the daily free pitch-correction (Apply) allowance. Without an account, the history is kept only in that device's browser. Signed in with a free account, the history is saved to the account and shows on other devices; takes scored on the device before signing in are carried over to the account you sign in to.

After scoring, the same panel can correct the pitch of the recording. Basic note editing and auditioning are free; a full-recording Apply is limited to 1 per day without signup and 3 per day with a free account. Daily allowances reset on the UTC date, and Pro removes the daily Apply limit.

Correct the pitch of a recorded take (Autotune) · See plans and pricing