How to change clip speed without changing audio pitch?

I need to change the speed of a small video clip without changing the pitch of the audio. How can I do this? Pretty straightforward.


  • Drop your clip into a comp.  Right-click and choose "Speed/Duration" and change the speed to what you want.  Add the Pitch audio effect, and adjust the Semitone Shift property to return to the original pitch. 

    Most people don't think in semitones, but it's fairly easy to figure out.  There are 12 semitones in an octave.  If you double the clip's speed (200%), the pitch goes an octave higher, so set Semitone Shift to -12 to compensate.  Only raise the speed to 150%?  That's 1.5x faster, and 1.5 octaves higher in pitch, so make up the half-octave difference by setting Semitone Shift to -6.

  • Is there an equation I can use to find out how much I need to shift if the speed change is extremely specific (into the hundredths)?

  • edited December 2017

    Sure. Just take the portion that's over 100%, turn it into a decimal, multiply it by 12, then make it negative.  Examples:

    150% --> 50% over --> 0.5 * 12 = -6 semitones
    137.8% --> 37.8% over --> 0.378 * 12 = -4.536 semitones
    214.69% --> 114.69% over --> 1.1469 * 12 = -13.7628 semitones

    EDIT: Fixed the formula.  For clips that are sped up, the semitone pitch shift should be negative to compensate.

  • If it has to be slowed down, would the equation go like this:

    82% = 18% lower = 0.18 x 12 = 2.16

  • Yes. BUT for a LOWER pitch you need a NEGATIVE number, so the final answer is "-2.16" semitones.

  • @Triem23 Actually @Lyrehc is correct.  It should be 2.16.  Because the video is slowing down, he wants to increase the pitch to compensate so that it sounds "normal."  

    Which means that my original formula needs an update to make the resulting values negative.  To maintain pitch, faster clips should have negative semitone adjustment values, while slower clips should have positive ones. Somehow I missed this when making my original post.  Off to fix the post. Sorry for the confusion.

  • Very useful! Thanks a lot JsBarett!

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