The Book of Audacity

Change Tempo

The Change Tempo effect is a great little fix-it when you’re mixing multiple tracks and the tempo is off by a small bit on any of them. It changes tempo without changing the pitch. You can apply it to selections, whole tracks, or multiple tracks. There are a couple of ways to approach this. One is by trial and error; just fiddle with the Percent Change setting until it sounds right. Some folks have great ears and can do this quickly. You can also set the Beats per Minute (BPM). If your other tracks follow a known BPM, then use this. If you don’t know the correct BPM, play a minute of a track with the correct tempo and count the beats. I do this with a stopwatch, and it works great when no one else is around to bother me and interrupt ...