14 DAY TRIAL // I wonder how many of those who read this review feel the urge to sing various songs sometimes. An even greater wonder makes me ask myself how many can actually sing the right way the songs they would like. Let alone those who can't sing at all, I just know that many people, even those whose voices are very beautiful, just can't sing certain tunes.
If there's anyone who doesn't know the answer yet...it's very easy: their voices' tunes are in another key than the respective songs. And this issue makes attaining different (maybe way too different) keys extremely difficult to achieve.
This is why easily pitching up or down a certain song is traditionally and technically much easier than training your voice for several years and learning the pros' techniques. Well, now it's obvious why software as MP3 Key Shifter was developed.
Whether used to prepare songs for karaoke-sessions or just slightly mending them so you can perform a perfect amateur act, shifting the key of a song in the right direction will bring you closer to a good-sounding match between your favorite track and your naturally-keyed voice.
The UI
"Simple the needs - simple the deeds". It can't get any simpler than this software's graphic user interface. The looks resemble very much the plugins for host-audio editing programs: easy to spot buttons, easy to use slide bars. The exact amount of information one needs and simple transport control buttons: play and stop.
One of the slide bars affect the key of the song you want to process and the other works for adjusting the playback speed of the resulting track. The user can also guide his work upon the BPM (Beats Per Minute) shown by the MP3 Key Shifter. Once analyzed, the BPM can be easily changed by sliding the tempo bar, speeding up or, depending on preference and needs, slowing down the playback of the whole song.
There is not much more to be told about such a simple design-software. It also features a progress bar for the current song's playback, on top of which the artist, song name, current elapsed time and total length info are displayed. I just have to add that MP3 Key Shifter's graphic interface is very well spaced and it also has equilibrium.
The features
As I told you in the introduction, MP3 Key Shifter is a tool one would use when a change of key is needed so that the so-processed song matches better with the natural voice of someone who'd like to sing it.
The inner workings of the software are based (as always when it comes to this kind of jobs) on the pitchshifting and stretching technology commonly found in generic audio production. Unfortunately, also as a commonly well-known issue, these two operations have their very precise and unforgiving limits. The fact that a 1 to 3-steps up/down processing produces still good-sounding result, does not go well further on but with very few exceptions. Usually, songs behave very crappy when their particular pitching/stretching limits are passed by, no matter how big the sample rate is.
But when all what's needed is just a slight key correction, the MP3 Key Shifter may be the right choice?unless you are willing to pay the big bucks on high-complexity audio-editing tools which have these functions already embedded.
In MP3 Key Shifter's case, a 3-step upper and lower key change worked very smoothly and the result was very satisfying. Almost the same proportions applied to the BPM changes, with both slow songs and speedy ones.
Too bad the copy we tested was unregistered; hence the impossibility to save the results for further reversed testing. I would have enjoyed seeing how tracks modified with MP3 Key Shifter would sound like after repeatedly slow down/speed up back, and pitch up/pitch down cycles.
The good
From what we've tested in the unregistered version, MP3 Key Shifter works just fine. Its high mark-features consist in its ease-of-use, simple and functional interface. It does its job well and you'll get to sing songs you dreamed of.
The bad
I daresay 47 USD for such a program is a bit too much. But this is just a personal opinion, and every user decides to spend money according to personal interest. And maybe the next shareware version will also bring the possibility to save at least a couple of times. The truth
The software is running OK, it's not at all complicated, very readable and easy to learn'n'use. It will surely produce results you'll be glad to hear, if you decide to have it.
