PitchDance Manual

PitchDance is a note-based pitch and time editor for monophonic audio (vocals, bass, leads), plus a percussive timing mode. It runs as a standalone app and as a VST3 / AU / CLAP plugin.

Getting audio in

Standalone: click Open, or just drag a WAV, FLAC, or MP3 file onto the editor. Analysis starts automatically; notes appear as blobs on the piano-roll canvas. If the audio sounds polyphonic (chords, stacked voices), PitchDance warns you; it edits one voice at a time.

Plugin: insert PitchDance on the track, click Transfer, then play the section in your DAW. Stop the transport; PitchDance analyzes the captured audio and shows its notes. During playback the plugin plays your edited audio, sample-locked to the host timeline; everywhere outside the transferred region the live signal passes through. Compare switches back to the original at any time.

Transfers are locked to the host timeline position where they were recorded. If you move the clip in the DAW afterwards, re-transfer.

Editing

Pick a tool in the toolbar:

• Click a note to select (Shift adds/removes); drag in empty space for a marquee.
• Press and hold a note to hear it; drag up/down while holding to audition the pitch (or, with the Formant tool, the character change) before committing (standalone and plugin).
• Split arms cut mode: a ruler follows your cursor, the note under it lights up, and each click cuts there. Right-click (or click Split again) to finish. S splits the note at the playhead, and Cmd+click (Main tool) cuts at the cursor without arming. Merge joins selected neighbouring notes.
• Arrow keys nudge the selection: Up/Down = ±1 semitone (Alt = ±10 cents), Cmd+Left/Right = ±10 ms (Alt = ±1 ms).
• The dark line inside each blob is the actual pitch curve: vibrato and drift survive your edits unless you flatten them.
• Dimmed bands inside a blob mark sibilants and breaths (“s”, “sh”, “t”, exhales). PitchDance never pitch-shifts those spans, which is what keeps corrected vocals free of the “lisping” artifact, so they stay put when you retune a note.

Key / Scale set the snapping grid; in-scale rows are gently highlighted and the root row carries a faint accent. A4 sets the concert-pitch reference (415–444 Hz) that the tuning grid, snapping, and note names are built on. Use 442 for orchestral sessions, 415 for baroque material.

Zoom & scroll: wheel = vertical scroll, Shift+wheel = horizontal, Cmd+wheel = time zoom, Alt+wheel = pitch zoom.

Press ? any time for the in-app cheat sheet of tools, gestures and shortcuts.

Shortcuts: Space = play/stop · Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z = undo/redo · Cmd+A = select all · S = split at playhead · M = merge · Cmd+Plus / Cmd+Minus = zoom · F = fit everything in view · Up/Down = nudge pitch · Cmd+Left/Right = nudge timing.

Navigation: scroll = pitch · Shift+scroll = time · Cmd+scroll = zoom time around the cursor · Alt+scroll = zoom pitch around the cursor, or use the zoom buttons in the canvas’s bottom-right corner. On a trackpad: two-finger swipe pans (vertical = pitch, horizontal = time) and pinch zooms time around the pointer.

Macros

• Correct Pitch snaps the targeted notes to the key/scale. The Amount cell sets how far centers move toward their in-scale pitch; Flatten sets how much of the drift/vibrato is removed. Applies to the selection, or to all notes when nothing is selected. Re-applying is idempotent.
• Unison moves every targeted note to one single pitch (the median of their current centers, snapped to the key/scale). Vibrato and drift are kept, so the result still sounds like a performance; flatten with Drift if you want it perfectly flat. One click, one undo step.
• Quantize Time: set the project tempo and grid (1/4, 1/8, 1/16), then Apply to move note starts toward the grid by Strength. Whole phrases moved together stay glued: legato runs are rendered as one piece, not per-note fragments.

Algorithms

• Melodic (default): full pitch analysis and editing for monophonic material.
• Percussive: onset slices for drums/loops, with timing, gain, mute, and plain transposition. Switching algorithms re-analyzes; PitchDance asks before discarding your edits.

Exporting

Export offers 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit float WAV at the original sample rate (your choice is remembered), plus MIDI notes (.mid), the edited melody as a standard MIDI file (tempo from the project bpm, note names on the current A4 grid). In the plugin, project state (audio + all edits) is saved inside your DAW project.

Preferences & safety

The gear button opens Preferences: default export format, default A4 for new sessions, and autosave. The standalone autosaves your session in the background (default every 2 minutes, only when something changed); after a crash, the next launch offers to recover exactly where you were. Loading a new file or switching algorithms over unsaved edits always asks first.

Licensing

PitchDance runs as a full-featured 14-day trial. When the trial ends, playback still works but Transfer and Export are disabled until you activate.

To buy a license, click Buy in the top bar (or visit pitchdance.com/buy). Your license key arrives by email right after purchase and is always available in your account dashboard at pitchdance.com.

To activate: copy the whole key (it starts with NP1-) to the clipboard, then click Activate in the top bar. Activation is offline; no internet connection is required. The key is stored on this machine, so you only do this once.

Updates: download the latest build from your account dashboard and replace the installed app and plugins; your license and documents are untouched.