How to speed up audio without the chipmunk effect
If you just play audio faster, the pitch goes up with it. Voices sound like cartoons and songs jump out of key. Keep pitch mode solves that with a time-stretch. It shortens the audio in time while leaving the pitch where it was.
AudioDrop opens this page in keep pitch mode at 1.25×. You can go anywhere from 0.5× to 2×, hear the change live, and export when it sounds right.
Keep pitch vs varispeed
There are two ways to speed up audio, and each has its place.
| Keep pitch | Varispeed | |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch | Stays the same | Rises with speed |
| Sound | Natural, just quicker | Brighter, higher, tape style |
| At 1.25× | Same key, 25% faster | About 4 semitones higher |
| At 2× | Same key, double speed | One octave higher |
| Best for | Speech, practice, workouts | Nightcore, sped up edits |
Reasons to speed up a song or recording
Speeding up audio saves time and changes the feel. People use it to:
Speeding up is also handy for review. Listening back to a long rehearsal, meeting or DJ set at 1.5× lets you find the part you need in a fraction of the time, then you can export only when it is useful.
- Get through podcasts, audiobooks and lectures faster.
- Tighten a slow voice memo or interview before sharing it.
- Make a sped up version of a song for a short video.
- Raise the energy of a workout or running playlist.
- Fit a piece of music to a fixed length for a video edit.
- Push a practice track a little faster than performance speed.
Tips for natural sounding results
Small changes sound the most natural. Between 1.05× and 1.3× most listeners will not notice any processing on music. Speech holds up well even at 1.5× and beyond.
For a sped up song edit, try varispeed instead. The pitch rise is part of that sound, and many people prefer it to a clean time-stretch.
Export to WAV or FLAC if you plan to edit further. Use MP3 or M4A for sharing.
If you need an exact tempo rather than a percentage, use the BPM changer and the BPM finder together.
Keep your original file. Each extra time-stretch adds a little more processing, so it is always better to go back to the source than to speed up an already sped up copy.
Limits to keep in mind
The speed range is 0.5× to 2×. Near 2× in keep pitch mode, time-stretching can add a slight smeared or phasey quality, especially on reverb and sustained notes. Speech usually stays clear. Very long files take more memory, so a phone may struggle with hours of audio.
Speed up audio on iPhone, Android and Mac
On a Mac or PC, drag the file onto the page. On iPhone, open the page in Safari, tap the drop area and pick a file from the Files app. Voice memos can be shared to Files first. On Android, open it in Chrome and pick from your downloads.
The speed change works the same on every device. Export gives you a file saved locally, ready to share or re-upload wherever you need it.
Here are some common speeds and what people use them for:
| Speed | Keep pitch result | Common use |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1× | 10% faster, barely noticeable | Tightening music for a video |
| 1.25× | Clearly faster, still natural | Podcasts, sped up songs |
| 1.5× | Fast, speech still clear | Lectures and audiobooks |
| 2× | Double speed | Skimming long recordings |
Private and free, right in your browser
Your audio is processed on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account and no watermark. The speed change is previewed live, and the export applies it to the whole file.
It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on Mac, Windows and Linux, and in mobile browsers on iPhone and Android.