Audacity is a free, open source software for recording, mixing and editing sound. Although it is not nearly as sophisticated (or expensive) as something like PRO Tools, Audacity is a decent editing and mixing piece of software. It is also reasonably easy to use. Contained within the list of feature and functions in Audacity is the ability to change tempo and pitch. Although Audacity does perform these functions the quality of the resulting product is particularly good. It allows you to change tempo without changes pitch… but the pitch change does change the tempo. In addition the sound quality of the changed song or segment leaves a lot to be desired.
A comparison between Song Surgeon and Audacity is perhaps inappropriate because there is not a lot of overlap in their functionalities. However, since the focus of this article is on Pitch and Tempo change software, we will provide a comparison of the two applications on this basis.
The new release of Song Surgeon, Version 3.0, contains dramatic changes and improvements from earlier versions. Version 3 is available in both a Standard and a PRO model. Because Song Surgeon is NOT a recording and mixing software it is more singularly focused upon pitch and tempo change, looping and exporting of edited files. Here are just a few examples of some the things found in the PRO version of Song Surgeon (SS) that are not found, or cannot be done in Audacity.
ü Two Algorithms – SS contains 2 time stretching algorithms to accomplish pitch and tempo change. This maximizes sound quality and provides distortion-free audio even at extreme changes.
ü Pitch and tempo change independent of each other
ü Multiple Loop Areas – SS enables you to set an unlimited number of loop areas, not one.
ü Each loop area can have its own unique settings these including the loop count and delay.
ü In addition to exporting the entire song or file, SS enables you to export one loop areas and/or all loop areas with the individual settings for each loop applied.
ü Sniffer Technology – SS contains our proprietary sniffer technology which finds the links of audio and video files you play in your browser and helps you download this for use in the program.
While the slow down technology remains the most commonly used feature found in these types of programs, and musicians remain the most common users, the new version of Song Surgeon with its many new functionalities will certainly open the door to use in many other fields such as dance, exercise classes, transcription, Karaoke, translation, and worship music to name a few.
While there has been some discussion and suggestion of augmenting and modifying Song Surgeon’s capabilities to include recording and mixing, like Audacity, this is not currently being contemplated for the next version.
The bottom line is that if you are looking for software for recording and mixing, then Song Surgeon is not for you. But, if you are looking for a top notch slow downer software that is best-in-class, then Song Surgeon is that product. The limited and poor quality of these functions in Audacity don’t even merit comparison, unless your budget is $0. In that case we still wouldn’t suggest Audacity, rather download and use the Song Surgeon demo- and use it judiciously.
Song Surgeon provides a 4-hour fully functional working demo. Four hours may seem like a lot of time, but we caution you to close the program when not using it to preserve this time. We also suggest that you watch the training videos found on the website before using the program, as these will help you get up to speed quickly with the operations of this very useful software. You can download the DEMO version from here.


