How to change pitch, speed and volume in your browser

Capo attaches to whatever audio or video is playing in a tab and gives you five controls over it.

The important property is that pitch and speed are independent. Almost every other way of slowing audio also drops the pitch.

This guide covers each free control in the order you are likely to meet it.

Key takeaways

• Press play before opening the popup. This catches almost everyone once.
• Pitch moves in semitones, ±12 by default, widening to ±48 in Settings.
• Fine covers ±50 cents, the gap whole semitones leave behind.
• Speed runs 0.25× to 3×, widening to 8×, in 1% steps.
• Settings are saved against the track itself — the URL is only a fallback — so a song reopens as you left it.

Where is Capo after you install it?

Popup · every part

1Top bar

1aHistory1bShare1cSettings1dPower on / off

2Pitch

2aSemitone dial2bFine tune

3Speed

4Volume

4aMute

5Loop A–B

5aA / B points

6Timeline

7Transport

7aPlay / Pause

Capo lives in the browser toolbar and nowhere else. It does not alter the pages you visit.

Press play first. Capo binds to media when it starts producing sound, so a paused video reports that nothing is playing.

The badge on the icon shows the current pitch offset, so you can see from the toolbar whether a tab is being processed.

How to change the pitch of a song

Each step on the dial is one semitone, the distance between two adjacent piano keys. Twelve make an octave.

The tempo does not move with it. A track shifted up three semitones still takes exactly as long to play.

If a guitar lesson sounds subtly sour, try −1 first. A great many rock records were tracked a half step down.

Full detail in changing the pitch on YouTube, and the reasoning behind the range in why the dial stops at twelve.

How to fine-tune pitch in cents

Fine covers ±50 cents, where a cent is one hundredth of a semitone.

Use it when a recording is not at concert pitch, rather than retuning your instrument to a wrong reference. Beating explains how to hear it.

How to slow a track down

Speed is continuous rather than stepped, so you can sit at 0.62× instead of choosing between 0.5× and 0.75×.

For learning a part, 0.6× to 0.8× is the working window. See slowing a video down and why slowed audio sounds underwater.

How to loop a section of a song

Set A at the start of a phrase and B at the end. The count-in in Settings gives you a beat to prepare in — it ships switched off, and once enabled its duration defaults to 3 s.

Narrowing the loop is the highest-value practice habit there is. The bar you keep missing covers the method.

How to boost volume past 100%

Volume goes to 300%, widening to 600% in Settings. This is for recordings that were mastered too quietly, not for making loud things louder.

What to try first

Those five controls are the entire free product, and they cover most practice work.

The Pro workspace adds an equalizer, effects, markers and clips. Start with the free controls and upgrade only if you hit their limits.