Pitch range calculator
Enter a track tempo and your pitch fader range to see the BPM limits, then enter the tempo you want to match. The calculator gives the pitch adjustment in percent and the key change you would hear with key lock off.
Updated 2026-10-16
Pitch range calculator
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How pitch faders change tempo
A pitch fader scales playback speed by a percentage. At +8% a 125 BPM track plays at 135 BPM; at −8% it plays at 115 BPM. The fader range decides how far apart two tracks can be and still be matched: a ±8% range from 126 BPM covers roughly 116 to 136 BPM, while ±16% stretches that to about 106 to 146 BPM.
To match track A to track B, the adjustment needed is (B − A) / A × 100 percent. Going from 126 to 130 BPM takes +3.17%, well within any range; going from 126 to 140 BPM needs +11.1%, which a ±8% or ±10% fader cannot reach without switching to a wider range.
What happens to the key
Without key lock (also called master tempo), speeding a track up raises its pitch. The shift in semitones is 12 × log2(new tempo / old tempo). A +6% change is almost exactly one semitone (12 × log2(1.06) = 1.01), which is why ±6% is a popular range for DJs who mix in key: the whole fader stays within a semitone.
With key lock on, the player time-stretches the audio so the key stays put. Small adjustments of a few percent usually sound clean; large stretches of 10% or more can smear transients and add artifacts, especially on vocals, so many DJs turn key lock off for big changes and accept the pitch shift.
Choosing a range
- ±6%: finest control per millimetre of fader travel; ideal for harmonic mixing in one genre with tight tempos.
- ±8%: the classic turntable range; enough to bridge most house and techno sets.
- ±10% and ±16%: common on digital players; ±16% covers jumps between genres, for example 128 to 140 BPM, at the cost of coarser control.
- Wide (up to ±100% on some players): for creative tempo changes and half-time tricks; precise beatmatching becomes difficult.
Tempo jumps between genres
For jumps beyond the fader range, DJs usually bridge with a track in between, use a half-time or double-time relationship, or cut rather than blend.
| From | To | Pitch needed | Key change (no key lock) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 124 BPM house | 128 BPM house | +3.23% | +0.55 semitones |
| 128 BPM house | 132 BPM techno | +3.13% | +0.53 semitones |
| 128 BPM house | 140 BPM dubstep grid | +9.38% | +1.55 semitones |
| 140 BPM | 150 BPM hard techno | +7.14% | +1.19 semitones |
| 87 BPM half-time | 174 BPM drum and bass | none: same grid | none |
Frequently asked questions
- How much pitch change is one semitone?
- About +5.95% to go up a semitone and −5.61% to go down one. Twelve equal semitones multiply the speed by 2, so each semitone is a factor of 2 to the power of 1/12, which is 1.0595.
- Does key lock affect the BPM?
- No. Key lock keeps the musical key constant while the tempo changes with the fader. The BPM you read on the display is the same with key lock on or off; only the pitch of the audio differs.
- Why does my mix sound off even though the BPMs match?
- Matching BPM aligns the tempo, not the beats or the phrases. The beatmatching guide covers nudging the beats into alignment and starting the incoming track on a phrase boundary.