Turn a song into nightcore
One slider, moved up. The pitch rises with the speed — that is the whole trick, and it is why nightcore sounds like nightcore and not like a fast-forward button.
The steps
- Load the track. An MP3 or WAV from your device, or a YouTube link. A local file never leaves your machine.
- Push the speed to 1.25×. That is the bottom of the style. Listen before going further.
- Work up to 1.30× – 1.35×. This is where most nightcore lives. The vocal should sound bright, not thin.
- Or hit the NIGHTCORE preset. It sets 1.43× with a trace of reverb — deliberately extreme. Good starting point on a slow ballad, too much on an already fast track.
- Judge it on a sung line. Not the intro. Vocals break before instruments do.
- Export. MP3 to publish, WAV or FLAC if it goes into a video editor.
Nightcore or sped up — the difference is the pitch
The two words get used as if they were the same thing. They are not, and the gap is audible.
Sped up means the track plays faster. Nightcore means the track plays faster and higher, because the pitch is carried along by the speed, exactly as a record spun faster rises in pitch. That is where the bright, almost cartoon vocal comes from — the genre was built on that accident in the early 2000s, from a Norwegian duo's edits.
Here, speed and pitch always move together. So a sped up edit and a nightcore edit come from the same slider, at different settings: around 1.10× – 1.25× reads as sped up, 1.25× and beyond reads as nightcore. If you want the full story of where the style came from, the nightcore guide covers it.
Speeds, and what each one sounds like
| Speed | Pitch shift, roughly | What you hear |
|---|---|---|
| 1.10× | +1.5 semitones | Barely sped up. Most people would not name it. |
| 1.25× | +4 semitones | The floor of nightcore. Bright, still natural. |
| 1.30× – 1.35× | +4.5 to +5 semitones | The classic nightcore register. Start here. |
| 1.43× (preset) | +6 semitones | Aggressive. Works on ballads, harsh on fast pop. |
| 1.50× and up | +7 semitones or more | Vocals start to squeak. Deliberate territory only. |
A rule that saves time: the slower and more sung the original, the more speed it takes. A track already at 150 BPM rarely survives past 1.30×.
What it costs, plainly
Your own file is free. Load an MP3 or WAV from your device and convert as often as you like, with no account. The audio is processed by your browser, on your machine, which is why there is no limit to impose.
A YouTube link is paid. That mode runs on a server — the track has to be fetched and decoded first. Access costs €2.99 for seven days or €19.99 for a year, paid once, no subscription, with fifteen seconds of the result to hear before you decide.
What it will not do
It will not speed a track up while keeping the original pitch. Speed and pitch move together here, on purpose — that is the nightcore method. If you need the tempo changed without touching the voice, this is not the tool.
It will not turn a nightcore file back into the original. The information is not lost, but the operation is a different one, and re-slowing an already sped up file stacks artefacts.
And it will not settle the rights question. A nightcore version is a derivative work; fingerprinting recognises it through the pitch shift.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make nightcore online?
Load the song, raise the speed to 1.25× – 1.40×, export. Nothing to install, and a file from your own device is free.
What speed is nightcore?
Between 1.25× and 1.35× for most tracks, which lifts the pitch by three to five semitones. The preset here uses 1.43×, at the extreme end of the style.
Is nightcore just sped up?
No. Nightcore raises the pitch along with the tempo; a sped up edit that keeps the original pitch sounds fast but flat. In this tool the pitch always follows the speed, so the difference is where you stop on the slider.
Is it free?
Yes for a file from your own device — unlimited, no account, processed in your browser. Only the YouTube link mode is paid.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in the mobile browser, with nothing to install. Check the result on the phone speaker: that is where most nightcore gets heard.
Can I publish it?
A nightcore version is a derivative work. The rights on the original still apply and platforms identify it by fingerprint, pitch shift included. For anything beyond private listening, check the source.