How to Nightcore a song AUTOMATICALLY! (Windows/Mac)

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Gummy
Posts: 1
Joined: September 8th, 2021, 4:40 pm

How to Nightcore a song AUTOMATICALLY! (Windows/Mac)

Post by Gummy » September 15th, 2021, 5:59 pm

Let me tell you the simplest way to automatically nightcore any song you play on your computer. No need to download any MP3s or audio editors and convert every song manually. Set it up once and you will always have unlimited nightcore music in one click. It works for both Windows and Mac (but they work completely differently and it's much easier to set up on Mac while the audio quality is better on Windows in my subjective opinion).

Windows:
1. Download Voicemeeter Banana (Potato works too but we don't need any of the extra functionality), install and restart Windows. https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm
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2. After restart, right click the sound icon in the Windows tray and click Sounds.
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3. Click the Playback tab and select 'VoiceMeeter Input' and click Set Default.
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4. Open Voicemeeter Banana and set 'A1' to the device you want as output. If you see more than one option like WDM and MME, either one is fine. WDM is recommanded over MME because the latency is lower but if one doesn't work then you can use the other. If you want sound output from multiple devices at the same time, you can set A2 and A3 as well (make sure to enable A2 and A3 for Voicemeeter VAIO under virtual inputs as well). If not, leave it blank. Play some audio and make sure you can hear sound from your device before continuing.
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5. Click the Menu button on the top right, click system settings, find the PATCH INSERT tabs on the bottom, activate the ports in4 Left and in4 Right (because port 4 is the virtual port, port 1-3 are for physical devices). The other in4 ports almost certainly don't matter to you because 99% of consumer audio equipment is stereo, but it will not break anything if they are activated.
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6. Download Cantabile, install and open Cantabile (64 bit is recommended if you have a 64 bit OS, use 32 bit if 64 bit doesn't work with your system or you find a plugin that only supports 32 bit). https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/
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7. Cantabile will ask you to register, just follow the process to get a free license, you can use a disposable email if you want. When it asks you to select a license, select Cantabile 3 Lite. If you select Cantabile 3 Performer or Solo it will still work but it has extra functionality we don't need and it is a trial so you still have to go back to the lite version after 30 days. The lite version is free forever.
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8. After you get to the 'Welcome to Cantabile' window, in the Audio Driver tab you must select the audio driver 'ASIO - Voicemeeter Insert Virtual ASIO'. Leave the default sample rate and buffer size.
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9. In the Audio Ports tab you must change both the in and out ports to port 4 . Change the left port and right port to IN#4 Left and IN#4 Right respectively. If you activated the other in4 ports earlier you need to add those ports here, but again 99% of consumer audio equipment is stereo so I would not recommend it. The metronome will not be used, you can delete it or leave it alone it will not break anything.
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10. MIDI ports will not be used, you can delete it or leave it alone it will not break anything.
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11. Leave the VST Plugins tab alone, we will add plugins later.
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12. After the setup is finished, now we need a pitch shifter VST plugin. I recommend elastiquePitch because it seems to give the best quality. You can buy it from their website or search "zplane Elastique & PPM Bundle" to download it for free. If you do some research and experiment you can find other pitch shifter VST plugins that also work with Cantabile.
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13. In Cantabile, click Tools in the menu bar and click Options. Click the Plugin Options tab and add the plugin you extracted or installed. If the plugin was in a zip file extract it and browse to the vst3 or dll file. If you used an installer, Cantabile will probably find the folder automatically, if not, check the following locations to add it manually:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 (look for .vst3 file)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3 (look for .vst3 file)
C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins (look for .dll file)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins (look for .dll file)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2 (look for .dll file)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Steinberg\VST2 (look for .dll file)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VstPlugins (look for .dll file)
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14. Click on the + in the main Cantabile window, in the pop up windows select the pitch shift plugin that you want to use.
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15. Make sure the 'Main Microphone' is connected to the 'Main In' port of the plugin and the 'Main Out' port of the plugin is connected to the 'Main Speaker'. Right click the plugin and click plugin editor. Now, every plugin will have a different editor, check the manual of your plugin if you need help with using it. In my example, ElastiquePitch is very simple, simply drag the slider and the pitch changes accordingly. Most pitch shifters use a common unit of measurement called semitones, personally I think +4.00 semitones is most ideal and nightcore-like, but you can adjust it according to your preference. If your pitch shifter uses percentages, +4.00 is equal to about 125%.
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16. After you get your ideal effects, click File in the menu bar and click save. Save the file in a location easy to find, such as the Documents folder. Now you are done, every time you want to nightcore your music in realtime, just open Voicemeeter, set it as default sound device, open Cantabile and open the file you saved.
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Mac:
1. Download Audio Hijack, open it to install the audio engine and restart macOS.
https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/
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2. After restart, open Audio Hijack and click New session. Choose System Audio in the pop up window.
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3. By default, you should have 3 blocks: System Audio, Recorder, and Output Device. If you do not have the System Audio or Output Device block for any reason, you can add them from the sidebar. Right click and delete the recorder block (unless you wish to use recording functionality). In the sidebar, open 'AUDIO UNIT EFFECTS' and find the 'AUNewPitch' block. Drag the block into the middle between System Audio and Output Device.
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4. Click on the AUNewPitch block you just added. Drag the Pitch Scale slider to change the pitch. Personally I think +400 cents is most ideal and nightcore-like, but you can adjust it according to your preference.
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5. After you get your ideal effects, make sure the correct output device is selected in the Output Device block. If you want sound output from multiple devices at the same time, you can add more Output Device blocks from the sidebar. Finally, click the record icon on the bottom left. Now you are done, every time you want to nightcore your music in realtime, just open Audio Hijack, open the 'System Audio' session and click the record icon.
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If you have any questions, you can reply to this topic and I will try to help you.
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