Launch the DAW. Do this either by double-clicking the desktop icon or from the “Start,” “Programs” menu.
Open the “File” menu and select “Open Recent,” “Recent” or “Open.”
Select the relevant session from the drop-down menu. This loads the recorded audio and MIDI into the DAW interface in the exact format and state as it was last saved.
Click on the MIDI track whose pitch you want to change — for example, “MIDI Snare.” This assigns subsequent commands to this channel only, rather than to the mix as a whole. MIDI is the standard interface for recording synthesized and sampled sounds. It is distinct from audio in that you can alter every single sonic characteristic of a note after recording.
Open the “Piano Roll” interface. This is a universal MIDI interface that approximates a piano keyboard. Next to the piano keyboard graphic is a grid. The horizontal axis represents time, in beats and measures. The vertical axis represents notes. Notes are represented as colored grid squares.
Play the track and stop it at the note you want to change.
Click and drag the note up to increase the pitch and down to lower the pitch.
Click on the audio channel you want to edit.
Highlight the area of audio you want to edit. Do so by clicking and dragging your cursor over the sound wave in the audio channel.
Open the “Effects” menu and select a pitch shift tool.
Set the pitch change parameter. Typically the most accurate way to alter pitch is in semitone increments, so select “Semitones.”
Click the “+” or “-” to raise or lower the pitch by a semitone. Click it as many times as required to reach your desired pitch. This process works on any pitched audio recording.
Click on the track to be edited. It doesn’t matter if the track is MIDI or audio, equalization works equally well on both.
Open the “Effects” menu and select “Equalizer.” Note that in some programs, it will be called “EQ.” This effect lets you enhance and cut frequencies present in the sound to give it a different sonic blueprint. The equalizer interface features a curve superimposed on a grid. The curve represents the current frequency profile. The vertical axis of the grid represents amplitude and the horizontal axis represents frequency.
Click on the curve and move it around the grid to create your desired frequency profile.