HTMLMediaElement: preservesPitch property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since December 2023.

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The HTMLMediaElement.preservesPitch property determines whether or not the browser should adjust the pitch of the audio to compensate for changes to the playback rate made by setting HTMLMediaElement.playbackRate.

Value

A boolean value defaulting to true.

Examples

Setting the preservesPitch property

In this example, we have an <audio> element, a range control that adjusts the playback rate, and a checkbox that sets preservesPitch.

Try playing the audio, then adjusting the playback rate, then enabling and disabling the checkbox.

html

<audio
  controls
  src="https://mdn.github.io/webaudio-examples/audio-basics/outfoxing.mp3"></audio>

<div>
  <label for="rate">Adjust playback rate:</label>
  <input id="rate" type="range" min="0.25" max="3" step="0.05" value="1" />
</div>

<div>
  <label for="pitch">Preserve pitch:</label>
  <input type="checkbox" id="pitch" name="pitch" checked />
</div>

div {
  margin: 0.5rem 0;
}

const audio = document.querySelector("audio");
document.getElementById("rate").addEventListener("change", (e) => {
  audio.playbackRate = e.target.value;
});
document.getElementById("pitch").addEventListener("change", (e) => {
  audio.preservesPitch = e.target.checked;
});