The nightcore
speed

The answer is 135%

Classic nightcore sits at 135% speed, which raises the pitch +5.2 semitones; the usable range is 125-150%.

The number is a convention, not a rule written down anywhere, but it is a strong convention. At 135%, the pitch rise is a little more than a perfect fourth — large enough to change the character of a voice completely, small enough that the words stay easy to follow and the melody keeps its shape. Below about 125%, listeners hear a faster copy of the original song. Above about 150%, most vocals stop being pleasant to listen to. The sound the style is named for lives between those walls, and 135% is its center of gravity.

The pitch number matters as much as the tempo number. Nightcore uses linked speed change: 12 semitones per doubling of speed, the way tape and vinyl behave. That is why every tempo in this article comes with a pitch value attached — you are choosing both at once, with one control.

A note on how people write these settings, since you will meet several notations: 135%, 1.35x and "speed 1.35" all mean the same rate. Some editors describe versions by the pitch instead — "+5 semitones" — which on a linked player corresponds to about 133.5%. If a description only gives one of the two numbers, the other follows automatically on any player that keeps the link, including the one on this page.

Tempo to pitch, 120% to 150%

Every setting in the range, with the pitch it produces and what to expect from it.

Tempo scales the beat count directly, which is a useful second way to read this table. A 100 BPM song becomes a 135 BPM song at 135%. A 90 BPM ballad becomes 121 BPM at 135% and 126 BPM at 140% — which is why slower songs can take the higher settings: they arrive in normal dance-tempo territory instead of overshooting it. The song's length shrinks by the same factor, so a four-minute original at 135% plays in just under three minutes — part of why the style feels so compressed and urgent.

How to choose inside the range

Start at 135% and let two things move you off it: the source tempo and the voice.

The source tempo sets the ceiling. A slow song, roughly 70-90 BPM, has room to spare — 140-150% lands it in dance territory and the strong pitch rise suits the drama such songs usually carry. Ordinary pop, around 100-120 BPM, sits best at 130-138%. A song that is already fast, 130 BPM or more, usually only needs 125%, because past that the drums crowd together and the track turns hectic rather than urgent.

The voice sets the floor of quality. Deep voices absorb a large pitch rise gracefully and often sound better with more. High, bright voices reach an unpleasant edge sooner, so back down until the chorus stops sounding strained. Judge on the chorus, not the verse — it is the loudest, highest part, and it is where a too-high setting fails first.

The math, if you want it

The pitch change in semitones is 12 times the base-2 logarithm of the rate. You never need to calculate it — the player shows the value live — but the formula explains the table: 135% gives 12 × log2(1.35) = +5.2 semitones, and 150% gives exactly +7.0, a perfect fifth. It also answers the reverse question. If you want a specific musical interval, +5 semitones exactly is 133.5%, and +7 semitones exactly is 149.8% — which is why 135% and 150% became such natural landmarks: they sit almost exactly on intervals the ear already knows.

Common mistakes

Three come up again and again. Judging on the intro: many songs open quiet and low, so a setting that flatters the intro collapses at the chorus — always confirm on the loudest section. Changing the setting to fix a different problem: if a version sounds harsh, the cure is usually a small step down in tempo, not extra volume or reverb. And treating 135% as mandatory: the classic number is the best first guess, but a version at 128% that keeps the voice comfortable beats a version at 135% that does not. The number serves the song, not the other way around.

A note on loudness

Raising a song moves its energy toward the frequencies your ears are most sensitive to, so a nightcore version feels louder than the original at the same level. Check the waveform before exporting, and pull the volume down slightly if the peaks sit near the top, so the exported file stays clean.

Set it in under a minute

The player at the top of this page already starts at 135%, so most of the work is done.

1. Press play on the demo track to hear what 135% does before you commit your own song.
2. Drop in a file from your device.
3. Jump to the chorus and listen. The pitch readout shows +5.2 semitones — that is the classic sound.
4. If the voice strains, step down toward 130% or 125%. If the song is slow and the effect feels weak, step up toward 140%.
5. Loop the chorus while you compare settings, so every candidate is judged on the same bars.
6. Export as MP3 or WAV. The whole song exports free; a short spoken note plays after the song ends and can be cropped away.

You love nightcore? There is a player for that.

Y2K Player is a music player for iPhone and iPad where 135% is a setting a song remembers, not an export you manage.

Set a song's speed once and the app saves it with the song, so it plays that way in your library and playlists every time. It works offline, needs no account, and when a version deserves to be shared it exports video at 1080p over visualizers. Your whole library can live at whatever speed each song sounds best at.

Free to use. Pro is one payment — forever.