/ Free online tool — Key & scale detector
Drop a file.
Detect the key.
The same key detection that runs inside Sample Vault, in your browser. No upload. No sign-up.
Click or drop audio.
WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, or AAC.
/ Method
How the key detector
works.
Method: chroma analysis + 24-template key matching · Built by Sample Vault
The same key detection the desktop app runs against your library, in your browser.
/ 01 — Pitch tracking
We listen to your audio frame by frame and track the note in each frame. Every frame goes into one of twelve buckets — one per note in the chromatic scale.
/ 02 — Key matching
The note distribution is matched against all 24 possible keys (twelve tonics, major and minor). The closest match wins. Confidence is how far ahead the winner is from the runner-up.
/ 03 — Honest failure modes
Percussion, noise, and atonal FX get a no-key result instead of a confident guess. Single-pitch files report note only. The detector refuses to lie.
/ 04 — Fully local
The file never leaves your machine. Loads once, runs offline thereafter. Useful for unreleased material, label stems, and anything you can't put through a third-party service.
/ Across your library
From one file
to fifty thousand.
The desktop app runs this pipeline — plus tempo, brightness, stereo width, and ~40 other features — across every file in your sample folders. Then lets you search the way you'd describe a sound out loud.