Announcing Updates to Drift4: Integrated Gentle, Image Size Options, and More!
June 21, 2025
Sarah Yuniar


Editor’s note: This blog post provides a series of updates about Drift4, a pitch-tracking software available on the SpokenWeb website.You can read more about how Drift4 works in this previous blog post, and you can access Drift4 through the SpokenWeb Research Tools page here.
Major updates have arrived to Drift4 since its release in 2022 that improve ease of use for both future and current users. That being said, current users of Drift will not need to worry about learning a new interface or fiddling with settings. Core functionality remains the same and most of these updates function in the background.
For new users who may be unfamiliar with Drift, it is a highly accurate pitch-tracker prototyped in 2016 that visualizes vocal pitch in an easy-to-read manner, complete with transcript alignment. It incorporates prosodic measures used by Voxit, a distant listening toolkit, and works with Gentle, a forced aligner, to align a user-provided transcript to an audio recording.

The most recent updates to Drift improve how the application works with Gentle and provide more options for downloading pitch traces. These upgrades allow for a more intuitive and feature-rich user experience, expanding the usability and quality of Drift for its users.
Integrated Gentle
Current users will know that Gentle was a separate application that needed to be launched on the desktop before opening Drift. The current version of Drift runs Gentle internally, so this inconvenience has been eliminated. Users may simply start up Drift if they wish to use it without worrying about a second application. In addition, Drift can now automatically detect where Gentle is running, so the option for changing Gentle’s port has been removed from Drift’s settings as it is no longer necessary.
Image Size Options

When choosing to download a pitch trace, the user can now choose between different qualities depending on their needs. For example, users can download a 2K resolution PNG of their pitch trace for large displays or boards, or they can download a smaller version to optimize for space-saving or sending purposes.
Bug Fixes
Beyond the major changes already stated, several bugs have been fixed to smooth out user experience. These include:
- Audio files in the MP3 not processing with intensive measures.
This bug has been fixed and intensive measures can now be extracted from MP3 audio files. - Pitch range not excluding outliers.
Pitch range is now actually calculated excluding outliers, matching the definition of “pitch range” in the prosodic measures page. - Prosodic measures missing on old audio files.
- Audio recordings processed in older versions of Drift now include new prosodic measures as well.
Final Notes
With use and feedback from SpokenWeb members, Drift carries the potential to evolve even further. We encourage your engagement! For any questions or suggestions, users may contact mjmacarthur@ucdavis.edu.