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I was watching a video on YouTube. I think he said:

Il a donc fallu que je recale chaque groupe de notes pour avoir quelque chose qui ressemble à un chat mais qui soit quand même musical ou au moins un petit peu.

I'm quite sure that he said "recale", but the only usage of the verb "recaler" that I know of is in the sense of "fail" which does not apply to this context. Given the context, I wonder if it is a shortened form of "recalculer", though I cannot seem to find any dictionary entry for this.

Is "recaler" commonly used in conversation as an equivalent of "recalculer"? Or have I heard wrong, and is it actually some other word?

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The verb recaler means readjust here, not that other recaler. It is also unrelated to recalculer.

Recaler means caler again, i.e. adjust something with the help of a cale: a wedge (German Keil).

The idea is to draw a cat on a "read sheet music" (midi clips), possibly with this software, then slightly readjust (i.e. recaler) the notes to reach an acceptable piece of music.

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  • By the way, I wonder if it isn't better to say "mais/et qui en même temps soit musical" rather than "quand même", given the context?
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 17:57
  • Not better, but possible. With quand même, it is assumed a cat drawing is not naturally "musical" while with en même temps the negative correlation is less stressed. That's "nevertheless/still" vs "at the same time".
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 20:53
  • caler les notes, décaler les notes, et les re-caler: on le voit ici: books.google.com/… It's not normal conversation, it is used in music.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 22:06
  • Pinterest a plein de chats avec ou sur des partitions de musique.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 22:22
  • @Lambie Recaler can be used in several "normal conversation" contexts, not just music.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 22:29

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