Slow down tracks

Billy McCombs · Post by **Billy McCombs** » 9 Jan 2016 2:54 pm

Whats a good program for slowing down a track for learning songs. Thanks

James Sission · Post by **James Sission** » 9 Jan 2016 3:04 pm

The amazing slow downer.

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 9 Jan 2016 3:23 pm

Riffstation is very good too.

Audacity can do this also, and it is free.

Carl Kilmer · Post by **Carl Kilmer** » 9 Jan 2016 4:15 pm

I always use Audacity to slow down or speed up tracks.
You can also insert click counts before the intro so you
start on the right beat if you want to play the intro.
You can also change the key, equalize, normalize, and do
many other things with to get the sound you really want.

Chris Sattler · Post by **Chris Sattler** » 9 Jan 2016 8:29 pm

if you have windows media player then you can slow it down right there. I learnt this trick right here on the forum.

The play button at the bottom centre has that function. Just right click it to change the speed. Not sure if iTunes has similar function.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 9 Jan 2016 8:54 pm

Transcribe! is the best IMO. I've used it and Amazing Slow Downer a lot, but Transcribe! is much preferred.

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 9 Jan 2016 9:29 pm

Hey Mike, thanks for the tip. I just downloaded Transcribe and played around it a bit. I wasn't even aware of it. I have Riffstation, which works very well, but Transcribe appears to be much more robust, and for roughly the same cost. The MIDI control interface looks like it could be really cool, I'm going to try hooking up my Line 6 controller board to it. Good stuff.

Dave Campbell · Post by **Dave Campbell** » 10 Jan 2016 4:04 am

+1 for transcribe.

Alexander Rehfeld · Post by **Alexander Rehfeld** » 10 Jan 2016 4:25 am

I love the Amazing Slow Downer app for iOS! It helps me a lot when learning fast songs.

John Swain · Post by **John Swain** » 10 Jan 2016 9:13 am

The free VLC software plays videos and slows them. Works great for seeing where Tommy White plays his riffs. Also changes aspect ratio of those IPhone videos.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 10 Jan 2016 10:04 am

Billy... I’ve use both Riffstation and my DAW, (Studio One 3 Professional) and they both work really well... I prefer the DAW, because not only can I slow it down without any perceptive tonal changes, I can also change the key if I want to whatever key I want... The DAW is more expensive, but if you have a DAW already, look and see if that option is available in yours.

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 10 Jan 2016 10:04 am

I have used Transcribe for probably 15 years. The functions I use the most are slow down, changing key, and looping. It does a lot of other things that I have yet to figure out. I have found it to be easier to use than the amazing slow downer. Also it will handle a variety of audio formats, and i think it will take audio tracks straight from video also. It also saves audio files with any changes you make in its own format. very handy for saving loops and key changes.

Jamie Mitchell · Post by **Jamie Mitchell** » 10 Jan 2016 11:22 am

Mike Neer wrote:Transcribe! is the best IMO. I've used it and Amazing Slow Downer a lot, but Transcribe! is much preferred.

why's that, Mike?

i use Amazing Slow Downer on the iphone, and i love it. somehow i find it laid out better on the phone than on the computer...

Steve Matlock · Post by **Steve Matlock** » 10 Jan 2016 7:58 pm

There are a lot of programs that will do that and I haven't tried them all, but Transcribe is the best I've ever seen and is an awesome learning tool! Many features beyond just speed but fairly simple to use.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 10 Jan 2016 8:15 pm

Jamie Mitchell wrote:
Mike Neer wrote:Transcribe! is the best IMO. I've used it and Amazing Slow Downer a lot, but Transcribe! is much preferred.
why's that, Mike?

i use Amazing Slow Downer on the iphone, and i love it. somehow i find it laid out better on the phone than on the computer...

Transcribe is much more intuitive and easier to highlight sections for looping. ASD has some good qualities about it, and I still use it for certain things, but for transcribing I go straight to Transcribe.

For iOS I prefer Anytune Pro+.

Ricky Hagan · Post by **Ricky Hagan** » 12 Jan 2016 1:03 pm

Best Practice

Kenneth Kotsay · Post by **Kenneth Kotsay** » 12 Jan 2016 4:18 pm

Try, AMAZING SLOW DOWNER, via Google SEARCH.

ken

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 12 Jan 2016 4:21 pm

welcome to the, ummm... discussion...

Gibson Hartwell · Post by **Gibson Hartwell** » 13 Jan 2016 8:15 am

I've been using the Anytune Pro+ app on my iPad and iPhone and it's pretty impressive. The pitch adjustment and looping functions are real helpful.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 22 Jan 2016 5:44 am

I recently found something on YouTube which is a help. When your YT clip is playing, in the lower right corner there is an icon which looks like a cog or a gear. Click on that and select "speed". If you hit " .5 " it will slow the rate down, but it does not get all low and distorted like playing a 45 record at 33 speed. Just repeat the action selecting "normal" when you are done.

Being an old guy and not tech savvy I thought I was the only one who did not know it, but I mentioned it to another steeler and it was news to him also. Of course this only works on YouTube, not other tracks you have in other formats or sources. But hopefully this will be a help to somebody.

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 22 Jan 2016 10:44 am

Don R Brown wrote:I recently found something on YouTube which is a help. When your YT clip is playing, in the lower right corner there is an icon which looks like a cog or a gear. Click on that and select "speed". If you hit " .5 " it will slow the rate down, but it does not get all low and distorted like playing a 45 record at 33 speed. Just repeat the action selecting "normal" when you are done.

Being an old guy and not tech savvy I thought I was the only one who did not know it, but I mentioned it to another steeler and it was news to him also. Of course this only works on YouTube, not other tracks you have in other formats or sources. But hopefully this will be a help to somebody.

Here's something you might like also Don, it's called YouRepeat:

http://www.yourepeat.com/

It's an online Youtube 'shell' that adds a looping feature to Youtube videos. You still have the same options for speed control, etc. but can also set short loops to repeat as long as you want. The interface is fairly simple and intuitive. If you have Firefox browser there is a plugin that adds a button that will take you there directly from any Youtube video. I don't know if there are plugins for other browsers, but an easy way to get there is simply to change the word "tube" in the address bar to "repeat", i.e. change 'http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=nWmbFXJDHrM&s' to 'http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=nWmbFXJDHrM&s' and there you are, URL format is the same.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 22 Jan 2016 11:18 am

Ian - so if I understand correctly, I can define some small segment of a song - such as the steel break - and repeat it endlessly until it becomes ingrained in my mind enough to work with? Fantastic - thanks! Sure beats mousing a stop, re-position and restart!

Walter Bowden · Post by **Walter Bowden** » 22 Jan 2016 9:10 pm

I have been using Amazing Slow Downer lite which is a free version. Some restrictions as opposed to the pay version but works for me. JMHO.
Walter

Walter Bowden · Post by **Walter Bowden** » 22 Jan 2016 9:20 pm

Hey Don.

Just checked out your You Tube speed change suggestion and I appreciate your mentioning it.

It works like you said it does.

Best, Walter

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 23 Jan 2016 5:40 am

Walter, I'm glad I could help. Altho I will say a few times I THOUGHT I had a lick figured out, then when slowing it down I heard a bunch of other notes in there I had not picked up on!

I'm also told that while that tool works with Google and Firefox, those using Internet Explorer for a browser don't have the "speed" setting available.