Slowing a tune down and keeping the pitch?

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 21 Sep 2020 11:51 am

I lately was interested in copying a Jimmy Bryant tune.
The person offered the tabulature for a few bucks which I bought.
Then I found that in the vid I could slow the music down to from 25 to 75% (whilst keeping the original key). Which I did, and it was very helpful to play along, while looking at the sheets.
Now I wonder since when this technology was inventented and how it is done.
Any ideas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLYdcNQMk5I

Jeremy Reeves · Post by **Jeremy Reeves** » 21 Sep 2020 12:10 pm

Someone probably figured out what percent key change happens with what percent tempo change and made a program to compensate the tuning difference. I love that youtube now offers this.
I really enjoy using the program Transcribe! to do the same thing

Tommy Mc · Post by **Tommy Mc** » 21 Sep 2020 1:25 pm

I don't know how it's done...elves inside the computer? What I do know is that the technology isn't limited to youtube. I've been doing it for years with the free audio editor "Audacity". Many other audio programs also have this feature. What makes Audacity so useful is that you can slow down the entire song, or just selected passages. You can highlight a single note or riff and set it to loop. You can also change the key of a song. Very handy, and not a steep learning curve...I mean, if I can figure it out, anybody can.

Dale Foreman · Post by **Dale Foreman** » 21 Sep 2020 3:24 pm

You can also slow YouTube down as well!

Edward Efira · Post by **Edward Efira** » 21 Sep 2020 4:25 pm

There is an app named "Capo" that really does the job well for free with additional bells & whistle if you pay a few bucks.
http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/

Andrew Roblin · Post by **Andrew Roblin** » 22 Sep 2020 5:21 am

Is there a way to slow down without changing the pitch of music on a video that's not on youtube? I have some videos on my laptop that I play in Windowns Film & TV. I'd like to slow down to study the music.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 22 Sep 2020 7:56 am

The Rowland Guitar Trainer is specifically made for this purpose, but only works on CD's. Cheap on ebay. Retail new for about $150.00.

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 22 Sep 2020 8:03 am

I have used "Transcribe" for probably 20 years. It was the best app I could find for slowing down a recording at that time. The current version will speed up and slow down most audio formats, and also works with video. It will also change pitch, loop sections and allow you to save your work for future use. There are more functions that I do not use. IMHO, for slowing down, looping,and changing pitch, it is still the best. Do a search for "Transcribe!" with the exclamation mark. The web site is very thorough about explainig its many uses. I believe the current price is 40 dollars.

Ron Hogan · Post by **Ron Hogan** » 22 Sep 2020 8:10 am

This has worked great for me. It does everything you want.

CLICK HERE

Ron

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 22 Sep 2020 10:25 am

The free, open-source multi-media player VLC Media Player does this and much more with zero issues. It works on practically any platform - windows of various sorts, os x, ios, apple tv, linux, android, chrome, various BSDs, solaris, os/2, pretty much whatever.

With the touch of a couple of buttons, I can slow down and loop parts in a few seconds. I view it as the swiss army knife of media players - I haven't yet found a format that it won't render - https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Andrew Roblin · Post by **Andrew Roblin** » 22 Sep 2020 10:45 am

Thank you, Dave! And Ron, Jim and George.

Tom Dillon · Post by **Tom Dillon** » 22 Sep 2020 11:09 am

+1 for Transcribe. I use it daily. It only works on computers, not phones, and that might rule it out for some. It can slow down video and audio files and has lots of handy features if you want to use them. Very easy to use.

https://www.seventhstring.com/

Jon Jaffe · Post by **Jon Jaffe** » 22 Sep 2020 12:23 pm

AmazingSlowDowner is for computers and mobile devices. It has been around for years. The author is a guitarist, so the software is musician-friendly.
https://www.ronimusic.com/slowdown.htm

Dave Owens · Post by **Dave Owens** » 22 Sep 2020 4:52 pm

Transcribe! also lets you program a foot pedal, a handy feature.

Jon Voth · Post by **Jon Voth** » 22 Sep 2020 7:44 pm

Also for "Transcribe". The best program for that.

Brad Richard · Post by **Brad Richard** » 23 Sep 2020 5:41 am

Jon Jaffe wrote:AmazingSlowDowner is for computers and mobile devices. It has been around for years. The author is a guitarist, so the software is musician-friendly.
https://www.ronimusic.com/slowdown.htm

Second that! I've used it for years.

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 23 Sep 2020 6:10 am

I’ve used AmazingSlowDowner for years and really love it. Full version is $15 on iOS.

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 23 Sep 2020 9:38 am

Best Practice Slow down software does the job and is free. http://bestpractice.sourceforge.net/

Lance Clifford · Post by **Lance Clifford** » 23 Sep 2020 9:53 am

Vidami pedal demo, currently works with Chrome and Safari, though ipad compatibility is "in development":

https://youtu.be/0lHzgewJghg

Compatible Platforms:
YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, MartyMusic, GuitarTricks, GuitarZoom, MusicIsWin, LinkedIn Learning, JustinGuitar, GuitarZero2Hero, GL365 Academy

Review: https://the-gadgeteer.com/2020/08/06/ud ... al-review/

https://vidami.com/

Tal Herbsman · Post by **Tal Herbsman** » 23 Sep 2020 11:06 am

Riffstation. no longer supported but available here and there:

http://riffstation.findmysoft.com/ (I didn't personally test this particular download)

lets you slow down and speed up and also isolate instruments.

Gabriel Edell · Post by **Gabriel Edell** » 23 Sep 2020 4:44 pm

Joachim Kettner wrote: Now I wonder since when this technology was inventented and how it is done.
Any ideas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLYdcNQMk5I

Sometime in the late 70s with the advent of digital recording. Algorithms rearrange the 1s and 0s to allow a speed change without a pitch change, or vice versa. It was originally used to fit radio commercials neatly into 30 or 60 second slots.

The technology came into its own in the late 80s and was available on the Akai samplers and Evantide Harmonizers. I still have a Kurzweil sampler from the late 90s with "time stretch". You'd set it up, push a button, and walk away - sometimes it would take 30 minutes to finish the process.

Douglas Schuch · Post by **Douglas Schuch** » 23 Sep 2020 6:07 pm

Some quick thoughts:

Best Practice - I used it a lot in the past, but lately, it does not work with any video used with the online "downloader" software - the pitch changes.

Count me another vote for VLC - works great and is free!

How does it do it? It's digital - so pitch is not determined by playing speed. I am no expert with digital sound data, but the capability has been there ever since digital music began. I remember reading years ago someone suggesting building a CD player for musicians that had a playback speed control as they writer realized that pitch and speed were different data sets in digital.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 24 Sep 2020 7:13 am

Thanks for your replies!
I'm not the most intelligent people in this world, so I didnt get Gabriel's 1 and 0 at all, but to explain this any further would be a large stretch (but still I would be very interested) So won't you go ahead Gabriel?
I used my own silly technology in playing 33 1/3 rpm records at 45 speed recording it to reel to reel tape and slowing it down. It was exactly 1 tone lower, which I tuned the guitar to.

Tim Harr · Post by **Tim Harr** » 27 Sep 2020 2:28 pm

I use this. iPhone or IPad app

David Hodan · Post by **David Hodan** » 27 Sep 2020 3:46 pm

A tool I've used for a number of years for this type of thing is Mixxx. https://www.mixxx.org/ It's really a full boat DJ tool that has been supported by Google and their Summer Of Code program for years. There are free versions for Apple, Windows, and Linux. They use the VAMP plugins and a software library called aubio for this analysis and support. Queen Mary University of London is the place for info. You can learn all about them here... http://c4dm.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/software_data.html

This software is free, open source and available for all major platforms. Most all software that does this type of thing well uses these underlying tools as far as I know.

Another great resource for info on this type of thing is the Stanford CCRMA ...https://ccrma.stanford.edu/
CCRMA has quite a few free seminars and other online content.

Have Fun!

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