Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down

Subject: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: cnd
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 12:51 PM

Does anyone know any audio software (free, preferably) that lets you speed up or slow down audio? I know you can change the playback speed on Audacity, but I don't think that impacts the speed of the audio you export.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 12:57 PM

Haven't tried it myself, but there's a thing called "The Amazing Slow-Downer" which I have heard people praising very highly. It's not free, but not expensive either. Might be worth a look.
You can slow music down to 50% in Windows Media Player, or at least you used to be able to do that. I have used that on a couple of occasions, and it works fine.
Best of luck, Kenny

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Will Fly
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 01:11 PM

Audacity allows you to slow/speed without affecting/not affecting pitch.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 01:22 PM

ffmpeg will do it with an 'atempo' filter.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: cnd
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 01:31 PM

Ok, I will have to look into ffmpeg. How do you do it on Audacity? Maybe mine's just an old version. I looked under "Edit" and didn't see anything that looked right there, and I looked under "effects" and didn't see much either. If it helps mine had a huge drop-down menu of effects, not a pop-up box like I've seen online when I tried to Google how to fix it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: cnd
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 01:37 PM

Never mind! I found it under the change speed option (duh) of effects.

It even has the standard record speeds.

You learn something new every day

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 01:39 PM

and I looked under "effects" and didn't see much either

Didn't notice "Change Speed" under the Effects menu then?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,ripov
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 05:24 PM

s8 tunes allows you to speed up/slow down and change pitch while its playing. (As the amazing slow-downer does, but audacity doesn't). The older versions eg 10.1 also change pitch/key by semitones. It has a save button but I've not worked out where it saves things yet!

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: open mike
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 05:57 PM

There is a C.D. recorder made by Marantz/Superscope that has a couple of features --both changing speed with out changing pitch...and also changing the key/pitch--great for music practicing purposes.... here is one of their units.....only items i see seem to be used ones, perhaps they are not in production at this time.... http://www.fdwcorp.com/common/files/424-PAC770750Brochure.pdf    the units i was thinking of are these...one of which i have... Superscope products, such as the PSD230 and PSD340, became very popular with K-12 schools, Colleges and Universities, as well as with students and professional musicians alike......and here is the most recent iteration: In 2014, Superscope introduced the PSD450mkII, Superscope's most advanced and easy-to-use portable digital audio recorder to date. The mkII can be found in recording applications in music, business, government, education, and wherever high-quality audio recording is required. (again, not a free app or digital program, but these units do exist....

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 02:37 AM

SpeedShifter.exe is a decent, simple program, and free....

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 07:13 AM

http://gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-support/practice-tools-and-applications/speedshifter/

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DeanofRochester
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 11:44 PM

Audacity is a brilliant program, free of charge and not plagued by adverts like a lot of freeware. It allows you to speed up or slow down tunes but can also do so much more ... 10 years ago you would have had to pay a couple of hundred quid for a program like this (e.g. Sony Sound Forge) ... I do a lot of sound editing and use it regularly .... highly recommended!

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 12:49 AM

Absolutely agree that Audacity is brilliant and I use it heaps.

However, reading between the lines (possibly incorrectly?), I got the impression that the OP wanted a more simple stand alone programme, hence my recommendation of SpeedShifter, which I've also used for a while. Clean and ad free as far as I can tell....at least if downloaded from the abrsm site and not from some dodgy web re-seller.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 09:50 AM

Audacity.
Mind you there are limits to the feature that are really controlled by mathematics. If you try to alter the speed (tempo) too much it sounds like there is an unhelpful echo. But at least Audacity is free, and very good for all that. If you don't mind the pitch altering there are no inherent limitaions other than the obvious pitch change.

If you want to produce MP3s then you need lameenc and the DLL is best in the same folder as the Audacity exe. And another quirk is that you Export to a WAV or MP3. Save saves a record of your edits and makes for humungous file sets, but you can go back and undo if you are interrupted and have to leave halfway through.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 11:36 AM

Mr Red wrote: If you want to produce MP3s then you need lameenc and the DLL is best in the same folder as the Audacity exe

Audacity will load and export mp3 files. Exporting to mp3 is rather slow but it is there.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,Lester
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 01:10 PM

Stanron - Audacity needs the LAME Encoder DLL downloading separately -

Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from its own websites. Instead, use the following instructions to download and install the free and recommended LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Audacity.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 02:24 PM

Hi Lester. You certainly sound like you know what you are talking about but my in my version of Audacity, 2.0.5, I go to

File
Export

and I get the option of a dozen or more types of file to save to including MP3 files and WAVs.

I spent some time today converting WAVs to MP3s to put on my MP3 player. It is slow but it is there.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 02:31 PM

Mr Red is talking about Windows - are you on Linux, Stanron?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Anglo
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 02:35 PM

I like the Amazing Slow Downer for its interface, even though Audacity (or Amadeus, which I prefer) can do the same processing. I tried it as a "borrowed" copy, but decided it was well worth paying the license fee for.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 02:51 PM

Best Practice (free @ cnet)

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 03:10 PM

GUEST wrote: Mr Red is talking about Windows - are you on Linux, Stanron?

Yes I use Linux Mint. Free operating system, free software, free from virus attack and hidden marketing agendas. Free from Microsoft. What's not to like?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 03:31 PM

I use Linux Mint

Some Linux distros don't include lame with audacity because, as Lester said, it's not opensource. Some do, or include a non-OSS repository; presumably Mint does that.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 03:46 PM

Will Audacity simply play back at a variety of speeds, or can it make a recording that is permanently changed in speed?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 04:01 PM

I've just checked with my Software Manager and 'Lame', although available, is not installed. Something called 'libmp3lame0' is installed as is 'libtwolame0', the first is described as an mp3 encoding library and the other is described as Mpeg audio layer 2 encoding library.

I am not aware of having downloaded these myself. I assume that they were downloaded as part of the Audacity package or one of it's updates. Don't other operating systems do this?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: cnd
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 04:05 PM

Joe, I thought you could only change playback speeds, but I discovered if you hit "effect" and then select "change speed" it comes with basic record RPMs as preset speeds to chose from, or you can make a custom speed selection based on percent increase/decrease.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: cnd
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 04:07 PM

And Stanron, Audacity downloads Lame for you, otherwise it can't do nearly as much work

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 10:07 AM

Well all I can say is all the versions of Audacity I have installed on Windows, and there have been many up to about 1 year ago, lameenc.DLL had to be loaded separately. I currently use Portable Audacity and that needed lameenc.DLL adding manually.

My point about Exporting is that most software uses Save as the goto word for saving. Audacity uses Save for something better but different to the usual mindset of the user. Particularly a new user. Our OP is suitably warned, and will no doubt learn by mistake at some stage, we all do.

As for Linux, apart from the culture shock and the huge task of altering all my VBA on Excel & Word it has nothing for me. I did a search for Linux software for Stroud FM and nothing came close to running the radio station on Linux. Getting 50 wannabe DJ's up to speed on something "new" was a non-starter. We sometimes have to go with the history, rather than the toys. Computers are tools, don't ya know?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 10:49 AM

Mr Red wrote: Well all I can say is all the versions of Audacity I have installed on Windows, and there have been many up to about 1 year ago, lameenc.DLL had to be loaded separately.

In Linux, it depends on who packaged it - whether they included a dependency on the lame encoder (libmp3lame0) which depends whether the package is part of a 'pure opensource' distribution. But, as cnd said, if Audacity lacks a lame encoder it'll tell you. Lots of Linux software needs an mp3 encoder so any one of those could have caused it to be installed.

Stanron wrote: I spent some time today converting WAVs to MP3s to put on my MP3 player. It is slow but it is there.

If you don't mind using command line utilities, the easiest way to convert a WAV to and MP3 is ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i filename.wav filename.mp3

I have a script for converting all files of a certain type in a directory to MP3 - I put a copy here.

Coming back to the original question, to slow down an audio to half speed can be done with:

ffmpeg -i inputfile -filter:a "atempo=0.5" outputfile

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 11:24 AM

GUEST,DaveRo wrote: If you don't mind using command line utilities, the easiest way to convert a WAV to and MP3 is ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i filename.wav filename.mp3

Just tried this and got

ffmpeg: command not found.

The only lame related software I've got installed is

'libmp3lame0' and 'libtwolame0'

Do these require different commands?

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 11:42 AM

I'm surprised that Mint doesn't include ffmpeg - if that's the problem. Perhaps it's because Mint is aimed at ex-Windows users who don't use command tools. Try installing it.

You can install ffmpeg in Windows too - I have it on Win10. (Wife uses it for clipping videos.)

The 'libxxxxxxxx' things in Linux (and DLLs in windows) are libraries. You don't call them directly. Programs, such as Audacity, use them. 'Lame' in this thread is shorthand for the encoder - there are other bits to lame. Both those are encoders.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 12:07 PM

I put ffmpeg into the Software Manager search box and got lots of ffmpeg related stuff but nothing called ffmpeg. Maybe it's not allowed in Mint. I would have liked to compare the Audacity speed with the command line speed but never mind. I can still do conversions in Audacity.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,ripov
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 04:23 PM

>Joe
Audacity applies the effects to the file, which can then be saved in its new form. The basic tempo and pitch adjustments cannot be made when the file is being played, so it is difficult to assess their impact without doing some maths (there are some new effects which do affect play-back directly, but they seem a bit complicated!).
Slow-Downer and s8 apply the changes while the file is being played, so it is easy to adjust to sync with other material, or to the pitch of your squeeze box. Or just to play along with slowly. But s8 saves the modified file in real time while it plays it, so you wait a long time; and only into its own folder, which may not be convenient. I don't know much about Slow-Downer.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 05:44 PM

Mint seems to have replaced ffmpeg with avconv, which is in a package called libav-tools. Same syntax. But no atempo filter - you need the genuine ffmpeg for that, which is available but not in their standard package repositories.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: Stanron
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 05:54 PM

GUEST,DaveRo wrote: Mint seems to have replaced ffmpeg with avconv, which is in a package called libav-tools.

Yes I have got that. I'm happy enough doing conversions with Audacity, thanks.

Subject: RE: Tech: Audio software to speed up/slow down
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 18 Feb 16 - 01:29 PM

Amazing Slowdowner works quite well especially for transcribing in notation. I used to pull music off of Youtube until I got a computer virus and then transcribe it using
Sibelius notation (my favorite).