View Full Version : I don't know what you call it..
NewSong
Dec-05-2006, 4:42pm
I am a relative beginner who has recently started attending a weekly bluegrass jam. #In an effort to gain more confidence and experience at soloing I would like to play along with CDs or mpegs at a decreased spead. #Is there any inexpensively priced software or hardware that will accomplish this without changing the key that the music is played in? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
John Flynn
Dec-05-2006, 4:47pm
Most people like "The Amazing Slow Downer" software. Windows Media Player 10 will do it, but you only have one slow down speed.
Walter Newton
Dec-05-2006, 4:48pm
Audacity is not as easy to use as something like the Amazing Slow Downer but it's free and can do it and TONS of other stuff as well.
jackofall
Dec-05-2006, 5:35pm
Amazing Slow Downer and Audacity are great calls. I have both, and I doubt you'd need much else http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
ASD is the best for plain practice stuff as it is so simple. Audacity is much more powerful - MUCH more powerful - but has a steeper learning curve.
anchorman86
Dec-06-2006, 9:23am
Actually it's pretty simple in Audacity - just import the song you want to slow down, go to Edit>Select>All, then go to Effect>Change Tempo. Select the percentage you want to slow it down by, and hit OK. That's all there is to it!
James P
Dec-06-2006, 1:57pm
There's a nice overview on using Audacity at MusicMoose. (http://www.musicmoose.org/content/view/29/32/)
And fwiw, on my machine, WMP11 will slow down to varying speeds. But bracketing selected parts makes Audacity the much better tool.
I use Slow Gold. I believe it's about $50. It let's me speedup/slow down keeping the same pitch. It also allows my to change pitch(key) by 1/2 steps. It's great for learning tunes in different keys.
Chadmills
Dec-06-2006, 4:25pm
Windows Media Player will do any speed down to 50% if you untick the "snap slider to common speeds" box.
Tom
BluegrassWarehouse
Dec-11-2006, 7:07pm
I have tried all of the above and several more. The best one in my opinion is called Transcribe! (with an exclamation point). The others are good also, but at the slower speeds Transcribe! has them beat. I don't think it can be beat when it comes to sound quality, even at speeds as slow as 15-25% it is pretty clear. The other programs have too much distortion and hard to tell what the notes are. Transcribe! is much clearer.
Lance
Jefa432
Dec-14-2006, 9:03am
I just downloaded Audicity. At 50% the sound is pretty distorted. Does ASD do a better job at that slow or slower speeds? Also, I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, I just want to have the best sound at that slow of speed, is ASD better, not taking in account that Audicity is free compared to paying for ASD. One last thing, typing out this post is just about the limit of my computer expertise, is ASD fairly easy to download and use?
Thanks
Walter Newton
Dec-14-2006, 9:16am
If you could figure out how to do it in Audacity you'll have no problems with ASD, it's very simple to use...not sure about the relative sound quality between the 2, 50% is definitely pushing it for Audacity.
EDIT: There are audio samples on the Roni Music (ASD) website you can listen to.
BluegrassWarehouse
Dec-14-2006, 4:26pm
Transcribe! has about the best quality at slow speeds. I've slowed things down to 15% and get a little distortion, but not near the distortion of other programs. Generally, I slow the song down to 25% and then loop a section at a time. I also insert a pause between the loop so I can practice what I just listened to before it plays again.
Lance
MikeVB
Dec-17-2006, 7:28am
I now use Transcribe over another product from Reed-Kotler Music but I can't remember the name of it.
I like Transcribe better generally except for one difference - when playing a selected loop repetitivly I don't know of a way to have a brief section of silence before the selction repeats. This might sound trivial but w/o it it's hard to get a feel for the phrase after a while cause the end notes just blend right in with the starting notes in an endless chain. There may be a way to solve this but as I'm not much of a technophile I don't know the solution.
Any help?
Lefty&French
Dec-17-2006, 8:03am
I use "CoolEdit" (syntrillium) but it's now part of Adobe "Aural suite", or something like this.
I paid 70$ for this one years ago, but I've never regret my purchase, cause I first "got it" during the tape era, slowering music with tape recorders... one octave below!
Keith Newell
Dec-17-2006, 10:11am
There is a free music slowdowner that works fantastic here http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/BestPractice.shtml I have Amazing slowdowner and don't like it as much as this Best Practice one.
Keith
http://www.newellmandolin.com
BluegrassWarehouse
Dec-19-2006, 1:46pm
I now use Transcribe over another product from Reed-Kotler Music but I can't remember the name of it.
I like Transcribe better generally except for one difference - when playing a selected loop repetitivly I don't know of a way to have a brief section of silence before the selction repeats. This might sound trivial but w/o it it's hard to get a feel for the phrase after a while cause the end notes just blend right in with the starting notes in an endless chain. There may be a way to solve this but as I'm not much of a technophile I don't know the solution.
Any help?
Mike, the Reed Kottler product is Transkriber, and like you, I used to use it but like Transcribe! much better as far as quality of sound. Transkriber has a better interface, but overall Transcribe! is better.
To put the silence after the loop, do this:
Go to File, then Preferences, then select the tab named playback, then there is a section called "Playback loop delay (tenth-seconds)" that you can adjust. Since it is in 10th-seconds, a five second delay would be 50.
Lance
John Flynn
Dec-19-2006, 4:31pm
Does anyone know what file types Transcribe! will work with? Thier website only says "multiple file types," but only mentions MP3s specifically. I am particularly interested if it will work with .M4A files that iTunes stores on Windows based computers. I have my whole CD collection and more on iTunes and it would be nice to be able to open them directly rather than having to convert them. I went through that with Reed-Kottler's "Transcriber" and found it cumbersome. I am looking for a new slow down package and working with M4A files is a must.
BluegrassWarehouse
Dec-19-2006, 4:36pm
I don't have any m4a files, but when I use their "open" menu, it has m4a files listed, so it should be able to play them. They have a 30-day free trial, so you can try before you buy.
Lance
mythicfish
Dec-19-2006, 7:42pm
Does cannabis qualify as software?
Curt
John Flynn
Dec-20-2006, 6:21am
Does cannabis qualify as software?
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Yeah, but the computer programs don't give you the munchies!
John Flynn
Dec-20-2006, 12:50pm
I don't have any m4a files, but when I use their "open" menu, it has m4a files listed, so it should be able to play them. #They have a 30-day free trial, so you can try before you buy.
For all you iTunes users out there, I just downloaded Transcribe! and it handles M4A files just fine. Also, the functionality is pretty incredible, compared to Transcriber, which I have had a lot experience with, or even what the Roni "Slow Downer" site describes. The waveform analysis displays should put my tune learning on a whole new level. I can't wait to dig into it over the holidays. If I works half as well as it looks, I will definitely be buying it.
MikeVB
Dec-27-2006, 6:29pm
Bluegrass Warehouse - many thanks. Worked great.