I’m new to apple and have read many of the posts on slow downers. On windows machines, I’d use the slow down device built into windows media. I could go to a tune and play it at 75% or 83% or whatever of the recorded speed. I used this more to learn to play along than to learn the tune. I really like being able to quantify the % off the pace that I’m playing. It’s very nice for settings goals, gently increasing from yesterday etc.
I’ve down-loaded the trial version of amazing slow downer. It works as advertised but the slow down button is an un-calibrated slider.
Are there any apple friendly slow down devices that have some form of calibrated tempo indicator? I note that I can do this in Finale Notepad, but it’s a generated tone not played music and I have to write in the tune notation.
Free is always good, but I’m willing to pay for an easy to use device that does the trick.
QuickTime Player comes pre-installed on Macs, and can do this. Under the Window menu choose Show A/V Controls. The Playback Speed slider has major calibration marks for speeds from 1/2X to 3X.
Audacity is an open source recording program which will change pitch, tempo or speed as well as lots of other things, the controls are calibrated. Check it out.
Yup, that’s what I do. Same as using the WMP controls.
The trick is opening the file in Quicktime instead of in ITunes. The way I do
this is find the file in the Finder, right click on it (or Control-click, if you only
have one mouse button) and select “Open with Quicktime”.
I have the ASD on my pc and noticed that, while the slider that adjusts speed is uncalibrated, the speed ratio is displayed in a box at the bottom. I’m able to keep track of whether I’m at 50% or whatever.
Hey! Pretty darn cool! I recently upgraded to QuickTime Pro and I’m still learning all the features. My original SlowDown software is OS7 or later, but that won’t work on OSX. Thanks for posting the Quicktime tip!
Not sure what version you are using, but my ASD program tells me what % of the original tempo I’m set for. I’ve also found that the sound quality at different speeds is much cleaner than other tools I’ve used. Besides that, since it has the pitch shifter (semitones or cents) I can move things into different keys or adjust for non A=440 tunings that seem prevalent in bagpipe or medieval music.