Does anyone know how to slow down an MP3 file or similar without changing the pitch? I would really like to start slow and build up speed but don’t know how.
I’ve got a plug in for winamp called the amazing slow downer. Try doing a search for that. They quality of sound isn’t great when you use it, but it more than sufficient to learn a tune with.
Audacity is a free alternative to the amazing slow downer.
Audacity can be downloaded at:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Versions are available for Windows, Linux, and the Mac.
Also, I found that my DVD player (on my computer) also had the option of slowing down mp3 files and changing the pitch. Maybe you already have the software and you don’t even know it.
what the boys said, maybe try out the free trails first: http://www.ronimusic.com/
http://www.seventhstring.com/
I have been using SlowDowner from Roni. When I try to slow something with Audacity it becomes unstable and Jumps back and forth at a fairly fast rate. If anyone knows why it does this please clue me in.
Ron
Many of here in the SoCal Pipers Club use and recommend Transcribe! by Seventh String Software:
and a one page summary sheet of its features:
http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/TranscribeFlyer.pdf
You can record from within the app or use .mp3 or .wav files already on your system, set markers in the waveform while its playing, change pitch and speed independently in realtime, loop on sections in the file, export transposed files as .wav files, etc. Pretty much everything you need to take that old recording of Leo Rowsome in C#, transpose it to D, slow it down to 50% speed to hear the ornaments, then export the slowed down transposed file to a 44.1 KHz stereo 16-bit wave file that you can then write directly to an audio CD for sharing with your piping club… 
Not sure what a particular note is, just drag over the note and the program does an FFT and shows you a pitch distribution superimposed over a piano keyboard. Great stuff.
Both Mac and Windows trial versions available. I’ve been using it for years.
I downloaded Audacity and it has any number of interesting features (reverb, etc) but for the life of me I cannot find the slower downer part of it.
I have the 1.0 version for Mac OS 9.
Any insight?
Windows Media Player will let you slow tunes down as much 50% and it’s free.
Good luck,
Jon
Audacity is up to version 1.2.3. There have been substantial changes since 1.0, you should download the new version.
That said, in 1.2.3 to change tempo without affecting pitch, select all or part of the waveform, and choose “effects” then “change tempo”. You can also do “effects” then “change speed” which changes both speed and pitch.
Another interesting option is “change pitch” which changes the pitch without affecting speed; for instance, you can drop normally pitched recording down a whole step to play a C whistle with it if you’d like.
–James
Very cool, Jon-M. I hadn’t even noticed the slow down feature on Media Player. Thank you.
Hmm… must be only on XP with WMP 10? I can’t find this on WMP 9 on Win2K…
You might be right, Michael. I do have XP with WMP 10, and WMP 10 has a Play Speed option in the Play drop-down menu.
I’ve been using the aforementioned TRANSCRIBE from 7th String for a few years and think highly of it as well.
For what it’s worth,
Tom D.
Thanks Jon-M for that pointer - I’d not realised WMP could control the playback speed.
Perhaps it’s just an XP thing? There’s a speed control option in my WMP 9 on XP Pro (View - Enhancements - Play Speed Settings) - will have to wait until I get home tonight to check W2K though.
Following on from the above; I’ve done a bit of googling and found that the playback speed control is only available in WMP 9+ when it is running under XP. 
For those of you using WinAmp, there is a plugin called PaceMakerwhich can control pitch and speed independantly.
Since posting this, someone has put me onto http://www.goldwave.com/release.php, which seems to work really wll. It’s shareware, so you only have to pay if you like it. Thanks for sll the suggestions.
As I recall, TRANSCRIBE can be tried for about 30 days at no cost as well. After (or during, in my case) the trial, you decide you like it, you can make make the purchase decision.
As is often the case with software, there is a tendency to like the one we get familiar with first, perhaps because of the time investment as much as the monetary.
Good Luck!
Tom D.
Being new to whistles, I also needed help slowing down tunes. I found software called Pulse Master. It really does a nice job. It slows the tune down without distortion. There are other options on the control panel and the new slower version can be exported as an MP3.
The demo version only handles 20 seconds of a song but it should be enough to help decide whether the software could meet your needs…
I am not sure how well it compares to Amazing Slow Downer and others but you can check this one out at: