Can anyone recommend a good slow down software program? Preferably compatible with iTunes on a PC.
Thanks in advance.
I needed one in a hurry about three weeks ago for mandolin parts, and went with BestPractice. It worked like a charm. Don’t know about the iTunes compatibility though.
Hi,
here are some free ones:
http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tuner/tuner_e.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/bp/
here some commercially available ones:
http://www.ronimusic.com Amazing Slowdowner
http://www.seventhstring.com Transcribe!
There are plugins for Windows Media Player as well. But I don’t know these. I like Transcribe! the most beacause it shows you an audio-spectrum of the track where you can easily mark parts to create loops for rehearsal. E.g. you can easily “see” where phrases are started, where breathing occurs, which parts are stressed.
The other apps are equally fine.
Good luck,
brotherwind
For the free ones I would also vote for Best Practise (Brotherwinds second link), very simple and got the features you need.
Robert Moerland is a great guy who spent quite a bit of time developing this free software. He has posted here on C&F in the past when BP still was in an early beta stage.
v1.01 is the latest release, dated April 20th 2007
If you like the software and tend to use it, there is a “Donate” button on the BP webpage.
Also good to know that:
the real Celine Dion was not hurt during the creation and testing of this application.
Cheers!
/MarcusR
You’re probably not going to find anything that will open .m4p
files that you bought using iTunes. Those are encrypted, and can
only be played by iTunes. Your best bet for those is to use one
of the many underground methods for converting them to mp3’s,
then you can use any slow downer.
Audacity (Sourceforge.net)
amazing slowdowner deals with .mp4 (aac files) rolf is always updating. clearly the best software from a amateur to professional…
and i’m both!
One has to make a distinction between mp4 files (which are
unencrypted AAC) and m4p files (which are encrypted). Have
you, personally, bought a song from iTunes and played it with
the slowdowner? If so, that’s an excellent update to the software,
which should be spread around.
EDIT: Yeah, I just downloaded and tried it with a purchased
iTunes song. It gave me this error message:
- Amazing Slow Downer is not permitted to playback DRM
protected files from the iTunes store. You can burn the song
to a regular audio CD by using iTunes.
So, I guess the consensus is, if you used iTunes to rip it off a CD,
then you can slow it down, if you bought it from the iTunes
store, you have to convert it to a non-DRM version first.
Wow, it actually works well for someone who is marginally tech oriented on computers! Thanks!!! Now I can start learning tunes a lot easier than trying to keep up with the CDs!
Once you get the pitch adjusted to how you play, and then the rate you want to learn at, you’re all set. Great stuff!
Thanks, Marcus, for recommending this one; I like it a lot!