# Technique, Theory, Playing Tips and Tricks > Theory, Technique, Tips and Tricks >  Slowing down You Tube video?

## bkhooper

Any way to do this?  Alot of great music and instruction on YouTube but when trying to figure out specific licks, etc...it would be awesome if it could be slowed down a bit.  :Mandosmiley:

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## terzinator

couple of ways, but might require more than one step...

There are sites that can turn a YT vid into an MP3 file... http://flvto.com/ is the best one I've found... Then you can use something called Amazing Slowdowner to change pitch/speed. Great app. http://www.ronimusic.com/  That's what I do, anyway.

Others have used Audacity to do both processes. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I've used Audacity to break up big MP3's into smaller files (to separate individual tracks from a jam or rehearsal or performance), as well as to import music from analog sources (tape or LP), but I've never used it for YouTube conversion or slowing down music.

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## Brad Weiss

If you use Safari you can download Youtube videos using [command+option] A.  Once you've got the video, you can watch it on quicktime, and slow it down with [command] K. Easy.

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Astabeth, 

citeog, 

Heykoolaid3

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## JLM

I'm not the technical one of the house and I'm currently at work  :Cool:  but my better half found some free download programs on the net and she actually takes what ever u-tube video I want and runs it thru these then burns them to disk. Then I can take them to whichever room she's not in  :Grin:  and pop them in the cd player and do pretty much whatever I want to  :Mandosmiley:  .
 If you'd like pm me and I'll work with her tonight or the weekend to figure out how to get the links to you. 
 John

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## Rod Freeland

I recommend using RealPlayer (free) to download and convert the video (to .m4v) and Transcribe! ($50) to play it, slow it down and learn it.  Transcribe! is a fabulous program, much better than Amazing Slowdowner.  Check out users' praise: http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/reviews.html

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Mark Wilson

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## Tim Lee

I like KeepVid.com and then use the slowdown in quicktime not as great as some programs but the price is right. Just use the  AVcontrol in quicktime.

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Astabeth

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## Ivan Kelsall

*Tim* - I used to use *Keepvid* a lot,but found it a bit tedious to have to copy & paste the URL & i also found that not all YouTube vids.would download.
   There's a Freeware prog.called *"SaveTubeVideo"* which places a tool bar above your web browser. When you're watching a YouTube clip,you have the option of downloading the video clip or the MP3 with a single click.
http://www.savetubevideo.com/
*Rod* - I used RealPlayer for ages & it's a great piece of software. But beware !. I goofed up & thinking that i was doing an up-date,loused the programme up. I un-installed it & then re-installed it,but it caused my PC to crash - you know the ''Blue Screen of Death'' thing ?. I tried a few times but the same thing happened. I eventually went into my PC registry & found literally 100's of 
files that RealPlayer had put installed.I deleted all i could find,tried again,but to no avail. It seems that if you un-install Real Player,a lot of residual files still remain in the PC registry & unless you can find & remove them all,Real Player won't re-install.At least that seems to be the case with my PC. I still find the odd RealPlayer file in the registry,over 6 months & a lot of deleting later,
                                                                                                                                                                 Ivan

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Astabeth

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## farmerjones

I'm curious to know what's the vid/tune in question?

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## Mike Bunting

I had good luck today, downloading Imtoo (http://www.imtoo.com/index.html) and converted a Youtube to an avi' (it will allow you to chose your format. I then did the synch thing and put it over on my iPad. It was the youtube of Mike Compton and Maria Duff doing Alabama Baby. It is free too.

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## Tim Lee

Ivan- Darn it not mac os! but I will put it on the laptop. Thx

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## Ivan Kelsall

I use this freeware prog.for all my video conversions. It's simple,foolproof (for me it has to be!) & it's very easy to use :-
http://www.any-video-converter.com/p...or_video_free/
                                                                          Ivan :Cool:

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## Phil Goodson

If you download it as a avi file and playback with quicktime, you can see the control panel with cntl-K and then decrease the video playback speed to half speed.

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Astabeth

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## BradKlein

Phil and Tim,  Thanks so much.  I had never noticed the control panel that allows Quicktime you to cut the playback speed to half, AND control pitch.  That's a pretty wonderful practice tool, and FREE.  Amazing times we live in.

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## Nonprophet

If you use Firefox, you can download an add-on called "download helper" that allows you to quickly and easily download YT videos. It automatically converts them to MP4 format, and then you can playback the videos in Quicktime and use the command-k option to slow down the playback.

NP

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## gregjones

http://www.slomodirector.com

Speed varies 40-200%, w/ no pitch change.  Loop selected video sections and repeat up to 10 times.

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## walt33

> Once you've got the video, you can watch it on quicktime, and slow it down with [command] K. Easy.


Does "command K" work with QuickTime Player, or just the full version? I have a lesson in mov format and trying command K in QuickTime Player doesn't do a thing.

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## harryb

If you're using Windows 8, try Media Player Plus (available in the App Store) - you can open YouTube videos (and local media files), then slow or speed them up without changing pitch.

Hope this helps.

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## Jim Garber

I am on a Mac and use DownloadHelper in Firefox to convert to mp4 format. Then I can load it (just the sound) into Amazing Slow Downer and use it like any other sound file.

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## BradKlein

Many folks have probably notice that in the two years since this thread was started, Youtube began offering a 'native' way to slow down videos.  It's located on the popup menu that you access with the 'cog' or 'gear' on the lower right of the screen.  Remarkably useful for learning music.  And you can say in the voice of the old-timer, "When I was your age we used to have to download youtube videos and slow them down using third party software!!!  You kids don't know how good you have it."

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Astabeth, 

citeog

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## Jim Garber

> Many folks have probably notice that in the two years since this thread was started, Youtube began offering a 'native' way to slow down videos.  It's located on the popup menu that you access with the 'cog' or 'gear' on the lower right of the screen.


Maybe I am missing something. I see the gear on the playback screen but don't see anything in the dropdown -- left-click and you get setting for Quality; right-click and you get a list of things not (I think) relevant. I clicked settings and did not see it there. Please, Brad, more info...

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## pglasse

> ..."When I was your age we used to have to download youtube videos and slow them down using third party software!!!  You kids don't know how good you have it."


Tenor sax great Sonny Rollins says that when he was a kid he'd drag his hand on the side of the turntable to slow down the 78rpm discs of Charlie Parker recordings so he could hear the lines better. We have it easy now.

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## Pete Counter

VLC player also has a slow down feature on the main control panel, lower right corner. www.videolan.org. its Free and plays any video files.

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## BradKlein

> Maybe I am missing something. I see the gear on the playback screen but don't see anything in the dropdown -- left-click and you get setting for Quality; right-click and you get a list of things not (I think) relevant. I clicked settings and did not see it there. Please, Brad, more info...


Hmm.  Maybe it's not on ALL Youtube videos.  It's on this one, at least for me using Safari.  Give it a try, Jim.

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## Jim Garber

Maybe it only works if the musicians play super fast and clean. I see that it works also for Andy Statman.  :Smile: 

it does not work for Sierra Hull on Acutab. It is prob a feature that some folks want to disable.

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## BradKlein

I never actually listened to the video above on half speed, until now.  I have two observations:

- the boys sound really stoned during the stage patter

- that forked deer still sounds good at 50% !!

Brad

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## Jim Garber

OK. So I had looked on Safari on my Mac at home and saw those setting for speed reduction. However, now I am back at work on my PC and i no longer see them on the video you posted above. I also checked on the youtube site and in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and it is not there that I can see. Oh well.

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## stringalong

Hello Chris, thanks so much for this solution.  I installed flyto.com, successfully converted two tunes to MP3 from YouTube.  I bookmarked the converter URL and pinned it to the taskbar. Just went the Amazing Slowdowner, got the pitch and speed okay, but....it jumps all around, and won't play the whole tune.  All the other MP3s I have an Amazing Slowdowner work fine.  Have you ever had that problem? Any suggestions? Thanks a whole bunch.  




> couple of ways, but might require more than one step...
> 
> There are sites that can turn a YT vid into an MP3 file... http://flvto.com/ is the best one I've found... Then you can use something called Amazing Slowdowner to change pitch/speed. Great app. http://www.ronimusic.com/  That's what I do, anyway.
> 
> Others have used Audacity to do both processes. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I've used Audacity to break up big MP3's into smaller files (to separate individual tracks from a jam or rehearsal or performance), as well as to import music from analog sources (tape or LP), but I've never used it for YouTube conversion or slowing down music.

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## Joel Glassman

Instructions on using Windows Media Player to slow MP3s. No other application in Windows [ie. Amazing Slowdowner] is needed:

Click on an mp3. Windows Media Player opens to play it. Don't play, but right click anywhere on the screen. Go to "enhancements" then "play speed". You can reduce the speed and maintain the pitch. Doing this doesn't change the mp3. 

You can use Audacity [a free program] to edit mp3s and make files with only the solos. Here's how:
http://www.wikihow.com/Edit-an-MP3-File

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DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Nashville

Just click on the gear and then click on either the word Speed or Normal, and it brings up a list of speed settings. No need for any other software. And don't have to leave the YouTube video so you can see hand/finger positions.

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## stringalong

Thank you, Joel and Nashville.  Joel, I was able to do exactly what Joel said, with a previous MP3 I already had (enhancements/speed) .  I did not get that particular MP3 (Mountain Minuet, which is a tapdance tune, not mandolin) from YouTube.  The MP3 I made from YouTube still plays jerky and starts over and over in Windows Media Player.  Also, alas, since I put the link for the tune I'm trying to learn (Arkansas Traveler) into FLV, now, I cannot get any sound at all from YouTube links.  No YouTube links work, as for sound.  The videos work in YouTube.com.   Nashville, click a gear in what program?  I see no gear in Amazing Slowdowner, Windows Media Player, or FLVto.

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## Jess L.

> ... *click a gear in what program?  I see no gear* in Amazing Slowdowner, Windows Media Player, or FLVto.


I'm assuming they meant the gear that appears at the bottom of videos when you're looking at a YouTube video *in your web-browser*. 

I made a quick-n-dirty super-short *tutorial* of how this works, at least this is how it works in my browser (Chrome, on Windows), shows what to click to get half-speed on any YouTube video:  


Half-speed is "0.5", it has audio but the slow-down process makes it *warble*. The pitch doesn't change though, unlike legacy/old methods. 

I have not been able to get _quarter_-speed "0.25" audio, the video slows to quarter-speed but no sound, but it's ok because that would probably be too slow anyway (for audio). Whereas the half-speed "0.5" is adequate to figure out most riffs. 

Note: If I change speeds a bunch of times in one video, say switching back and forth between half-speed and normal speed, without reloading/refreshing the page, the audio sometimes gets slightly (fraction of a second) out of sync with the video. Easily fixed - just reload/refresh the page. 

If you don't get any sound at all on any of your videos even at regular speed, make sure you haven't inadventently clicked the "Mute" icon. It didn't occur to me to point out the "Mute" icon when I made the above video, but anyway the "Mute" icon is also at the bottom of YouTube videos (when you mouse over the video) but it's more towards the left side, the opposite side from where the "gear" icon is. The "Mute" icon looks like a tiny little speaker - it's muted if it has a tiny "x" next to it. You can toggle it back and forth between muted and unmuted simply by clicking on it again. At least that's how it works on our computers here.

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Bigtuna

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## Nashville

Very helpful tutorial video JL277z. I'm sure that will help people that haven't realized the YouTube videos can be slowed down just by changing the speed setting. For a long time I didn't realize it was there myself. I don't notice any loss in sound quality for those videos encoded at higher resolution but I have not been able to get audio at 1/4 speed. It would be too slow anyway as you said. Half speed has allowed me to figure out some fairly complicated phrases.

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Jess L.

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## stringalong

This one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5AqGS2Y2WM 

Have fun! This is a great rendition.

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## stringalong

Hi Brad. True, and I've tried it.  It comes up as Speed/Normal, then I can cut it to .5 or .25  The .5 is kind of jerky, and the .25 is inaudible. Has this been your experience?  I use Windows 7, by the way.

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## Jess L.

Addenda to my earlier post: 

I just noticed that, at least on our computers here,* the *gear* slow-down method that I described in my video above, works *only* when the video is being played *from the YouTube page*. But slowing-down does *not* seem to be an option when viewing embedded videos that appear on MandolinCafe pages. 

Easy *solution*  :Grin:  to that though, clicking the YouTube icon makes the video open in a new YouTube tab and then you get all the speed options by clicking the gear. That's how it behaves for us here, I don't know about other browsers/OS's. 

* We use Chrome browser, all updates current, running on a couple different versions of Windows operating systems.

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## stringalong

My former computer tech was able to perform the transition from YouTube to Amazing Slowdowner with no third-party app.  I'll see if he'll get back to me on this.  Also, how do I subscribe to this thread, so I get email when a new post comes in?

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## Jess L.

> Instructions on using *Windows Media Player* to slow *MP3*s....
> 
> Click on an mp3. Windows Media Player opens to play it. Don't play, but right click anywhere on the screen. Go to "enhancements" then "play speed". You can reduce the speed and maintain the pitch. Doing this doesn't change the mp3.


Thanks Joel!  :Mandosmiley:   :Grin:  I never knew that Windows Media Player had that feature, just tested it today after reading your post, pretty handy! I'd been using Audacity for all my local (non-internet) audio slowdown but it's certainly good to have as many options as possible. 

The nice thing about using Windows Media Player as you described, is that it doesn't require the installation of any 3rd-party software (such as Audacity) so I would presume that it would work on any (recent?) Windows machine... Possibly-useful scenarios might include when one is visiting friends/relatives who use Windows but who don't have any other audio apps (such as Audacity etc), and assuming one had left one's laptop at home  :Disbelief:  it would still be possible to slow down their tunes on their own computer to figure out cool riffs 'n' stuff.  :Mandosmiley:   :Smile:  

Good to know this stuff, thanks again!  :Mandosmiley:   :Smile:

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## Jess L.

> ... how do I *subscribe* to this thread, so I get email when a new post comes in?


Ok I'm certainly no expert  :Whistling:  about MandolinCafe site settings but here's what I've found... current as of September 2015 anyway, this stuff is probably subject to change with future site redesigns. Anyway, right now... 

Looks like there are two *different* places where you can change your subscription settings:  

For *general* settings that I think (not sure)  :Confused:  apply to *all posts*: 

When you're logged in, at top of page, click "*Settings*".
Look at the left side of the page and scroll down until you see where it says "*General Settings*" and click that link, wait until that page loads and then scroll down and look under the section called "Messaging & Notification" to find where it says "*Default Thread Subscription Mode*" and click the little arrow-*dropdown menu* and select one of the following: 

- "Instantly, using email" 
- "Daily, using email" 
- "Weekly, using email" 
- "Through my control panel only" 
- "Do not subscribe"Scroll down to bottom of page and click the "*Save Changes*" button. Now I'm *not sure* about this *next* thing  :Confused:  but it looks like it might also be possible to *individually customize specific posts*, I have *not tried this* but I saw the page  :Whistling:  for it: 

When you're logged in, look near the top of any MandolinCafe forum page underneath the "Mandolin Cafe" logo, click "*Quick Links*", a dropdown menu will appear, click "*Subscribed Threads*" and a page will appear which seems to have *checkboxes* to select/deselect individual posts ? but I haven't experimented with that to see if it works. 


*Note*: Sometimes it seems like you have to log in once every few days to keep getting further updates on posts that they've already notified you about. I vaguelly recall there's a message to that effect on the email notifications they send out, but I haven't really paid enough attention  :Redface:   :Disbelief:  to that particular message to remember what it says. 

*P.S.*: If someone else has a more concise and less-confused explanation  :Mandosmiley:  I'd be pleased to see it,  :Grin:  this is one of those things where I know what works for me  :Whistling:  but never quite sure if I'm doing it right or just stumbled onto something that works.

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## Potosimando

I'm in a hurry and don't/won't have time to read the posts above to see whether or not this has been resolved to the OP's (and others') satisfaction.  But if not, then if you open Youtube from Google Chrome, then the cog shows up, and works perfectly for speeding up or slowing down--very cool, although the slow-down/speed-up choices are limited.

That said, I am a tech ignoramus, and have no idea as to why opening Youtube from Google Chrome works on the "cog" speed function--I just know that it does.  My son showed me this trick, so I cannot even take credit for stumbling across this useful little trick.

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## 4ForAll

An easy way I have used for a while is to download the video, play with VLC Player. Slows tempo with out changing pitch, and if it's a half way decent quality you can watch the slowed down hands.

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## 4ForAll

Forgot to mention works just as well with mp3 files.

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## kkmm

> There's a Freeware prog.called "SaveTubeVideo" which places a tool bar above your web browser. When you're watching a YouTube clip,you have the option of downloading the video clip or the MP3 with a single click.
> http://www.savetubevideo.com/


I used to use Real Player to download youtube videos on my old Windows XP PC. After moving to Windows7 PC, this feature no longer works.
I just tried the link for "SaveTubeViode", clicking on the "DOWNLOAD" has no effect. Nothing gets downloaded. Am I missing something ?

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## 4ForAll

Flash Video Downloader works great with Firefox on intel mac and also TenFourFox on my PPC mac. It's also available for Windows not sure of sys requirements.

http://www.flashvideodownloader.org/

Happy Downloading,

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## Mark Wilson

adding to the pile..

I've found this online site malware free for converting YT video to mp3.

http://www.youtube-mp3.org/

Then loop the section you want to learn thru a slow down program.

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## Jess L.

> ... quick-n-dirty super-short *tutorial*... shows what to click to get half-speed on any YouTube video...


Direct link to my above-mentioned tutorial on how to do half-speed YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DttCIKAeAYw
Posting the direct link because the page won't let me edit my original post, which had only the embedded video; at the time of this writing MandolinCafe is having issues with embedded videos on some systems. But the direct link should work regardless.  :Smile:

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## Mark Gunter

I read this thread last year, and discovered here that I could freely slow down videos at youtube, in windows media player, and in Quicktime. I was able to slow down a couple of tunes to learn by ear where written music wasn't available. While I was able to make this work, I eventually found it pretty inconvenient, and wanted a better solution that allows me to also loop sections, change keys, etc. I settled on the program Transcribe! - but I found a very cool page on their website that lists all "slow-downer" programs they're aware of. That could be a valuable resource to anyone wanting to compare programs to find the perfect one for themselves.

This page contains the list: https://www.seventhstring.com/resour...scription.html

Below, I've pasted what you will see on that page, except of course at the page, these will be links that you can follow. Below, they are just a list of topics so you can see what is offered there.

*Software - desktop*

AKoff Music Composer
AmazingMIDI by Araki Software
Amazing Slow Downer by Roni Music
AudioLobe from JS8 Media
AudioScore from Neuratron
AudioSculpt sound analysis tool from IRCAM
BestPractice by Robert Moerland
Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy
Chordify
Chord Pickout
CLAM Music Annotator
DDMF Chorddetector
DsChordFinder by Dubbeldam Software
ELAN by Eudico
Elevation by Superscope
f4 transcription software for audio and video
Frequency Analyzer by Reliable Software
GoldWave Digital Audio Editor
Guitar & Drum Trainer by Renegade Minds
Guitar Shed by Astoundit
GuitarMaster by RoboSens
Integrated Music Transcribing Tool - Music Analyzer by Atsu Oka
Intelliscore by Innovative Music Systems
iRehearse from RJV Media
Loop-A-Lick by DPR Technology
LoopyLoopX by Jean-Louis Valero
Melodyne
MPEX time stretching by Prosoniq
mTrax by TerraSofta
Music Analyzer by Andrei Volkov
Music Explorer by Geoff Peters and Gabriel Lo
muDic by i-yanase.com
Neutrino by MachineCodex
PaceMaker WinAmp Plugin
Pitch 'n Time by Serato
PitchScope by Creative Detectors
Play It Slowly by Jonas Wagner
Pulse Master by Pianosoft
Riff Master Pro
Riffster by Polarity
ScoreCloud
ScoreExtractor by Roman Yakimenko
Slo-Mo Director by Mike Herberts
Slow Me Down by Roni Software
Slow MP3 by Pekka Kauppila
SlowGold & SlowBlast by World Wide Woodshed
Solo Explorer by Recognisoft
Song Surgeon
Sonic Visualiser
SoundSlice
SoundTouch Audio Processing Library
SoundToys (formerly WaveMechanics) - pitch and speed software
Speedshifter from The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
Tartini - real-time music analysis tool
33 RPM by Edenwaith
TimeToyPro by LowNorth - time-stretch software
Transcribe! by Seventh String Software
Transkriber by Reed Kotler Systems Inc
TwelveKeys from NCH Software
Video Surgeon
Waon Wave-to-Notes transcriber
WIDI Recognition System

*Software - iOS*

Amazing Slow Downer
Anytune by Anystone Technologies
Audipo
Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy
iHearit by Trent Reschny
iLift by rCreativ
Notedown! by Thomas Leitz
RiffMaster Pro
Slow Down Music Player by Santa Cruz Integration
Slow Down Music Trainer by Santa Cruz Integration
*
Software - Android*

Audio Speed Changer by Gabriel Simoes
Audipo
Practice Makes Perfect by Aocate Inc.
Maple Player Classic
Search Google for more apps.

*Source Code*

If you are a programmer and you want to know how to write such programs, some of the above projects are "open source" which means you can download the source code and look at it. For spectrum analysis see Music Explorer, and for slowdown see Best Practice. I haven't actually looked at the source for either of these so I can't say for sure what you'll find.

*Other Transcription Resources*

How to Slow Down - my own technical article on how to slow down music without changing the pitch.

TheoreticallyCorrect.com - tutorial material about using Transcribe!

Matija Marolt, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia - research in automatic transcription.

Anssi Klapuri, Tampere University, Finland - research in automatic transcription.

Other names/places for automatic transcription: http://www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk, http://iie.fing.edu.uy/investigacion/grupos/gmm/audio/, Keith Martin, David Mellinger, Dan Ellis, Paul Walmsley, Simon Godsill, Manuel Davy.

Alisdair MacRae Birch site - a useful page with more info about transcribing hardware and software.

Wikipedia: "Audio timescale-pitch modification"

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## Phil Goodson

Impressive list.
How could 'Audacity' not be there?

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## Relio

I use a YouTube to mp3 converter (just Google it), and then I slow it down with Audacity.

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## Consecon

For those not finding the speed settings, it looks like this;

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## Mark Gunter

> Impressive list.
> How could 'Audacity' not be there?


Good question, and I didn't catch it. Don't know why he left Audacity out.

I can say that I was mightily impressed with his site and with his program (Transcribe!) and happily licensed it after the trial period. I've had Audacity for a couple years, but never went through the learning curve with it.

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## Ron McMillan

Transcribe certainly looks interesting. Thanks for the links.

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Mark Gunter

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## Joel Glassman

I think of slowing music down is something to be avoided 
[but sometimes necessary]. Learning to hear things in real time helps
you grow in ear training skills. Any mp3 player will allow one to go
a few seconds back and repeat the last few notes. Switching to a 
slower tempo in Windows media player or audacity is all you ever need
for a tough to hear note IMO.
Both are free--much cheaper than other solutions.

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## JeffD

OK so while its not always been the case, recently YouTube added slow down right on the video. You click the settings gear then speed then the speed you want.

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