# Instruments and Equipment > Equipment >  Awesome FREE!! audio slow down software

## SteffeyGibson

http://download.cnet.com/BestPractic...-10794555.html

copy and paste this address. Slowing down solos is a great way to practice and learn. In the past, I have bought expensive TASCAM cd players to slow down music, but this software does the same thing, and its FREE!!!! Hope ya'll enjoy

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Flame Maple

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## chriss

+1 on this.  I use it too, and it IS fantastic.

It also has a 2nd slider control that will change the key of playback as well (no change to tempo).  That is, if the recording's in E and you want to play it in D or G, just move the slider, and play along in your key.

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## robert.najlis

darn, Windows only...

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## Londy

WOOOW!  This is fantastic!  Thank you so much for posting this!  You have no idea how much more fun and easy you have made my life!  Thanks bunches.

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## Ray(T)

> darn, Windows only...


Can't be that good then!

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## Mike Bunting

Lots of good slowdown apps for Mac.

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## blacktop

thank you for sharing this. i had used other methods of slowing down stuff, but this is way easier. thanks again.

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## sunburst

> Lots of good slowdown apps for Mac.


Free? Where?

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## Clement Barrera-Ng

I use something called 'VLC' (VideoLAN) player which is freely available on Win, Mac and Linux. Besides being a really versatile music and video player that's capable of playing just about any format out there, it also has the ability to slow down a song without changing the pitch. It's great for learning tunes. And did I mention it's free AND opensource  :Smile:

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## Mike Bunting

> Free? Where?


 The free ones are for the ipad. Even the ipad version of Capo is only $1.99. mimiCopy is free.

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## Chip Booth

It has a few nice features such as looping, and does a good job at pitch changing, but the interface is quirky. The sound quality when slowed down is a bit rough, perhaps only a little better than using Windows Media Player.  Can anyone compare the sound quality to the Amazing Slow Downer?

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## jim_n_virginia

I am using Best Practice now and it's OK I was using the SlowBlast and I liked that one a lot I could slow it down to almost a standstill and the sound quality was still good.

With BestPractice the sound gets messed up if you slow it down too much but hey the price is right eh? LOL!

SlowBlast stopped working when I got a new computer that had Vista, otherwise I'd still be using it.

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## Jim Garber

I paid already and use Amazing Slow Downer on the Mac and it is great but hey, I paid. Then again, it does work nicely and easily.

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## almeriastrings

> Free? Where?


http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Garageband can also do it.

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## James P

> It has a few nice features such as looping, and does a good job at pitch changing, but the interface is quirky. The sound quality when slowed down is a bit rough, perhaps only a little better than using Windows Media Player.  Can anyone compare the sound quality to the Amazing Slow Downer?


A while ago I did download the ASD demo to compare it to BestPractice.  To my ears the ASD had a lot cleaner sound slowed down, but I still stuck with BP.  Mostly b/c it was free, but I was already familiar with the bracketing controls and whatnot.

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## PhilGE

Transcribe! does a great job at slowing down, looping, and much, much more. No financial interest - just a very happy customer.

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John Flynn, 

Mark Gunter

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## Sam Oleson

Ive tried to download this with two different browsers now, and on both of them I get an error message saying the application cannot run. Anybody know how to solve this problem?

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## Linds

The Amazing Slow-downer iPhone app is a lot cheaper than the software, and it works great for me!

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## Mandolin Mick

Hey Steffey! Thanx for the program! Now I can figure out Red Rector's speed of light breaks!  :Smile:

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## jmr_jmr

> I use something called 'VLC' (VideoLAN) player which is freely available on Win, Mac and Linux. Besides being a really versatile music and video player that's capable of playing just about any format out there, it also has the ability to slow down a song without changing the pitch. It's great for learning tunes. And did I mention it's free AND opensource


I really like (the program, the program community, etc.) VLC Media Player (referred to earlier in this thread). But for the life of me I can't figure out how to use it to slow down music. Can you provide a bit of instruction on how to use VLC to slow down music?

thanks

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## jmr_jmr

Oops, I found it. Playback/Speed/Slower... (would be nice to be able to assign a keystroke to it)

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## wsugai

Best Practice is a great program and best of all:  free.  One thing - when you're loading an audio file, use File->Open, don't try a drag & drop.

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## pglasse

Another free option for Mac users is this Applescript, which works via Quicktime.  Note: make sure you've got the right version of the Quicktime Player installed, as explained on the page linked to above. It's basic but works just fine.

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## Shawshank

> http://download.cnet.com/BestPractic...-10794555.html
> 
> copy and paste this address. Slowing down solos is a great way to practice and learn. In the past, I have bought expensive TASCAM cd players to slow down music, but this software does the same thing, and its FREE!!!! Hope ya'll enjoy


This is an old post, but do you have any current suggestions for music slowing software?  I looked at this Best Practice one and the reviews were weak.

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## mandodan1960

Is VLC Media Player a video slowdowner. I haven't looked at it cause I'm at work but I've often thought I would like a youtube slowdowner but I've never investigated what is out there for doing that.

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## TonyP

> This is an old post, but do you have any current suggestions for music slowing software? I looked at this Best Practice one and the reviews were weak.


yup, weak is right. It works, but not as good as Amazing slowdowner. The interface isn't that great and the sound when you slow it down isn't great at all. 

And the worst part is it has so much junk bundled with it. I even tried to do a manual install and it still sneaked a couple of unwanted aps in. No malware, but a couple of stupid things I don't want tracking me. It is free, but that's all.

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## Christine Robins

I bought the Amazing Slow Downer 5 yrs. ago, and love it.  Sound quality, flexibility, and ease of use are all great. Considering that I use it every day for 1/2 hr. or more, it's been a bargain. Try it yourself with their 30-day free trial.

BTW, if you're interested in a high-quality digital recorder with direct slow-down playback, my Zoom H4n has this built-in.  Don't know about any other recorders.

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## foldedpath

Whenever this topic comes up, I think it should also be mentioned that the free Audacity recording and editing software has a good slowdown function, as well as everything else it does. It works on Windows, Mac, and Unix.

It's not quite as user-friendly as some dedicated slowdown software since it requires a few more mouse clicks. It works best for cranking out a slowed MP3 version of an existing file, rather than as a "realtime" streamer for slowing down audio. But it is free, with good support from the developers, and it's also a good introduction to audio editing and recording software. I use it for quick, light editing duties like stripping out individual clips from longer recordings of a rehearsal session, or from one of my S.O.'s workshop recordings. It's a good tool to have on your computer if you do any work at all with audio files, not just slowing them down.

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## Justin Carvitto

My one year old daughter started banging on my keyboard while The Amazing Slow Downer was pulled up on my computer. Now my pitch and speed are unadjustable. Everything else works fine. I've tried emailing ronimusic.com but haven't gotten a response.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I have an apple computer.

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## almeriastrings

First do a complete shut down and re-start.

Then relaunch the program. 

It should work fine. If not, suspect physical damage to the keyboard.

The program itself should not be damaged. You can always download again and reinstall, however. The licence information should be picked up automatically during installation.

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Jim B

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## Justin Carvitto

I got a reply back from ronimusic, the audio processing button was disabled.

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## Corbin Smith

Thanks for the tip!






> I use something called 'VLC' (VideoLAN) player which is freely available on Win, Mac and Linux. Besides being a really versatile music and video player that's capable of playing just about any format out there, it also has the ability to slow down a song without changing the pitch. It's great for learning tunes. And did I mention it's free AND opensource

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## John Flynn

> Transcribe! does a great job at slowing down, looping, and much, much more. No financial interest - just a very happy customer.


+1 for that! I have used it for years and I have no complaints. I find Audacity has it its uses also.

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Mark Gunter

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## Baron Collins-Hill

I am a huge fan of Tune Transcriber, a free website that allows you to upload any audio file on your computer. It doesn't allow pitch shifting or anything super full featured, but it's great for simple speed shift and allows you to create loops and marked points within the tune.

https://www.tunetranscriber.com/

Thanks,
Baron

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## Paul Busman

Agreed. What I want to be able to do is slow down the audio and video of a YouTube clip for learning a tune.

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## Jess L.

> ... What I want to be able to do is *slow down the audio and video of a YouTube* clip for learning a tune.


You can do that right in your browser while online watching a YouTube video. No extra software required. Works on phones too, at least Android ones - no clue about Apple stuff nowadays. 

Here's an underwatched video I posted 2 years ago that shows how to slow down YouTube videos in your browser:



_(or direct link)_ 
Sometimes _embedded_ videos might have to be opened on the actual YouTube page, for the slow-down function to be available.

But, if what you meant was you want a way to do that **offline**  :Confused:  when you don't have internet, then you'd need something different. What I've done a couple times in that situation, is to go ahead and have YouTube play it at half speed on my computer, then I run a screen-recorder app that captures both the video *and* audio (if I want higher-quality audio, I simultaneously have Audacity record just the audio part), then I save the output from all that into a new video file which I can watch/listen to anytime even without internet. I happen to use Bandicam for screen captures (it's how I make all those scrolling sheet-music backing tracks (example), the video part is just a screen capture of MuseScore etc score playback and then edited in a video editor), but there might be better options as far as picture/sound quality, not sure...

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