Anyone else use the Amazing Slow Downer?

[Geoff]

Does anyone else use this great little program? If you dont know what it is, it basically slows down (or speeds up) music without altering the pitch, making transcribing infinitely easier. You can also adjust the pitch by semitones. I love this program, I just finished transcribing A New Leaf by Matt Flinner and the mini "break" by Christ Thile on Ah Spring. I would never have been able to do this with out slowing things down. I know that people use to slow down LPs to transcribe things, but then they would have to transpose the notes because the pitch went way down. Incidentally, does anyone know the chord progression to A New Leaf? It doesn't seem too hard it's in G, so maybe I should just work it out myself...

[F-2 Dave]

Yes.

[evanreilly]

I am proud to say that ASD was a program that I tried the demo of and liked it so much that I bought a license for it.
It is great, and unlike the variable speed option in Windows Media Player, ASD is totally variable in speed and pitch.
Try it; you'll like it!!!

[JGWoods]

Yes- well worth the $50.

[Geoff]

Yeah, I was surprised that I ended up buying that program. I took a jazz improvisation class from a sax (and piano) player named Skip Gailes. He repeatedly told the class that the ASD was the best fifty bucks he had ever spent in his life and urged us all to get it too. I tried using the demo for as long as possible, but the full version basically made every melody and solo in my itunes library possible to learn.

[stevebenn]

Another great use of ASD is as follows ... get yourself a digital recorder (Zoom's are fine) turn on your metronome (trust me on this one) record a rhythm track to a favorite fiddle tune etc. several times through. Load the music file on your computer pull it up in ASD and you have a built in rhytm section that you can slow down and then incrementally speed up. If you make a note of the BPM setting on your metronome when you record the track you'll have a reference for what 100% is on ASD ... and off you go.

Steve

[Jean Fugal]

Well worth the money. I use Quicktime for a fast and dirty tool but slowdowner if by far the best. You can even, to a certain extent, remove the vocals or some of the other stuff.

[Laird]

Yep. Don't know what I'd do without it. Like others, I used the demo until I got tired of not having access to later songs on the discs. Well worth the investment.

[John Kasley]

I have not used ASD, but do use Audacity quite a bit for changing tempo without pitch. Audacity is freeware...just type it into Google to find the download site.

Another great use of ASD is as follows ... get yourself a digital recorder (Zoom's are fine) turn on your metronome (trust me on this one) record a rhythm track to a favorite fiddle tune etc. several times through. Load the music file on your computer pull it up in ASD and you have a built in rhytm section that you can slow down and then incrementally speed up. If you make a note of the BPM setting on your metronome when you record the track you'll have a reference for what 100% is on ASD ... and off you go.

Steve

Audacity has a click track function, so no need to record your rhythm track with an external metronome.

[Rob Gerety]

Yup. Love it. I learn tunes 100% by ear and this little gizmo has made that possible. I think it is important to try to increase the speed you learn at over time. The long term goal is to be able to sit in a jam and pick up a new tune at speed.

[Mike Bunting]

ASD also has released the Ultimate DVD Player which does essentially the same things to DVDs as the ASD does to CDs. The introduced it with a half price offer to registered owners of the ASD.

[BBarton]

Yes indeed!

[jim_n_virginia]

I us it a LOT! Great program!

[Coffeecup]

I use Transcribe. It has the same slow down function as ASD but also gives a graphical read-out of the notes sounding at any selected point of the track. That's very useful for working out chords.

[Geoff]

Chords are my biggest obstacle in transcribing (probably similar for most folks). Your average fiddle tune isn't too bad but more complex tunes like Grisman, Flinner, Tony Rice etc. have some chord progressions that get frustrating sometimes when trying to work them out. Luckily my teacher can transcribe at full speed much faster than I can with the slow downer and he can hear chords just as easily.

[morgan]

There is also freeware called "best practice." Not as good as ASD but the price is right.

[Clamdigger]

I recently bought an Apple IMac. Is there a version for that and if so, is there a demo that I can try before buying it and how do I go about getting ASD? Thanks Clamdigger

[Rob Gerety]

I think so - check the website.

[buckles]

I recently bought an Apple IMac. Is there a version for that and if so, is there a demo that I can try before buying it and how do I go about getting ASD? Thanks Clamdigger

find the amazing slow downer here

it's not exactly a free trial but i think it will work on the first two tracks of a cd without buying a license. all the info is on the website. good product!

[Clamdigger]

I checked out the website. What a wealth of info on Midi, etc. After reading it I will go from there. Thanks, looks like what I am looking for. Clamdigger

[Rooster59]

Has anyone else had trouble accessing Ronimusic's website?
I keep getting an error message that says Forbidden can't access from this server.
I've never had that message come up before.

[Rob Gerety]

I'm having the same problem.

[Jean Fugal]

weird....... I was just in there a few hours ago???

[Mike Bunting]

I recently bought an Apple IMac. Is there a version for that and if so, is there a demo that I can try before buying it and how do I go about getting ASD? Thanks Clamdigger

I use ASD and the Ultimate DVD Player on my MacBook, they download easily.

[John McGann]

Had it been around in the 70's ( and '80's and '90's) I'd still have my hair, since I pulled it all out transcribing at full speed

Money WELL spent.