WebApp Time Stretch Player works well for slowing down tunes.

Hello everyone,

I came across this brilliant time stretching app (to slow down music without changing it’s pitch). It runs on the web so there is no need to install anything. See: https://29a.ch/timestretch/ . Make sure you first change the Quality to high in settings.

I normally use The Amazing Slow Downer on my Android phone and was looking for something to use on my PC and came across this app. I don’t think it is widely known so I am posting details of it here.

Actually as I have gradually got better a learning tunes by ear and I find it need to use a slow downer less often. But it is useful for learning fast reels.

Sounds like a useful web app.

By the way, many of you probably don’t know that for Youtube clips you can actually adjust the playback speed. I didn’t know until recently. Just click the cogwheel at the bottom and select your desired playback speed.

Great post. I have ASD but this works just as well and I can use it on my iPhone (I hope).

Thanks.

I tried it from my iPad, but there is no way to upload audio from Safari on iOS.

I use YouTube speed settings quite a bit but not for learning tunes as the quality is not really than good. ASD or that Time Stretch Player is much better. Rembember to first change the quality to high in settings.

Just tested it on my android phone. It works but not very convenient. ASD is much easier to use on a phone.

I hardly ever use my phone for such purposes, preferring the greater facility of the laptop (where I have used Transcribe! for many years).
Under the YouTube cog you can customise the speed in increments of 5% (from 25% to 100% and beyond) as well as the given 25, 50 and 75%. I’ve never had a problem with the quality of the slowed down sound.

Nice to have another easy-to-use option to recommend to friends who may not want to spend the money to buy Transcribe! or ASD.

I’m a long time user of Transcribe! on Windows myself, but it’s pretty amazing this can be done so well in a browser now.

While we’re on alternatives… The free Audacity program for computers also has a time stretch function that works pretty well. It’s open source and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

It has useful editing functions for clipping out one tune from a multi-tune set for practice, and it can also capture/record audio playback from YouTube or other online playback for archiving or slowing down. Takes a little time to learn, but it’s lightweight on the system and free. I have fancier audio tools but I often grab Audacity for quick ’n dirty editing. It’s a good program.

When using Audacity for this sort of thing, you actually have to wait for it to process the file to apply a pitch or speed change, right?

With Transcribe!, ASD, and this web app it happens instantly in real-time.

With Audacity it’s not an immediate one button click, but very close to it. You select a drop-down menu for tempo change and it has a preview function, so you can instantly try out different amounts of slowdown before selecting the final process, which is higher quality than the preview.

The final process only takes a few seconds on a decent computer rig. Then I save the slowed version as an MP3 to store on my phone or home media server for practicing.

Audacity is the best app I’ve found in Windows. It’s free and powerful. ASD for Windows is expensive and clunky. My favorite app for slow down, pitch change etc. is AnyTune+ Pro. I highly recommend it for many reasons.

I think we all have our favourites but I don’t think the cost of an app should be a factor when considering the effectiveness of the app.
There’s a huge choice out there.

Thank you, @louis-flute. Works with Chrome OS. I have been using ASD Android on my Chromebook, but that just adds to the ´overhead´ on my system.

+1 for AnyTune Pro+, great app, closest thing I found to Transcribe! on iOS, but it’s been a few years since I looked to see if there were any new iOS slower downers since I was happy with what I was using.

Audacity is great for many purposes, it just doesn’t meet my own workflow requirements for slowing down or pitch shifting tunes.

One area where you really need absolute real-time response to pitch changes is when shifting pitch or retuning recordings from, for example just north of Eb down to D, or solo pipes that are tuned only to themselves and not a reference pitch.

Transcribe! (and I’m guess others) have a feature where you can have the program provide a reference tone which it will play along with the recording while micro-adjusting the pitch.

My process is to isolate a single long note, usually a low D or first octave G (names after shifting, two notes generally likely to be in tune even in just intonation) and then turn on the Transcribe! drone and then use the fractional cent pitch control to match the pitch, then I can turn the drone off and export the retuned file.

Correction: It does work with iOS Safari, at least on an iPad! You just need to have your audio files in iCloud or accessible from the Files app, then use the “Browse” option to select them when opening the file.

I use Music Speed Changer (developed by Single Minded Productions) on Android. I can’t praise it highly enough. You can choose from your music library (with album art) or from folders. If you want, for each track the app will remember how much you’ve shifted the tempo or pitch by. Then the next time you play that track that was recorded on B pipes (say), the app will shift it up to D again.

Thanks! I’ll try it out. I’ve been using Amazing Slow Downer which is only so-so. Below 50% speed the sound is too choppy to be usable, and it does not tune very finely.

My grandfather would love to have had these apps. He used to take a 33 1/3 vinyl LP, change the turntable speed to 16, fine tune the fiddle down just a tiny bit, and then drive Grandma crazy by playing the same track over and over until got all the variations. He had an amazing ear.

My problem is that I can’t find an app that slows down Frankie Gavin recordings to slow enough that I can even attempt to play along!