Welcome to our forum. A Message To Our New and Prospective Members . Check out our Forum Rules. Lets keep this forum an enjoyable place to visit.
Private messaging is working again.
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
(0 votes) 
Regulars
Offline
On the "Community Orchestra" thread, I mentioned that I was looking for a software to slow down an iTunes/MP3 piece so I can play along at practice tempo. I got a bunch of useful suggestions so here's a new, dedicated thread for those apps. Thanks @demoiselle, @Mark, @Jim Dunleavy and @AndrewH for your previous input.
Suggestions so far have been:
- The Amazing Slow Downer ($50 for Mac-PC / $15 for iPhone-Android)(free lite)
- Audacity (freeware)
- NERO-Wave(freeware)
... While surfing, I also dug up...
- Anytune ($35 for Mac/PC, $15 for iPhone-Android) (30 day free trial for PC-Mac)
NERO-Wave and Audacity look like really powerful tools for music editing but I'm thinking I'd need to go get a pilot's license first to be able to operate their dashboards
The Amazing Slow Downer seems to be limited to my intended use as a practice tool. The dashboard looks relatively intuitive. The free lite version gets so-so reviews. The PC or Mac version allows storage of a ton of presets for a vast library of pieces. The Android-iOS version enables looping but I didn't notice the capacity to store presets for speed or the placement of bookmarks within a piece. It get's good reviews (4.3/5) for what ever that's worth.
Anytune looks a bit more complex than The Amazing Slow Downer. It looks like you can set bookmarks and the sliders to control where loops start and stop look more precise. If not sure if those settings can be saved. The reviews (same caveat as above) are stellar (4.8/5)
I'd love it if y'all would chime in with your knowledge of this stuff.
Regulars
Offline
I would love to know more about Audacity, and I wish someone would start a thread here about it. But I agree it appears to be very complicated.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
Regulars
Offline
I have the amazing slow downer on my XP machine. I thought it was free?
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
Regulars
Offline
Thanks, @Gordon Shumway, if you have a link to the PC/Mac freeware version of the Amazing Slow Downer, I'm all ears. I only found the "lite" freeware version for iPhone.
Regulars
Offline
bocaholly said
Thanks, @Gordon Shumway, if you have a link to the PC/Mac freeware version of the Amazing Slow Downer, I'm all ears. I only found the "lite" freeware version for iPhone.
Ah, that's the problem - It's maybe 10 years since I installed anything on the XP machine, so I can't remember. It's also possible there was more free, perhaps pirated, stuff around then. And nowadays a lot of stuff has acquired viruses and Trojan horses, even on what used to be reliable third-party sites.
Something else that is possible is that I got it when it was in its beta version - perhaps they were always free.
[edited] I'm checking out this version right now, but it doesn't look good: - http://www.ronimusic.com/download/setup_amsldo.exe
I think the site geography is poor - the download route should be via payment, not in parallel with it. But it seems to be saying if you register, there are free trial versions. Maybe they only last one or two usages or a week or two, or maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
Regulars
Offline
See if this works http://www.ronimusic.com/downl.....amsldo.zip
It will play the first 2 tracks of a CD or the first quarter (max 3 minutes) of an audio file.
That might work. If your accompaniment lasts 3 minutes or less, record it and keep the recorder running for another 9 minutes?
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
Regulars
Offline
Thanks for that extra research, @Gordon Shumway. Dumb me, I should have specified that I have a Mac. Reading the "read me txt", I'm guessing that the references to "Setup exe" are for Windows.
I'd love to hear how people feel "Amazing Slow Downer" compares to "Anytune".
Also, wondering if the extra $$ and preset options are worth using the computer based version over the mobile phone version of either of the two.
Regulars
Offline
FWIW I've only ever used the slowdowner a couple of times, so it's probably not worth the money unless you think you really will use it a lot.
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
Regulars
Offline
I do think I will use it a lot. A play along with the Youtubes of the Suzuki book pieces that are available in slow - medium - normal tempo pretty often.
This is probably more critical for someone (me) who doesn't have much if any music experience and needs to learn to count and listen to rhythm as much as we need to learn to navigate the instrument.
Thx again for the input.
bocaholly said
.................................................Suggestions so far have been:
- The Amazing Slow Downer ($50 for Mac-PC / $15 for iPhone-Android)(free lite)
- Audacity (freeware)
- NERO-Wave(freeware)
... While surfing, I also dug up...
- Anytune ($35 for Mac/PC, $15 for iPhone-Android) (30 day free trial for PC-Mac)NERO-Wave and Audacity look like really powerful tools for music editing but I'm thinking I'd need to go get a pilot's license first to be able to operate their dashboards
.................................
I didn't know you get NERO as freeware. The Wave-Editor then unlikely allows to safe tracks as MP3. I got NERO with a DVD burner which I purchased 2005. I then was allowed to safe a couple tracks as MP3. Then the software reminded me to buy the official version of the NERO suite, denying MP3. I liked the NERO Wave-Edior and therefore bought NERO 9, which I still use. It has many features, also video ect. .... Though I use only the Wave-Editor and the multi-track program.
NERO difficult? Maybe.... Here two screenshots showing how I slowed down the example track. I used Time Correction the first time. Usually I rather pitch or transpose. If you click "Effects" you get to reverb ect. -- under "Volume" you can make tracks louder or even mute parts, or you fade in or out. In the first screenshot you see how to slow down a track: [1] you turn the button to 150% or another value, [2] you check the sound of the result by pushing the button on the left below. Finally you click "okay".
Regulars
Offline
@Demoiselle, you're a real Renaissance woman... talented on multiple instruments, baroque dance and now computer software. What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? 
bocaholly said
@Demoiselle, you're a real Renaissance woman... talented on multiple instruments, baroque dance and now computer software. What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?
Tap dance 
Offline
Irv said
I would love to know more about Audacity, and I wish someone would start a thread here about it. But I agree it appears to be very complicated.
Audacity definitely does what you want and it's free.
Download it, test it, then ask me to guide you if you can't figure it out. It's not as complicated as you may think.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Regulars
Offline
Fiddlerman said
Audacity definitely does what you want and it's free.
Download it, test it, then ask me to guide you if you can't figure it out.
Thanks for the offer, Pierre. I looked at some tutorials and FAQs. This is very powerful and multi-purposed software... and would probably require a decent chunk of my time to get happy with.
I'm more in the market for a one trick pony so I think I'll start by spending $15 on Anytune. Note: There's a freeware version but then you can wind up spending up to $25 for add-ons.
Regulars
Offline
Initial Anytune report (Holly in serious mode):
I'm finding it easy and intuitive.
In a couple of minutes, I was able to:
- load a piece from my iTunes library (automatic recognition)
- slow it down (adjustment range from 25% to 200% for speed freaks)
- set a couple of bookmarks and learn how to lable them with measure numbers, &
- create a practice loop of a segment.
I find the online info clear and useful http://anytune.us/ios-user-gui.....-controls/
The sound slowed down to 50% is OK, certainly good enough for my purposes.
This is what the interface looks like, first in portrait view (showing loop mode), then in landscape view. I think the second is easier on the eye but you loose the zoomed out overview waveform.
Happy Camper!
See, now it's me who is confused and it seems like rocket science.
Regulars
Offline
Dear Wunderkind aka @demoiselle: You, confused!?!? 
Back to serious mode. Here's another screenshot of Anytune with the help buttons activated. I don't want to underplay what this app can do since I'm sure there's stuff in there I haven't found yet. But to get startet with it, there are just 12 buttons to make it work for my limited purpose:
Anytune automatically recognizes all of my downloaded music alphabetically. I still have to figure out how to organize the ones I'm currently working on into virtual folders. Maybe I'll just practice what I preach and check out the online "help" resources Anytune provides
(very small violin)
bocaholly said
Dear Wunderkind aka @demoiselle: You, confused!?!?Back to serious mode. Here's another screenshot of Anytune with the help buttons activated. I don't want to underplay what this app can do since I'm sure there's stuff in there I haven't found yet. But to get startet with it, there are just 12 buttons to make it work for my limited purpose:
Anytune automatically recognizes all of my downloaded music alphabetically. I still have to figure out how to organize the ones I'm currently working on into virtual folders. Maybe I'll just practice what I preach and check out the online "help" resources Anytune provides
I use NERO for actual music production. The multi-track "NERO SoundTrax" program is for mixing the voices/instruments I have recorded (like violin, recorder, spinet, drum). I control the volume of each channel, decide each stereo panning position, add reverb subtly. In the "NERO WaveEditor" I finally do the finalizing/mastering, like cutting away background noise at the beginning or fading them in etc. ... Finally I master in a quality which is above CD quality. This habit started in 1992, when I discovered midi and audio home recording. A year later I was cooperating with a professional sound engineer. We created music just for fun and by the way he taught me a lot about music production. It went on at a local radio & tv channel where they taught me more. So whenever I start to make a new recording of a little music piece, that background comes back. The NERO WaveEditor has a cute little feature I rarely use: "re-analogue". There I can even add noises of an old 78 rpm record player, or retro-radio sound. I used that a couple times for 1920s style jazz recordings -- actually forging something that sounds like a very old recording. If you put that into your black & white video with a sepia effect, it's gonna be extremely cute. Actually calls for learning violin vibrato and make something in a mushy 20s/30s style. LOL
Regulars
Offline
Demoiselle said
... If you put that into your black & white video with a sepia effect, it's gonna be extremely cute...
Probably very cool ... but I bet you use way more that 12 buttons to make that happen
bocaholly said
Demoiselle said
... If you put that into your black & white video with a sepia effect, it's gonna be extremely cute...Probably very cool ... but I bet you use way more that 12 buttons to make that happen
Nope. It's not very different from hitting EDIT in a text file and then move the curser down to SEARCH or whatever. In the WaveEditor I hit EFFECT and then go down to RE-ANALOGUE. Then a little playground opens up which is extremely funny. It's a playful little fun-thing, that makes it easy. The WaveEditor also has EDIT where you COPY, PASTE, CUT, DELETE, or INSERT another audio file into your audio. There are some modes which I don't understand because I never need them. As soon they will seem useful to me, I will figure that out too. Actually that WaveEditor seems easy to me. I have CUBASE too which drives me crazy. It is way too complicated to be a fun thing. It isn't on my laptop any longer.
1 Guest(s)
ELCBK
Strabo
Mouse
Fiddlerman
