slowing songs for practice

klaatu · March 2012

Passacaglia wrote:

I've used Amazing ever since doing a workshop at a fest a few years back with Gonzalo, who recommended it. I don't find any issue with pitch distortion on slowing down, personally. It's been a useful thing for me. I'm intrigued by the video "slow downers," however. That sounds like a great tool.

I use Amazing's DVD software, Ultimate DVD Player. It's a separate piece of software,meaning more $$$, but well worth it. Has very similar features to Amazing. Transcribe has a video slowdown feature built in, but the last time I checked, it didn't work for DVDs, only computer-based files, like AVI and MP4. This means that if you're working with a DVD, you have to convert the clips to some other format.

Passacaglia · March 2012

Edit: Thanks, Ben, went to the site, saw what it can and can't do. Pretty cool.

I'm on Windows Media Player now, went to enhancements/speed setting slider bar, but for some reason none of the controls seem operational. No slider ability, and "slow", "medium" and "fast" are also nil. I can advance a frame at a time, though, which is pretty cool when lost on a particular voicing or note.

Steveareno · March 2012

I'm sure the computer programs are great, but I use a little thing called a Chop Shop, patched into my mini CD player stereo system. It's small digital recorder. Only records 32 seconds, but you can slow down the playback without altering the pitch. Just shove in a CD, cue it up and record, then switch to the aux channel and play it back. Fairly primitive by today's standards, but works great for figuring out licks and phrases. It was on sale at GC years ago. Don't know if they even make em anymore.
Swang on,

Bones · March 2012

Passa,

On Windows Media Player be sure your videos are in .wmv format and sound clips are .mp3. Then the slow down slider should be functional.

If you want to convert something off of Youtube, I use Mozilla browser and you can get a free add-on called Download helper from their website where you can get video off of Youtube (or any site) and convert to .wmv.

For converting audio clips (like from a cd) you can 'rip' them using Media Player. Make sure that the rip setting is set for mp3.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Passacaglia · March 2012

Thanks, Bones. Clears it up perfectly.

Bones · March 2012

Great, glad that worked out for you.

WMP works pretty well for what I need except I wish it had pitch control since some of the old recordings seem to be a bit out of tune (maybe due to the recording method or something) so sometimes I have to tune my guitar up or down a bit to compensate but other than that it does the job well enough.

Passacaglia · March 2012

Yep, I get some distortion too, but the ability to slow down the visuals, esp. on closeups of Angelo Debarre flying away, for example, is wonderful. A really nice tool, thanks again.