Is there a way to slow down sound clips?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Is there a way to slow down sound clips?

I wanted to analyze and transcribe some song recordings. Is there a way to set the playback speed of an audio clip in GB without it changing pitch?

Not talking about midi and sound font stuff. I meant like if I wanted to learn a guitar riff from a Jimi Hendrix recording, could this be done in GB?

I can do it to some degree in Quicktime pro, but it sounds a little gappy when taken to half speed. It works in a pinch. But I was thinking there might have more control in GB.

Thanks.

G4 Dual 1.25s, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 5, 2008 3:49 AM

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Answer 1

D Akey Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 5, 2008 5:58 PM in response to poflynn

Awesome. That's a handy little site, isn't it.

Thanks so much. I'll try it but I don't expect a lot based on how they cautioned about the speed only be tweaked a little for a clean sound. But it's certainly good to know in case I should need to do that for. . . well, tweaking.

It also may be just fine for transcription slowing it a lot.

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Answer 2

Ramzy76

Level 1

70 points

Jul 6, 2008 5:57 PM in response to D Akey

GarageBand allows you to alter the tempo of the project at any time which can be used to slow down or speed up all tracks (digital and virtual/midi).

In order to slow down say Hendrix's Purple Haze and retain the proper pitch you would need to know the time signature and original tempo of the recording (not easy to do, since Hendrix was known to change time signatures mid-song often)

After doing that you would have to have a DRM (Digital Rights Management) free copy of the song on your hard drive (just pop the CD in and rip it using iTunes, easy enough) then import the song in on a single track and adjust the tempo accordingly.

Play around, that might do the track.

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 6, 2008 6:00 PM in response to Ramzy76

retain the proper pitch you would need to know the time signature and original tempo of the recording

actually, you don't, you can change the tempo without knowing anything about the song... GB just doesn't do it exceedingly well.

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Answer 4

poflynn

Level 4

1,303 points

Jul 5, 2008 3:58 AM in response to D Akey

I simply did a search on this forum for "slow" and immediately found this. This is from the acknowledged GB Guru, Hangtime.

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#changeimportedtempo

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