Slow down sound clip QuickTime Player

You can't in QuickTime, but you can in Podcasts app on your iPhone or iPad.

Import the files into iTunes on your computer, select them, Command+I. In the Get Info window, click on Options and change Media Kind to Podcast. Sync these podcasts to your iDevice. In the Podcasts app, on the Now Playing window, tap repeatedly on the "1x" icon. It will cycle thru faster and a slower playback speed.

It's easier done than explained...

I have to write out multiple interviews. How can I slow down a sound clip on QuickTime Player?

If you are transcribing recordings on a professional basis, then the normal approach is to purchase a control pedal for use with third-party transcription software. If this workflow is only required on an occasional basis, you are probably better off using either the QT 7 Player or the VLC Player.

As depicted above, QT 7 has an "A/V Controls" panel. It can be used to control both the pitch and playback speed of audio content but only has an excursion of 0.5x to 3.0x.

On the other hand, VLC has a dropdown menu auto-pitch correcting Playback Speed Control with a 0.25x to 4.0x excursion.

Thank you. After searching the internet for literally two hours and trying like four other softwares, I finally found something that works with my situation!

As far as transcription, give Trint a look. It's an online service that will auto-transcribe an audio file you upload. The online editor allows you to correct the transcription with adjustable playback speed and a 5s rewind button.

It's worth mentioning, if you are doing interviews using Skype or FaceTime, record your voice and the interview subject's to separate audio tracks. This makes transcription easier, especially if there is overlapping speech. It also gives you the flexibility to transcribe the audio tracks separately or combined. If combining the separate tracks, you have the option to insert silences to shift and separate the spoken segments before the mix down in an audio editor, which is particularly useful for auto-transcription.

For recording, use a double-ender technique where each person records their side of the conversation using an audio recording program such as QuickTime. If that is impracticable, use a program such as Call Recorder for FaceTime or Skype which will record local and remote audio to separate tracks at your end without the need for the interview subject to record. Other options for recording separate tracks are the Audio Hijack app, and Cast or Zencastr online. If you need speaker diarization, you can try Watson Speech to Text.

Of course, transcription is helped by employing good audio recording technique in a quiet environment such as the use of headphones to eliminate audio feedback and an external microphone. If audio noise, hum, or levels are an issue, take a look at the Auphonic web service to automatically restore and normalize.

Sillypi wrote:

I have to write out multiple interviews. How can I slow down a sound clip on QuickTime Player?

You can slow down a sound clip in QuickTime Player X using an AppleScript created in Script Editor, or from Terminal using osascript. If you save the Applescript to your Scripts folder, located at ~/Library/Scripts/, you can run it from the menubar. It is more useful, however, given the likelihood of frequent access, to run it with a keyboard shortcut by creating an Automator service or using a tool such as FastScripts (free for 10 keyboard shortcuts). By using a script with an assigned keyboard shortcut, you can control QuickTime's playback of the audio file in the background while you maintain focus in your text editor transcribing.

If you want to use Quicktime X for transcription, one suggested workflow is to create two scripts. One script will toggle between initiate playing at a slower speed and pausing and then rewinding a short interval, 5 seconds for instance. Play speed values ≥0.5 seem the most practical. The value 1.0 is normal speed, 0.5 is 1/2 speed, and 0.75 is 3/4 speed, etc. If you find 0.75 still too fast, step down to 0.7, 0.65, 0.6, etc. The second script will resume playing at normal speed or if playing, set the speed to normal if it is set at a speed other than normal speed. If you prefer, you can set a value faster than normal speed, 1.5 for instance. Set up each script with its own unique keyboard shortcut. These basic scripts sans error handling assume Quicktime is already open and the selected audio file is selected/frontmost as document 1. Keep in mind that the scripts are a compliment to the player controls; the player controls still function.

Script 1, toggle play at a slower speed and pause and rewind 5 seconds:

tell application "QuickTime Player"

tell document 1

if not playing then

play

if the rate is not 0.75 then

set rate to 0.75

end if

else if playing then

pause

set current time to current time - 5 -- rewinds 5 seconds

end if

end tell

end tell

Script 2, resume playing at normal speed, or if playing, set play to normal speed if it isn't:

tell application "QuickTime Player"

tell document 1

if not playing then

play

if rate is not 1.0 then

set rate to 1.0

end if

else if playing then

if rate is not 1.0 then

set rate to 1.0

end if

end if

end tell

end tell

Yes but podcast app only has one slower option: 0.5, which is too slow in my case.