LOOK HERE - Major Breakthrough!!!!

[Gunslinger]

Well it was for me anyway

Hi all, I have just found a bit of software that has floored me in its pure brilliance. Its called “Amazing slow downer”. I found it whilst looking for a piece of software to slow down an mp3 for analysis.

Here's an example of what it does; If you wanted to learn for example, the lead break in Hot Wired by Brent Mason you may (unless you are a complete smart ass) struggle because the playing is just so fast, by the time you have the first notes the lead break has ended, even if you have the tab its somtimes hard to find how its actually played. So you need to slow it down whithout effecting the pitch. This software does just that with no loss of quality whatsoever. It just slows it down perfectly!!!

I choose my words carefully here: (I am using Hotwired as a great example) I belive the backing to this song was sped up after it was decided it was too slow resulting in the song being a step out of tune. Brent then retuned his tele and played over the top of the faster backing. Which means that we have to re-tune our guitars to play along to the song.*

This software can rectify that pitch change and take it back to A perfectly.
Its got to be helpful to loads of of players when learning fast complicated stuff.

There is a demo avaiable which works with the first 3 mins of any song, just put your music CD in you computer and away you go. Its about $50 to buy, I couldnt part with my money fast enough!!!! Just Google “Amazing slow downer” for the demo

Brilliant!

*(I think this is how Hotwired was recorded but I may be wrong)

[cacibi]

I love this little piece of software - but just a note: I don't believe it supports files from the iTunes music store. That is, you can't time stretch or otherwise manipulate the key or speed on those Apple DRM files.

[eryque]

I love it too! Except I hate the fact that I'm tied to my computer to use it. There's just something anti-musical for me about it. Can't have everything, I guess.

There's gotta be a way to turn those iTunes files into MP3s or WAVs so the Slow Downer will open them. I suppose the worst case is that you burn them to a CD as CD audio and let the Slow Downer work off the disk.

[Brian blaut]

Originally Posted by cacibi

I love this little piece of software - but just a note: I don't believe it supports files from the iTunes music store. That is, you can't time stretch or otherwise manipulate the key or speed on those Apple DRM files.

But there is always a workaround. You could, in theory, make yourself an audio CD with said tracks on them. Then, you could, reburn that track back into your computer as an MP3 with no restrictions. Or, I believe The Amazing Slowdowner will be happy to use the raw audio file?

[Bones]

I tried it and it lock my computer up tighter than a crab's behind. Obviously there's a conflict somewhere, but I can't be arsed to sort it out.

[bradpdx]

I have use Reed Kotler's Transkriber for this for several years. It is available for Mac or Windows. No, I am not affiliated in any way.

Transkriber doesn't work with CDs, but instead you rip tracks you wish to slow down into common WAV or AIFF files.

Transkriber has all sorts of tools to isolate sections, change pitch, locate notes, loop over trouble spots, you name it. The UI is a bit busy, but it works very well and is very stable on my Win2000 and WinXP machines. I haven't tried the Mac version yet, but will when I ditch these Windows boxes for some Macs later this year.

[cacibi]

Originally Posted by Brian blaut

But there is always a workaround. You could, in theory, make yourself an audio CD with said tracks on them. Then, you could, reburn that track back into your computer as an MP3 with no restrictions. Or, I believe The Amazing Slowdowner will be happy to use the raw audio file?

That's true but 1) it's an incredible pain in the ass 2) you lose one of the 5 burns you are allowed with iTunes downloads 3) I paid for the music and I'm just trying to loop it or otherwise manipulate it for personal use, so - Apple should back off dammit! If I burn it to disc as a workaround, then the DRM Terrorists have won.

[Biglebowski41]

Tascam guitar trainer is a great tool that works as a stand-alone unit. It's a really handy little device that will even run on batteries, so you can take it wherever you feel like practicing.

[WickedGTR]

Originally Posted by cacibi

That's true but 1) it's an incredible pain in the ass 2) you lose one of the 5 burns you are allowed with iTunes downloads 3) I paid for the music and I'm just trying to loop it or otherwise manipulate it for personal use, so - Apple should back off dammit! If I burn it to disc as a workaround, then the DRM Terrorists have won.

Just to clarify:

You have a limited number of times you can burn the original album sequence of songs. You have a limited number of computers you can copy the song to.

You can burn a song as many times as you wish-

Here's more about iTunes DRM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay

[Brian blaut]

Originally Posted by cacibi

That's true but 1) it's an incredible pain in the ass 2) you lose one of the 5 burns you are allowed with iTunes downloads 3) I paid for the music and I'm just trying to loop it or otherwise manipulate it for personal use, so - Apple should back off dammit! If I burn it to disc as a workaround, then the DRM Terrorists have won.

The way I see it, it only helps you. Its only smart to back up your downloaded music in raw audio format anyways. I learned that lesson when my harddrive crashed. It does happen. So after you've backed it up on CD, you can just use the raw audio CD with the Slow Downer, I believe. If not, you can reburn it back in. Once its an MP3, it'll have no restrictions. It won't matter that you've used one of your legal burns because you've turned the album into MP3 and you can now burn it 5 million more times if you wish. Its kind of like telling a Genie that your third wish is to have 100 more wishes.

Just tryin to help and keep folks from making the same mistakes I made...

-Brian