The Steel Guitar Forum

YouTube has the capability of slowing down videos/audio without changing the key.

In the bottom left corner of any video there is an "settings" icon that looks like a gear. If you click it, you can choose 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, or 2.0x speed.

There are some audio artifacts and sometimes it sounds a bit funny when stretched but it works well enough for me. I've never used any of the software packages or hardware pieces that do this so can't comment on how it compares.

Jeremy

The free (as in FSF "free" and no-$ "free"), open-source, VLC media player has that capability built in. Older versions had the buttons, "<<" for slower and ">>" for faster, on the main toolbar as default. I had to add them on the current version, but it's easily done in the "Customize Interface" screen.

There are versions for windoze, mac, android, ios, lots of flavors of linux, solaris, bsd, and a bunch of others. Hell, they even cover OS/2. There is a windoze version which doesn't require installation via the registry. This is my swiss-army-knife media player, I've dumped everything else.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Removed double post.

How has this thread gone two pages and it is still in "New Product Announcements"?

Publisher Description
BestPractice is a tool especially for musicians to slow down or speed up music, either from a file or directly from a CD while keeping the pitch at the correct height. On the other hand the pitch of the music can be changed without affecting the temp.
I just installed this, and it's a small file and does a great job and it's totally FREE.
You can actually change the pitch up or down either by cents or semitones and save
the files to a hardrive or jumpdrive and burn to a CD.
I just slowed down and copied 3 complete CD's at 20 to 30% and it works real good.
http://bestpractice.soft112.com/

Sadly, Windows Media Player doesn't come with Win 8.1 nor will it with Win 10. Looking for a replacement.

Charlie, I have a new HP computer with Win 8.1 and it came with both
Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player. I like VlC better than WMP.
Both are available for download. Just do a google search for either one.

Another vote for Amazing Slow Downer (ASD), which is available for both Mac and Windows. I'm intending to try Riffstation, as Bryan Daste recommends it pretty highly.

Here's one more very promising Mac app, Capo 3. It seems to do all that ASD does, plus it generates guitar cords from music it analyzes, and supposedly creates guitar tab from parts of the song. No, it's not pedal steel tab, unfortunately, but it's a start. Apparently it also creates its own library of songs you've worked on in Capo, which is quite handy. Once you leave ASD, a new session with the same songs means doing everything over again.

Price is $29.95, compared to $50 for ASD.

http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/mac/

If you want free then Bestpractice is the way to go.
You can also loop sections for hearing a particular lick,Slow it down,change key ect.

Be forwarned that Best Practice is a tad buggy but you do get what you pay for. Yes it works.

Riffstation...

I am old fashioned, I guess. I just like something I can hold in my hand and move around. I am on my 2nd Tascam CD - GT1MKII. I got a like new one for $40.00 on eBay. It measures 5 1/2" x 9" x 1 3/4" and operates on batteries or an AC adapter. It will slow down without loosing pitch. You can also do a loop, playing the same lick over and over automatically. It has a headphone output and a line out output. It has two inputs, one for guitar and one for a mic. It makes a great portable CD player. It has a lot of other features too, which I don't use.

I just like something I can move around from room to room or even outside and something that I can plug into a PA system or amp. I don't want anything that ties me to a computer, although I guess a lap top would not be bad, but I don't know if you can pop a CD into it or not.

there is an Amazimg Slow downer for the iPhone.

I use a TASCAM CD-GT2 - they also make a digital version

Put in a CD slow it down, speed it up, change the key
push a button to start a loop , push it again to end it. and replay it endlessly at any speed and key
Also has some cool effects..
Plug in to an amp or headphones..

Couldn't find BestPractice as an iPhone app
As much as a slow downer is useful I often find the need to play back mp3's in different keys. I still don't get why some songs seem to be recorded in Eb or C# etc grrr
So....at risk of high jacking this thread are there any iPhone apps that can play back music a couple of tones sharp or flat of the original?

Bo Borland wrote:I use a TASCAM CD-GT2 - they also make a digital version

Put in a CD slow it down, speed it up, change the key
push a button to start a loop , push it again to end it. and replay it endlessly at any speed and key
Also has some cool effects..
Plug in to an amp or headphones..

Yes - the TASCAM works great - look for them on ebay.TW

One more vote for Amazing Slow Downer! As for the free alternatives their sound is much inferior to ASD which offers 4 different modes including Karaoke which will strip out the vocals or instrument in the center channel.

I've heard good things about Transcribe which will also spell out the notes heard at specific times.

Steve Ahola

Amazing Slowdowner for me also. Changes speed but keeps the key. You can switch keys (if ever needed), adjust the cents in case your guitar is slightly out of tune with the song (found several that were out, but others were still in tune for me, the ability to loop sections so you can keep working on the licks.