Is there a way to slow down playback?

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linny
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Joined: November 5th, 2010, 12:37 pm
Location: Florida, USA

Post by linny »

Audacity 2.1.2

I have a word perfect PL and the recording is just a little too fast for me to accurately follow. Is there a way to slow down the playback?
GrayHouse
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Joined: October 6th, 2012, 3:27 pm

Post by GrayHouse »

Make sure the Transcription toolbar is visible [View > Toolbars] - It looks like a small play button with a slider next to it.
Then set the slider to the value you want and press the small play button. Obviously it distorts according to the speed variation, but it's useful for small speed changes.
Is that any use?
-Ian
GrayHouse
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Post by GrayHouse »

You could also play back slower with very little distortion if you apply a corresponding pitch change to the sound first.
So to listen at 85% speed
- Use Effect >> Change Pitch - set Percent Change to 17.6 - Press OK.
- Then play back at 85% speed using the Transcription toolbar
It should sound better than playing slower without the pitch change.
Hope that helps,
-Ian
Last edited by GrayHouse on June 1st, 2018, 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
tovarisch
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Post by tovarisch »

I never tried it myself, yet there is another effect : Change Tempo. Does it not do something similar?
tovarisch
  • reality prompts me to scale down my reading, sorry to say
    to PLers: do correct my pronunciation please
GrayHouse
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Post by GrayHouse »

I believe Change Tempo and Change Speed also change the length of the audio, which messes up your timeline.
linny
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Location: Florida, USA

Post by linny »

Thank you both. :thumbs:

I should have played around a bit. I now remember I've used the change tempo/speed. I'll check out the impact to time and also see if I can activate the Transcription toolbar. That sure sounds handy.
Availle
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Post by Availle »

In Audacity, there's a green triangle somewhere on top, and to the right of it you can set "playback speed". If you click on the green triangle, it will play back according to the speed you set. Will change the pitch if you do too much.
Cheers, Ava.
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TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Transcription toolbar is the way to go.

EDIT: Availle beat me to it. :)
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linny
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Post by linny »

That's working perfectly! Thank you all. :thumbs:
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