Amazing Slow Downer for Mac

User Reviews

• Easy to use, worked great!

  squidknoxFebruary 19, 2014

  Pros

  I was able to slow down the music I needed

  Cons

  Trial version would only work for a portion of the music (OK with me, just had to put something in "cons"

  Summary

  Try it out, it works!

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• Exactly what I needed

  la196January 27, 2013

  Pros

  Easy to drag any song from your iTunes song list straight into the File Player. If you are working on learning something in alternate tuning you can adjust the pitch down in the player instead of retuning your guitar. Example: First of all, I play bass guitar) I've been studying James Jamerson's "Bernadette" for good walking bass and rhythm practice. The original recording is tuned down one semitone. Instead of me going thru the trouble to retune my instrument I adjusted the pitch down one semitone (easy enough, did it by ear) took about 20 seconds. Setting the loop feature is a snap. Overall sound quality is better than the learning mode on my Tascam DR-07 MkII digital audio recorder. It's especially useful if you have accurate sheet music or tabs in front of you to put it all together. If you don't read music or tabs, it's still more than useful to learn by ear. In the loop mode you can preset a % increase in speed where each time it repeats it will play back a little faster.

  Cons

  Not really anything I can complain about. As you know, bass is at much lower frequencies so I have to make adjustments in the highs, and middle on the EQ to help isolate the bass. But I can get it adjust to suit my needs.

  Summary

  To me it's a very valuable learning tool. I play piano as well but have only used this for bass guitar but I did drag a very fast classical piano piece into the Amazing Slow Downer and it really separates every note (even in a complicate, fast piano piece) with very little to no degradation in pitch. It works for me.

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• Fantastic! Exactly what it says.

  pdwrNovember 6, 2010

  Pros

  This is the ultimate way to transcribe recorded speech, which is what I needed it for. It's easily adjusted to play at any speed that suits my typing speed and remains totally clear to listen to. Perfect.

  Cons

  Would maybe like an easier way to manage back-tracking to earlier point in recording... but it works just fine as is, in fact.

  Summary

  This is a piece of simple, effective software that does exactly what it promises. I use it to transcribe voice recordings (which it does exceptionally well and easily, even though it seems not to have actually been designed for this job). It plays back any recording at any speed that's of practical use, and all the time it keeps the original pitch of the voice and clarity of the recorded voice. Amazing... truly!

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• Where was this back in the 60's? Incredible tool.

  apetermarshJanuary 4, 2010

  Pros

  Awesome. As a busy MD for a Church - I can change the key in a flash. Great for those who always have to have the arrangement/rehearsal CD in a different key.

  Cons

  Nothing really, but every time I go to re-start the track - if I press the play button the track starts at the beginning. Figured out I have to use the pause control instead.

  Summary

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• his is the tool to analyze a piece of music

  peterlemerOctober 9, 2009

  Pros

  Slows music down - any fragment - you can even slow down a single chord and loop it so it becomes 'infinite' and you can pick out the individual notes. Fantastic. Even use the EQ to focus on the bassline :-)

  Cons

  For the price and for what it's deisgned for, I can't think of anything I don't like

  Summary

  When I need to transcribe a piece of music, this is the first thing I grab :-)

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• The name is well deserved - it's amazing!

  hart.bezner_dotmacOctober 7, 2009

  Pros

  It can shift the pitch and the speed of a piece of music - both up and down

  Cons

  The fidelity suffers a little when either the speed or the pitch is altered - but this is to be expected

  Summary

  I use it to change the pitch or the speed of a piece of music, sometimes both. It can also be used to slow down, or speed up, of say, a lecture. The pitch remains unchanged when you change the speed alone, and the speed does not change when you change the pitch alone.

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• Great, simple and easy to use!

  tmm4264May 15, 2009

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I use this application to slow down complex musical parts to learn them on guitar and drums. It connects to your iTunes library and will slow down unprotected files. You also have the option of exporting them in a slowed down version if you want to store them on your iPod. Great tool for learning complex or overdubbed music parts!

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• Great Product In Every Way

  Oscar F. Hills, MDFebruary 20, 2008

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I have been at this sort of thing for four decades. You used to have to slow records down to 16 rpm's to drop the music an octave and put it in half time. Them you had to drop the needle in just the right place, and hold as much in your head as you could to do a transcription, before finding the right groove to drop the needle in again. As computers came around, I longed for software like this, and eventually it arrived. I have tried them all over the years. The developer of ASD updates with fixes constantly, and this app has every feature you can think of. Including dealing with the horrid DRM problems. The quality of my transcriptions has improved immeasurably with this app. If you think the UI is bad, look at the other apps with the same functionality. They are much worse. But I agree that the previous reviewers suggestions would be super, even though I don't have the same feelings about the current UI. I'll tell ya, I am so delighted with this software that I have even learned to tolerate its name. I don't have the time or energy to detail every feature that makes it so great, but maybe you can take the word of a guy who spends many, many long hours transcribing very fast and complex banjo and guitar music. ASD is a great app.

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• Brilliant!!

  CuairteoirFebruary 28, 2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This app is a fantastic tool for practising music in all speeds and all keys whilst maintaining the highest sound quality. You can use ASD in its File Player Mode (to play all sorts of audio-files you might have on harddisk) or you can use ASD in its CD Player Mode. You can tune the music to suit your instrument instead of the other way round and you can store all presets for the way you want any track to be played (right-click in the presets-field). It has loads of options so it might take a while before you have discovered them all. For instance: When you right-click in the playlist window, another menu will appear. This gives you many options regarding files and playlists. Also, in the main preferences you find numerous handy features. I use ASD almost every day since version 1.03 and i find it the best software purchase i have ever made. Mac and Windows versions work wonders regarding pitch & speed of sound.

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• still a puzzle after all these years

  mickmcqFebruary 27, 2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Every upgrade adds 1 or 2 tiny features, almost as if it's just a way to bump it up in versiontracker awareness, without really making significant changes. Audacity gives me whatever speed I want at equal sound quality plus waveforms that give a sense of the music dynamics while playing back. Or Soundhack allows much more flexibility / audio quality in examining nuances of what the original player did. Both are free. Hard to justify such a high price for ASD given those TRULY amazing systems. Also, I don't actually want to do play the CD---I'd rather transfer it to hard disk so it doesn't wear my laptop battery down as fast. That "feature" does not help mobile users.

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