Using Quicktime For Transcribing Or Learning Tunes

[Lawrence Reeves]

While watching Clare loose to Tipp in Senior Hurling the other day a discussion of slowing down tunes came up. Being able to pitch shift, or slow down even a few percent can often help to learn from recordings. In Quicktime ( from Apple) you can open any tune in iTunes, or other audio formats, play repeat etc. The nice trick we discussed was to open the AV editing window ( under Window, Show A/V controls ). There you will find pitch, and speed options. This is not taking any extra hard drive space, as you are just opening the file from different software. You can also adjust the balance, and bass treble settings. In no way am I suggesting this to be as good as Audacy or The AMazing slow downer etc. , but it is a free download and it works. I have been listening to track 4 from Tim Collins and Brian McNamara "Reed Only" Tim plays three reels including a version of Spike Island Lasses ( more like the Bank of Ireland to me ) all on an Eb Jeffries. I have been able to slow it down, and pitch shift to concert pitch enough to catch bits of his ormanentaion.

[Steve_freereeder]

... In Quicktime ( from Apple) you can open any tune in iTunes, or other audio formats, play repeat etc. The nice trick we discussed was to open the AV editing window ( under Window, Show A/V controls ). There you will find pitch, and speed options....

Brilliant! And there's me - a seasoned Mac user but I had no idea you could do this in Apple QT.

Thanks for posting this, Lawrence.

[Henrik Müller]

...There you will find pitch, and speed options. This is not taking any extra hard drive space, as you are just opening the file from different software. You can also adjust the balance, and bass treble settings. In no way am I suggesting this to be as good as Audacy or The AMazing slow downer etc. , but it is a free download and it works. ...

Yep - QuickTime is a life-saver, one of my main tools. And if you have a steady hand, you can locate the tricky part with the little handles in the player's timeline - it helps to pull the player window as wide as it goes = your screen, with the lower right corner. That gives you more "resolution" in the handles. Put the player in "Loop" (Command-L) and "Play selection" (Command-T).

 

If fine-tuning the selection is difficult (with a long track), select a bit more than you need, copy, open new player window and paste. Draw out the player window to full width, and Bob is probably your uncle. Fine-tune away...

 

This is nitty-gritty stuff... but it has made the penny drop more than once with my slow brain (ears?).

 

As Larry points out, this is not quality pitch/speed change, but it does the work. Interestingly, there is no real reason why Apple couldn't implement higher quality - the component is there already, deep down in the OS core:

 

 

 

The problem is to get at it - you will need a special (free) tool for that and maybe c.net isn't the right place for that description.

Unless I hear pleas, of course or is contacted off-forum.

 

/Henrik