It was funny to me when I saw that this was today's giveaway because I currently have v.2 of this

I have used Audio Speed Changer Pro since v.1.2.2.63 open. Last night I was using it and went to bed before I was done with my project, so it was still open on my taskbar.

Anyway, I have used this program for a few versions and happily upgraded to the current one today.

To all of you who keep pointing people to Audacity: I am a songwriter and I love Audacity. I use it frequently. It rocks for music.

But it's a little more time consuming and cumbersome than is needed for non-musical needs. There are two times I turn to Audio Speed Changer:
(1) For speeding up audio books and
(2) For speeding up recorded conversations

AUDIOBOOKS
I am an audiobook lover. Someone else mentioned AngelVox from the same publisher. I tested it many months ago. From vague memory, I BELIEVE it is a player, not an editor. Since I listen to books while driving, either on an MP3 player or burnt CDs, a tool that only plays them on my computer isn't useful. Audiobooks can often be several hours long. So I use Audio Speed Changer Pro to increase their speed by 15%-25%, depending on the person reading. I find that I can benefit from the books just as well at this increased speed - especially non-fiction (which is 90% of what I listen to).

VOICE RECORDINGS
My memory sucks. I am in frequent long meetings with clients and prefer to engage in the conversation rather than distracting my attention with note taking. So many times I carry a small digital voice recorder in my pocket and record the conversations. Before the know-it-alls chime in here: I cleared this with an attorney. In the state I live in (and he says that in most but not all of the United States), it is legal to privately record a conversation that you are a part of. And for me, for this purpose, it helps me create extra value for the client because of my "perfect digital memory." So when I want to listen to my recorded conversations, I usually find I can increase the speed anywhere from 20%-50% for review and can often listen to a recorded 1-hour conversation in 30 minutes.

I frequently use Audio Speed Changer Pro for these jobs and it performs them wonderfully, without pitch change, without perceptible distortion, and without loading a large and more complex program like Audacity.
~N

Nebulous  –  11 years ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+75)

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Karla, I can assure you that Audacity does indeed have a speed changer effect plugin included in its basic install (Look in the "Effects" menu. In fact, I believe it's also one of the toolbar items as well, although I don't recollect what its graphical button representation looks like. In the same menu there is another effect which changes the pitch without affecting the speed of the selection - which comes in handy for musicians to easily transpose from one key to another. I believe one has the option of transposing either by note or by frequency.

There are also quite a few third-party "plugins" for Audacity, ranging from a simple range of existing effects presets to more complex emulations and simulations of various types of tube amplifiers. Yes, Audacity may not be a "no-brainer" audio software, but if you approach things from an "a la carte" point of view and only tweak things that really NEED tweaking, Audacity has a pretty quick learning curve if you only need one or two basic functions.

Having said that, with such a powerful audio processing ensemble available for FREE, I don't see how the publisher can really justify the $20 price tag for what amounts to really nothing more than a "one trick pony." I suppose there are some people who would happily pay 20 rather than have to actually LEARN something - especially something relevant to what most musicians have a passion for (namely, MUSIC), but I'd wager that none of them would dare admit it openly in conversations with their peers.

It would seem to me that the publishers of today's offering did little - if any - market research before tossing today's offering into their marketing hopper. First, there isn't all that much of a NEED for such a software (although there are some creative uses), and secondly it's WAY overpriced for what little it does(as I just covered).

Not the best way to build a brand!

I'm sure there will be many other free alternatives mentioned besides Audacity, although IMHO Audacity is one of the more powerful and feature-rich audio editors out there - at least for the price anyway (which is ZERO regardless of your particular form of currency).

To all the folks involved with the GOTD project: Many thanks!

Don Hill  –  11 years ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+50)

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While I tend to use Adobe Audition (among others) for most of my professional audio editing, today's offering is not to be sniffed at especially if you have just started out in editing audio. Although I personally don't consider this a professional product it does do it's job admirably. I will likely use this for quick edits and it does use the most commonly used formats and frequencies which should be good enough for most.
It would be nice to see a little more tweak ability but for a product in this price range I guess it isn't too bad.
There are probably free alternatives which Giovanni will most likely mention but as a free giveaway today I believe it is worth trying.

tekman  –  11 years ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+41)

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Dear GOTD users,

the link to the portable version download is fixed now. Sorry for the glitch.

Have a nice giveaway day!

Sincerely,
GOTD team

Giveaway of the Day team  –  11 years ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+41)

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Although I had already published my opinion just few days ago I would like to repeat it here at this very opportunity. My impression after testing several audio speed changing programs was that there exist differences among them as to their quality. The decisive point is about how far the sound would be distorted when especially reducing the speed. Maintenance of the pitch is obvious but the kick is the "natural" sound of the more slowly spoken words. Too often it was altered at a rather low reduction of the speed. I esteemed it important when learning foreign languages. My first choice several years ago was the program offered today.

I assure by all saints not be affiliated with the company, I only had long battles what Portuguese people were talking.

werceiro

werceiro  –  11 years ago  –  Ritieni questo commento utile? sì | no (+37)

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