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Software to slow down speech | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6266 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 9 of 17 26 January 2010 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, if you can't even hear what sounds are being said because it's simply too fast, it's a good idea to slow it down. Better to swallow some pride and make your resources useful than to sit there helpless because listening at the natural speed is the cool thing to do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 17 26 January 2010 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, it's an excellent idea. Of course you have to learn to understand speech at the normal speed, but if you can't understand that yet you should try to find something easier which you can understand, and slowing down the stream of words might do the trick. Always try to find comprehensible input if you can. Else make it comprehensible if that's possible. Edited by Iversen on 26 January 2010 at 4:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rustywater Newbie Germany Joined 5579 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 17 26 January 2010 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is also a very good program (not free but not expensive) called the Amazing Slow
Downer. The advantage of this program over others I have tried is that when speed is reduced (or increased) the pitch is unaltered, so there is no slurring, its aimed at musicians but I'm sure it would do the job. There is a free trial for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5537 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 12 of 17 26 January 2010 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | ||
NCH has some decent audio software. They mainly focus on transcription (which is why they tend to focus on voice file formats more than other audio programs), but they also have some nice utilities like "Switch," which works great for audio conversion. (We actually have an automated script here at work that makes sub-calls to Switch for converting voice files to more compatible formats.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5544 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 17 26 January 2010 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you all. Scribe and Audacity are great. Scribe can even open an audio CD. Is Mplayer (NuclearGorilla mentioned in msg #5) "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" by Microsoft? It doesn't support "-af scaletempo" option. Smplayer.exe from www.mplayerhq.hu does not either. Since I already have free software, I didn't try "Amazing Slow Downer" but thanks.
I find myself studying a language at the fastest pace when I can understand around 80% of it, either for reading or listening. Too high, I don't gain much. Too low, I'm at a loss. Slowing down the speaker's speech is one of the best ways to raise that number. Having a transcript is another. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ecgreen Newbie United States Joined 6176 days ago 15 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Korean | Message 14 of 17 27 January 2010 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Praat
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| NuclearGorilla Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6788 days ago 166 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, French | Message 15 of 17 27 January 2010 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
The first one you mentioned ("C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe") is Windows Media Player, which has the option somewhere in the interface (I think you might have to enable a menu, but it's been I while since I've used it). I don't know specifically about Smplayer.exe, but that's from the right site. I neglected to mention that while it's playing the file, you have to hit the left or right brackets ([ ]) to slow it down or speed it up, respectively. (Curly braces increase or decrease by 50%.) The "-af scaletempo" argument just makes it so that it preserves the pitch. Although if this still doesn't work, I don't really know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7148 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 16 of 17 28 January 2010 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you for this resource. It is a small download but it works great. It is easy to use. Nothing to learn - very straightforward. I think it is great for slowing down unfamiliar speech but also for speeding up speech to get through more in less time. I had a cassette recorder that did similar but the results weren't as good. I used to listen to teaching tapes in my car and got through an hour's lecture in 40 minutes. So, it is useful for both slowing and speeding up speech. Thank you again. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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