Do you have a lot of podcasts and/or audio books that you want to listen to but are unable to find the time? If so, this program can help.
MP3 Speed is a simple, free program that does one thing: it changes the speed of your MP3 files. There are two ways in which it can do this, however; it can change both the speed and pitch, or it can change the speed and preserve pitch. The distinction is important, as preserving the pitch means that your podcasts and audiobooks, despite being faster, will be entirely listenable/comprehensible (within a certain range of speed) without having the “chipmunk” effect that you might get if you increase both tempo and pitch.
My suggestion: try it with a couple of podcasts and see how you like it (see the text below for a suggested tempo value that can work).
You can use MP3 Speed to process podcasts, audiobooks, and other MP3 files in batch, for folders and recursively through subfolders (and choosing whether to preserve the original and where the modified files should be saved).
I was first introduced to the notion of modifying the speed of an audio file without modifying the pitch when I reviewed Taffy, a software that can process podcasts to speed them up then serve the podcast to a podcast catcher or a mobile device. The audio results I saw when testing that program were enlightening in that I saw for the first time that accelerated audio files that nonetheless preserved the pitch were completely comprehensible, and not a bad way to listen.
However, it matters a lot how much you increase the tempo; I would recommend that accelerated files be in the range of 135% (i.e. 35% faster than the original), which is the setting used by Taffy. More than that and the files will become simply too fast for comfortable listening.
As to the MP3 Speed program itself, there’s really not much to say. It’s fairly intuitive: drag and drop, batch processing including recursive folders, etc. Works really well
Version Tested: 5.0.0
Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.7 megs).
You don’t need this.
Just use VLC for everything –
it can play faster OR slower, in small increments.
Can do it for any supported audio or video file, not just MP3.
Use [ or ] for fine increments.
Default is normal pitch but you can change it to Mickey Mouse noises.
@Anonymous: but yoy can’t save the modified version and take it with you on an MP3player.
This sounded like a great idea for me – I listen to lots of audiobooks, and often wish the reader would speed it up. My mp3 player has and option for increasing the playback, but when I do I get the chipmunk effect.
So I downloaded, installed this program and gave it a try. The first book I tried to convert went just fine, but after that, no matter what I did, the program wouldn’t respond. I was able to add the next book to the list, but then absolutely no commands resulted in anything but the Windows “ding” that says nothing’s going to happen. Couldn’t even shut the program down without resorting to using Task Manager.
I see this was just released the the general public on July 30, so I’m thinking it’s not quite ready for prime time yet. Will be glad to give another try at a later date if it improves, but for now I’m on a 30day trial of another program that costs 19.95, and is doing a great job.
Using the “change tempo” effect in Audacity will do the same thing. Plus you can normalize the volume and do whatever else you need to at the same time.
This is spyware. It includes RelevantKnowledge, which is a well-known spyware program. Even the license agreement says so. I would not have expected this from your website.
@ David: I read the license agreement, and found no reference to either RelevantKnowledge by name or by implication.
Moreover, this software’s VirusTotal profile is as clean as they can get:
http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=ede77e7423727fdc6cbbff23bc24d3f44c23dd27f6bb344b63846b1f24f67ad1-1286013755
Are you sure you are talking about the same software that is reviewed here?
When I installed this program, my firewall caught it trying to phone home to RelevantKnowledge.
It was right after I turned down the “short survey.” Maybe that’s what it’s trying to report?
I agree with Anonymous and the concept that the media player should be where time stretching and shortening (with natural pitch correction) is done because it is most commonly needed on-demand. For instance you might want to breeze through sections of a podcast but return to normal speed when a part of high interest is reached and needs to be digested more slowly and deeply. Or if you’ve already concentrated on that section previously and just want a refresher you may then choose to fly through it at a higher speed this time. Those who transcribe dictation use a playback machine with variable speed so that hard to understand sections can be slowed down and other sections sped up to save time. It makes the most sense vs. processing the whole thing at one set speed and being stuck with it. Heck, sometimes I’m just a little more out of it and other times I’m caffeinated and ready to rock. There are MP3 media players out now that have the speed/pitch control, and there’s always the option of taking an outdated media player and updating it with new firmware that supports time compression/expansion such as the RockBox.
And true on Audacity and some other audio processing apps being able to change tempo and output the file, though some people might be overwhelmed by their interfaces and prefer something simple with one purpose like MP3 Speed.
The bottom line though is the more the merrier if its free. Though, after catching wind of RelevantKnowledge being involved in this, I’ll steer clear of it and select a less dangerous course.