Amazing Slow Downer used to happily play tunes I downloaded from the itunes music store. Then one day it randomly decided it didn't do that anymore. It will play the tune, but it won't slow it down or change the pitch, and the counter moves haltingly.
Amazing Slow Downer should be able to play stuff from iTunes (AAC files). And the fact that it used to work and then stopped is a bit distressing.
My recommendation would be to reinstall it (If you're on Windows, you should uninstall it first from Control Panels -> Add/Remove Programs. If you're on a Mac, you can just trash the folder and then go into /Library/Preferences and get rid of the Amazing Slow Downer folder(s) and possibly a file called "com.ronimusic.amazingslowdowner.plist")
Make sure you have your registration information handy if you have a registered version. But then you should be able to just install a new copy, and hopefully that would fix it. There's potentially a newer version out anyway, unless you just got it recently. Good luck!
It still plays files uploaded from CDs that are on itunes. It only hates ones downloaded from the itunes music store, which is kind of obnoxious since that's how I acquire tunes I want to play and don't have on any recording I already own.
I'm far more surprised that it ever read purchased files than that it won't now.
Apple uses a copy-protection scheme on the purchased tunes that it doesn't share with other vendors. If I look at the file info (on a mac) of a purchased tune it's "Protected AAC" not just AAC.
The same thing happened to me with Transcribe; I emailed the developer and was told that until Apple shared the protection scheme with him there was nothing he could do. I'd recommend you ask the Slow Downer folks if this the case with them as well.
It's a shame, since what you want to do has nothing to do with piracy.
I know that this sounds a bit of ordeal but will it work if the tracks are downloaded to CD first?
Alternatively, you could make an anologue recording which you could convert to an MP3 and try it that way. I know the sound quality might not be as good but it would probably do for "tune learning" purposes. Just a thought.
There ARE other kinds of music in this world that people might like to listen to from time to time, I_Fel
Of course, if you are putting them in ASD, that means your probably going to try to PLAY them too, I guess - and that's strictly forbidden on this site
SilverSpear, one way to check and see if the DRM (Digital Rights Management - basically copy protection) of the AAC files is the issue is to convert them to mp3 as John suggested. You can probably actually do that directly in iTunes.
If you set up the Importing preferences in iTunes to use the MP3 Encoder, then you can right-click on a song and select "Convert Selection to MP3"
You should be able to convert it to mp3, and that would remove the DRM protection. Then you could try it again in Slow Downer to see if that is really the issue.
I'm surprised at what I have gotten. itunes aquisitions include Tam Lin, Man of the House, Star of Munster, and a whole CD of Lunasa (say what you will about them, I like them) and another whole CD of Paddy Keenan.
Anyways, it won't let me convert it to mp3 because it's protected. So I don't understand at all why it worked until I was halfway through learning the C part of a Paddy Keenan reel. I've been transferring itunes music store tunes to ASD since the end of March. It only stopped working last week. Weird.
I can probably use garageband and have the computer record itself playing. I've done that with stuff before. I don't know if it would work off a CD. I shall try that.
TheSilverSpear-Knew about Lunasa, but then I bought the CDs. I'll have to look for the rest of the tunes you listed. There's a Paddy Keenan tune up in iTunes???? I keep forgetting there's another world of music out there at times.
Well, yeah, I need to put it in ASD so can learn the hummer.
I've never had the problems TSS describes; I copy the mp3 and read it into iTunes, but then again, they are imported from my CDs, so that might be the difference.
Would it work if you imported the tune into "Audacity" and then exported as an mp3?? As you are porbably aware Audacity is a freeware program but I am not certain that you could actually import this audio file - worth a try.
Donough, I don't think Audacity will import AAC, especially not DRM'd ones.
You can always burn the protected AAC files to an audio CD and then re-rip them as mp3 (or non-DRM AAC, for that matter), but that's a lot of trouble to go to, I'm thinking, but maybe worth it to test out the theory that the DRM is what is messing Slow Downer up.
I still don't get why it would work before and not now. Maybe I ought to cough up $.99 and actually BUY a track from Apple to see!
If you use Audacity, don't try to import the files. Just start Audacity recording (click the red button) - while it's recording you can play your files in their normal format and Audacity will record them.
You can then export the resulting sound file from Audacity in a .wav or .mp3 format. The slow-downer will definitely work with these. I do it all the time (even use Audacity in this manner to record the audio stripped from video files and all sorts of other stuff).
Regarding 'slowing down'. I've just dicovered that the latest version of the mac version of Quicktime Player 7 now has a slowdown (and speedup) feature. Under the menu 'window' - 'show AV controls' - and there it is! It works very simply on CD's in realtime, MP3s and Midi files.
As the Midis on 'thesession.org.' are often at 'learning speed' the 'speedup' feature can also be be useful when practising building up speed to 'session speed'.
Regarding the v7 for Window - the website says 'coming soon'
Great news with QT7. Holding off on Tiger till some VPN software gets released.
An off topic question- does anyone one in apple land click on the midi file in the tunes section, starts to play and then abruptly stop? It just started happeningn on my Tibook laptop and I have no clue. It appears that its not downloading the entire tune, but it doesn't happen on every midi either. Very curious
i've got a mac but i wouldn't touch the itunes music store. too expensive and the music you get is too encumbered. i was recently recommended http://allofmp3.com/ which, despite being a russian site, seems quite reputable, and an album costs about a quid there. (flat rate of 2 cents a megabyte). you can choose the encoding quality. it's legal too, i believe.
more off topic: has anyone got a recommended tool for splitting up analog input (e.g. minidisc recordings) into separate mp3-encoded tracks? currently i can use garageband to do this, but it's quite awkward, especially as it's reluctant to cope with more than 30 mins of music.
description:
AudioSlicer is a Cocoa GUI application that finds all silences in an audio file and allows you to split it into several smaller audio files and to name/tag them properly. For now only MP3 is supported but other audio formats may be added in the future. While most other tools doing this split automatically according to certain criteria, AudioSlicer shows you all silences within a certain range of duration. You can then listen to the silence - well, to the audio before and after the silence really - and then you decide if you want to split there. The splitting is done without loss, there is no decoding and re-encoding of audio data taking place.
Re 'I_Fel's problem with midi's stopping mid tune - assume your browser's QT plugin opens them. I usually 'control-click' (or right button on PC) and save to disc - then play them in quicktime player - with no problem. (with the new v7 advantage of being able to slow down or speed up).
Re Rog - Albums from a Russian site for £1 !
legal too you believe ? you must be kidding! I don't imagine any of that £1 goes to record companies ,artists etc. and I'm sure they woudn't consider it legal.
to be honest, i spend as much money as i can afford on normal CDs anyway. there are loads of albums i'd quite like but will never acquire or listen to via the usual means (all those bob dylan albums, for example). if music's at a reasonable price, i'll probably end up spending the same amount overall, but spread over a much greater variety of artists and genres, including speculative buying of stuff that i've never heard before. if the mainstream labels made their stuff available at comparable prices, i'd be there. honestly 50p a track is way too much.
mp3trimmer is a useful pointer, ta. i had looked at audacity, but it seems way way overkill for what i'm after. BTW, how do you do the encoding to MP3 in the first place? something really simple that just encodes from an audio interface to MP3 (or WAV come to that) should do the job.
Q: audioslicer seems like just the job for my old LPs, but not great for session recordings where there's not a moment of silence anywhere!
Rog
suggest you look further at Audacity.It does all you seem to be trying to do in one programme - is truly 'free' (and legal!) and is as simple , or complex as you want it to be.
Don't worry about all the waveform graphics and effects meunu if you don't need them, just simply record into it, then export it (all of it , or selected bits) into MP3 (or WAV or Ogg Vorbis)
However, I've just saved a poorly recorded session (hardly audible - I had my recorders input set to 'line level' instead of 'mic level') by using volume, compression and equaliser effects before exporting.
Help with cantankerous technology
Help with cantankerous technology
Amazing Slow Downer used to happily play tunes I downloaded from the itunes music store. Then one day it randomly decided it didn't do that anymore. It will play the tune, but it won't slow it down or change the pitch, and the counter moves haltingly.
Help....
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by TheSilverSpear
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Hey Spear,
Amazing Slow Downer should be able to play stuff from iTunes (AAC files). And the fact that it used to work and then stopped is a bit distressing.
My recommendation would be to reinstall it (If you're on Windows, you should uninstall it first from Control Panels -> Add/Remove Programs. If you're on a Mac, you can just trash the folder and then go into /Library/Preferences and get rid of the Amazing Slow Downer folder(s) and possibly a file called "com.ronimusic.amazingslowdowner.plist")
Make sure you have your registration information handy if you have a registered version. But then you should be able to just install a new copy, and hopefully that would fix it. There's potentially a newer version out anyway, unless you just got it recently. Good luck!
Pete
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by Reverend
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
It still plays files uploaded from CDs that are on itunes. It only hates ones downloaded from the itunes music store, which is kind of obnoxious since that's how I acquire tunes I want to play and don't have on any recording I already own.
I will see if I can find my registration info.
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by TheSilverSpear
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
I'm far more surprised that it ever read purchased files than that it won't now.
Apple uses a copy-protection scheme on the purchased tunes that it doesn't share with other vendors. If I look at the file info (on a mac) of a purchased tune it's "Protected AAC" not just AAC.
The same thing happened to me with Transcribe; I emailed the developer and was told that until Apple shared the protection scheme with him there was nothing he could do. I'd recommend you ask the Slow Downer folks if this the case with them as well.
It's a shame, since what you want to do has nothing to do with piracy.
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by edl
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
I know that this sounds a bit of ordeal but will it work if the tracks are downloaded to CD first?
Alternatively, you could make an anologue recording which you could convert to an MP3 and try it that way. I know the sound quality might not be as good but it would probably do for "tune learning" purposes. Just a thought.
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by Johannes J
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
What tunes have you gotten from iTunes? Not a whole lot of ITM there. I've been using tradtunes for itunes like material.
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by I_Fel
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
There ARE other kinds of music in this world that people might like to listen to from time to time, I_Fel
Of course, if you are putting them in ASD, that means your probably going to try to PLAY them too, I guess - and that's strictly forbidden on this site
SilverSpear, one way to check and see if the DRM (Digital Rights Management - basically copy protection) of the AAC files is the issue is to convert them to mp3 as John suggested. You can probably actually do that directly in iTunes.
If you set up the Importing preferences in iTunes to use the MP3 Encoder, then you can right-click on a song and select "Convert Selection to MP3"
You should be able to convert it to mp3, and that would remove the DRM protection. Then you could try it again in Slow Downer to see if that is really the issue.
Pete
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by Reverend
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
I_Fel,
I'm surprised at what I have gotten. itunes aquisitions include Tam Lin, Man of the House, Star of Munster, and a whole CD of Lunasa (say what you will about them, I like them) and another whole CD of Paddy Keenan.
Anyways, it won't let me convert it to mp3 because it's protected. So I don't understand at all why it worked until I was halfway through learning the C part of a Paddy Keenan reel. I've been transferring itunes music store tunes to ASD since the end of March. It only stopped working last week. Weird.
I can probably use garageband and have the computer record itself playing. I've done that with stuff before. I don't know if it would work off a CD. I shall try that.
# Posted on May 16th 2005 by TheSilverSpear
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
TheSilverSpear-Knew about Lunasa, but then I bought the CDs. I'll have to look for the rest of the tunes you listed. There's a Paddy Keenan tune up in iTunes???? I keep forgetting there's another world of music out there at times.
Well, yeah, I need to put it in ASD so can learn the hummer.
I've never had the problems TSS describes; I copy the mp3 and read it into iTunes, but then again, they are imported from my CDs, so that might be the difference.
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by I_Fel
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Would it work if you imported the tune into "Audacity" and then exported as an mp3?? As you are porbably aware Audacity is a freeware program but I am not certain that you could actually import this audio file - worth a try.
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by Donough
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
The Long Grazing Acre is on itunes.
I just discovered the wonderful world of tradtunes.com. It's like finding Mecca.
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by TheSilverSpear
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Donough, I don't think Audacity will import AAC, especially not DRM'd ones.
You can always burn the protected AAC files to an audio CD and then re-rip them as mp3 (or non-DRM AAC, for that matter), but that's a lot of trouble to go to, I'm thinking, but maybe worth it to test out the theory that the DRM is what is messing Slow Downer up.
I still don't get why it would work before and not now. Maybe I ought to cough up $.99 and actually BUY a track from Apple to see!
Pete
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by Reverend
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
If you use Audacity, don't try to import the files. Just start Audacity recording (click the red button) - while it's recording you can play your files in their normal format and Audacity will record them.
You can then export the resulting sound file from Audacity in a .wav or .mp3 format. The slow-downer will definitely work with these. I do it all the time (even use Audacity in this manner to record the audio stripped from video files and all sorts of other stuff).
Jim
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by Worldfiddler
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Regarding 'slowing down'. I've just dicovered that the latest version of the mac version of Quicktime Player 7 now has a slowdown (and speedup) feature. Under the menu 'window' - 'show AV controls' - and there it is! It works very simply on CD's in realtime, MP3s and Midi files.
As the Midis on 'thesession.org.' are often at 'learning speed' the 'speedup' feature can also be be useful when practising building up speed to 'session speed'.
Regarding the v7 for Window - the website says 'coming soon'
free download for Mac (v7) and PC (v6) at
http://www.apple.com/
# Posted on May 17th 2005 by Col Arco
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Great news with QT7. Holding off on Tiger till some VPN software gets released.
An off topic question- does anyone one in apple land click on the midi file in the tunes section, starts to play and then abruptly stop? It just started happeningn on my Tibook laptop and I have no clue. It appears that its not downloading the entire tune, but it doesn't happen on every midi either. Very curious
# Posted on May 18th 2005 by I_Fel
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
i've got a mac but i wouldn't touch the itunes music store. too expensive and the music you get is too encumbered. i was recently recommended http://allofmp3.com/ which, despite being a russian site, seems quite reputable, and an album costs about a quid there. (flat rate of 2 cents a megabyte). you can choose the encoding quality. it's legal too, i believe.
more off topic: has anyone got a recommended tool for splitting up analog input (e.g. minidisc recordings) into separate mp3-encoded tracks? currently i can use garageband to do this, but it's quite awkward, especially as it's reluctant to cope with more than 30 mins of music.
# Posted on May 18th 2005 by rog
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
rog, today is your lucky day.
Because today is the day I introduce you to www.macupdate.com
it's got loads and loads and loads of just-for-mac widgets and small (and large) applications. Some are shareware, some are free.
For instance, here we have Audio Slicer:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14784
description:
AudioSlicer is a Cocoa GUI application that finds all silences in an audio file and allows you to split it into several smaller audio files and to name/tag them properly. For now only MP3 is supported but other audio formats may be added in the future. While most other tools doing this split automatically according to certain criteria, AudioSlicer shows you all silences within a certain range of duration. You can then listen to the silence - well, to the audio before and after the silence really - and then you decide if you want to split there. The splitting is done without loss, there is no decoding and re-encoding of audio data taking place.
go wild, my friend. The world is your toaster.
# Posted on May 18th 2005 by Q
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Re 'I_Fel's problem with midi's stopping mid tune - assume your browser's QT plugin opens them. I usually 'control-click' (or right button on PC) and save to disc - then play them in quicktime player - with no problem. (with the new v7 advantage of being able to slow down or speed up).
Re Rog - Albums from a Russian site for £1 !
legal too you believe ? you must be kidding! I don't imagine any of that £1 goes to record companies ,artists etc. and I'm sure they woudn't consider it legal.
Your point on splitting tracks - I just encode all of a session recording into MP3, then export the parts I want to keep using software such as Audacity (Mac or PC) -
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
or MP3 trimmer (Mac) http://www.deepniner.net/mp3trimmer/
# Posted on May 18th 2005 by Col Arco
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
graham: it's a loophole, yes, but it is legal. google for "allofmp3.com" for details; for example: http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3info.htm
to be honest, i spend as much money as i can afford on normal CDs anyway. there are loads of albums i'd quite like but will never acquire or listen to via the usual means (all those bob dylan albums, for example). if music's at a reasonable price, i'll probably end up spending the same amount overall, but spread over a much greater variety of artists and genres, including speculative buying of stuff that i've never heard before. if the mainstream labels made their stuff available at comparable prices, i'd be there. honestly 50p a track is way too much.
mp3trimmer is a useful pointer, ta. i had looked at audacity, but it seems way way overkill for what i'm after. BTW, how do you do the encoding to MP3 in the first place? something really simple that just encodes from an audio interface to MP3 (or WAV come to that) should do the job.
Q: audioslicer seems like just the job for my old LPs, but not great for session recordings where there's not a moment of silence anywhere!
# Posted on May 18th 2005 by rog
Re: Help with cantankerous technology
Rog
suggest you look further at Audacity.It does all you seem to be trying to do in one programme - is truly 'free' (and legal!) and is as simple , or complex as you want it to be.
Don't worry about all the waveform graphics and effects meunu if you don't need them, just simply record into it, then export it (all of it , or selected bits) into MP3 (or WAV or Ogg Vorbis)
However, I've just saved a poorly recorded session (hardly audible - I had my recorders input set to 'line level' instead of 'mic level') by using volume, compression and equaliser effects before exporting.
# Posted on May 19th 2005 by Col Arco