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Speeding Up Podcasts
As you can imagine, I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to everything on IT Conversations, sometimes multiple times as it comes to production, I subscribe to a few other podcasts, and I review audio for inclusion on IT Conversations. One trick that helps, particularly with reviews, is speeding up the audio.
As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s no convenient slider bar for speeding up audio in iTunes. But, you can easily use Quicktime to get the same effect:
- Right-click the show in iTunes and choose “Show song file.”
- Open the selected song file with Quicktime (right-click again and select Quicktime).
- Choose “Show A/V Controls.”
- Move the “Playback Speed” slider at the bottom of the window to your preferred speed.
I find that 1.5x is a pretty good setting for reviewing shows, but when I want to really listen and learn, I have to go slower (1.2x or so)
I’ve found no convenient way to do this on my iPod, unfortunately. The iPod supports speeding up playback of audiobooks, which are different, in Apple’s nomenclature, from podcasts. An audiobook is an ACC format file with the extension .m4b (opposed to the normal .m4a extension). So, you have to convert the selection to ACC (since most things are MP3s, then rename the file, and reimport. This isn’t something I want to be part of my daily routine. If you know of a better way, please share.
Posted by windley on August 22, 2006 11:48 AM
Comment from Hugh at August 22, 2006 12:09 PM
You might find something at Doug's.
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scrxcont.php
Comment from RKM at August 22, 2006 1:12 PM
I've always used Doug's Applescript "Make Bookmarkable" (http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=makebookmarkable) to change audio files to audio books. I wonder if it would have the side effect of allowing it to be sped up on an iPod. Or maybe another script of the many on his site will work.
Comment from Rich Tatum at August 22, 2006 6:06 PM
Sorry, this isn't iTunes or iPod specific, but others may benefit from it.
I use a PocketPC to listen to all my MP3s and my player of choice is Pocket Player from Conduits Technologies. My install includes a built-in DSP plugin that will time stretch anything the Pocket Player can play. I use it to speed up all my audio by 45%. I also map my PPC's interface buttons so that I can change the volume, pause, skip forward/backward, or go to the next/previous playlist item without having to look at the screen. These features are critical for me since I listen to most of my audio while driving and I can't keep looking at my player interface when I should be watching out for other drivers fiddling with their iPods.
The audio quality of the sped-up MP3s is sufficiently good that I don't get a headache.
Regards,
Rich
BlogRodent
Comment from Jamie Parks at August 22, 2006 6:38 PM
I just wanted to ring in and say that speeding up audio files during playback not only allows for one one to digest the content more quickly but it may actually enable the listener to discern the true nature of the content and better hear the speakers spirit echoing through. There is certainly something about detaching the speakers voice from the normal sound vibrations that unleashes a more visible tempo and tone across the length of the recording.
Normal playback mode is layered with too much normality. The monotony of real time seems to mask the more revealing layers beneath; which are responsible for resonating the spirit, verses merely expressing the hypnotizing aesthetics of style.
Hopefully more listening applications and devices in the near future will be designed to support the customizable playback features that you mention above. Thanks for posting about this! It's good to know that there's more chipmunk and DJ Screw enthusiasts out there.
-PARKS
Comment from John at August 22, 2006 7:43 PM
Please remember that many people do not use iTunes or iPods to listen to podcasts. I personally can't stand either of these products because of their proprietary nature.
Comment from John at August 22, 2006 7:43 PM
Please remember that many people do not use iTunes or iPods to listen to podcasts. I personally can't stand either of these products because of their proprietary nature.
Comment from Dave Schultz at August 22, 2006 9:13 PM
I use this Automator workflow on my Mac to convert my downloaded mp3 podcasts to speed-upable m4b (audiobook) files.
Hope this inspires you...
http://homepage.mac.com/davemail/d/PodcastConverter.jpg
Comment from Jerry Zigmont at August 23, 2006 4:54 AM
Would REALLY like to see an Apple script or Automator action for speeding up Podcasts on an iPod. I know that in order to make an mp3 into a audiobook file it has to be AAC. Then it needs to be changed to m4b to be an audiobook track.
There currently is nothing on the iTunes Scripts page to make iPod playback speed selectable. Ideally a speed of 1.3x's works really well for my ears.
Thanks
Comment from Heribert Slama at August 23, 2006 7:57 PM
I need the *opposite* function - _slowing down_ the speed of the speech.
I'm _not_ a *native* English/American speaker (my native language is German). So I often have a hard time to keep up with the speed of colloquial/casual English. I'm surely not the only one having this problem.
Quicktime's A/V Controls allow for a reduction of up to 50% - BUT... the quality of sound rapidly deteriorates; voices become increasingly raucous, finally reverberations drown out everything. Only about 10-15% reduction are tolerable. A better time stretching function would be very welcome.
Comment from Tim Thompson at September 3, 2006 10:14 PM
On this last comment, there are a great many audio plugin hosting programs that are available these days. If you are on a Mac, you should try out the AULab software that is included in the developer tools that is included with the OS discs. Open up a new AULab document using your regular audio output, and go to the Edit menu and choose Add AudioUnit Generator. You get a channel strip in the virtual mixer that you see there, and a window called AUAudioFilePlayer. Add all the audio files you want to listen to into the playlist in the player window. In the channel strip, under Effects, pull down the menu in the first effects slot, and choose AUTimePitch. A control window will open up. If you click the little triangle beside Parameters, you can really play with the settings. The best thing for slowing down speech is to turn the "tightness" setting down a bit (which is like a macro, controlling other specific settings), turn the analysis window shape up some, and turn the overlap up as high as your processor can stand.
There are other AU plugins available that do a pretty nice job too, notably the freeware Speedster.
No matter what you do, most speakers will sound drunk (sounds quite slurred) at 50% or less. The Speedster plugin includes some settings to compensate for phase distortion and the "triphonia" sound that results from the slowing process.
If you're using Windows, I'm pretty sure there are some very inexpensive, if not free VST effect hosting apps, and you can get all most these plugins and many more for Windows VST. And, of course, there is the option on any platform to use the free Audacity, open the file in Audacity, and use the included tools to play the file at the desired speed.
Comment from ashley Menne at October 26, 2006 11:56 PM
can you explain how to convert podcasts to AAC format and get them to transfer to my ipod that way? i'm new at this and the only podcasts i listen to are some of my school lectures for review or if i miss class but my professors talk slowly and i would like to be able to speed up the podcasts. i thought i figured out how to convert the podcasts to AAC files in itunes but they dont' seem to load to my ipod any differently. i am obviously not doing it right but i am not so good with computers, so can someone please help the clueless girl?!?
Comment from Jonathan at March 4, 2007 8:26 PM
Thanks for the tips and emails. A great script exists to make this easy for playback on macs: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060103000452805.
However, it is not so easy to enable fast playback on iPods.
Ideally we would have an automator script / applescript that would make this automatically happen for podcasts that are downloaded. Perhaps something like this (command line sound processing tool) would do the trick: http://sox.sourceforge.net/Main/HomePage
Thanks,
Jonathan
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