GarageBand: how to slow down a song

[rda52]

this is my first time using garageband, so i dont really know what it can and cant do, so please accept my apology if i sound like a noob.

ok the problem is that i have a .mp3 song that i need to slow down, the song is for a theater performance. ive tried changing the tempo but it doesnt affect the track of the mp3 file only the master track, which doesnt slow down the song. how do i slow down the song, or what program should i use? thanks in advance.

[theyranos]

GarageBand's documentation seems to suggest that you can't do this.

Grab yourself a copy of Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). Open the song, select the entire track, then go to "Change Tempo..." in the effects menu.

[schneb]

Post to the folks here. You will get some great ideas and answers...

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1120&start=0

There is other software that would be better for this. There is Amazing Slowdowner, and my application of choice, AmadeusPro. With the latter you can adjust the speed without messing with the pitch (or vise verse).

http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html

GarageBand is a music creation application, not so much a sound manipulation application.

[rda52]

thanks for the help guys and the audacity tip, it worked great.

[Markus Dehmann]

You can slow a song down using GarageBand! You don't have to resort to Audacity or whatever.

It's a weird, but very simple procedure:

1. Drag your audio file (MP3, M4A, ...) in GarageBand. It's shown as an orange track.
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+G
3. Click the audio track. It is now blue.
4. Check "Follow Tempo & Pitch" (this is in the wave editor section, which you get by clicking the scissors symbol next to the eye)
5. Now change the tempo (next to the song time display)

Hope this helps!

This info is pretty hard to find on Google, so here a few more keywords: slow down, speed up, tempo-dependent track, change tempo, garageband as guitar trainer, blue track, velocity

[theyranos]

Cool! If you don't mind my asking, do you know what the key combo in #2 is actually doing?

Changing the track's colour from orange to blue is nice, but I'm curious to know what those colours are supposed to mean.

EDIT:
Some quality time spent in GarageBand help has revealed the following colour key:

purple: "Real Instrument Recordings"
blue: "Real Instrument Loops"
orange: "Audio File"
green: "Software Instrument"

So apparently the key combo in #2 tells GarageBand that something is a real instrument rather than an audio file, a distinction which probably makes sense to some Apple engineer somewhere.

[chabig]

Two comments:

1. The keystroke in Garage Band is Command-Option-G

2. That changes the pitch along with the tempo. I took the original question to be asking how to change the speed without affecting pitch. I don't think Garageband can do that...But Quicktime Player can do that.

Open the Audio in Quicktime Player. Then open the AV Controls (Window > Show A/V Contols). In there, you can adjust the playback speed while keeping the pitch constant. Then Save As to a new file and that new file will play at your desired tempo.

Chris

[Markus Dehmann]

@chabig: The keystroke I gave above (Ctrl+Alt+G) changes the tempo and not the pitch in GarageBand. It's exactly what the original poster wanted. You don't need Quicktime Player.

[chabig]

My goodness, you're right!

[livveth]

Wait!! I can only see how to change the pitch with the slider.
I have clicked on "follow tempo and pitch", but how do I change the tempo?

[theyranos]

http://example.drmoose.net/garageband.png

[mastix]

Hi,

today I found this thread... because I also need help.

The hints you posted affect the whole Song... I just want one track (an mp3) to be faster... and the others should keep the old tempo.

Is that possible?

Regards,

mastix