how to speed up lectures?

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peace84

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my school records all lectures and puts them online....however some of the professors speak way too slowly and it takes forever to get through the material...i've heard of programs that you can download to speed up audio. does anyone know where i can find something like this? thanks so much.

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Quicktime can play audio at increased speeds. Just go to Window --> A/V Controls, and adjust the Playback speed.
 
Windows Media Player can do it, too, at full screen display.
 
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windows media player >view>enhancements>play speed settings>unlick the "set" box>set speed wherever u want it
 
the problem i'm having is that our lectures are not recorded as quicktime or windows media player files. the lecture is audio and it shows the powerpoint slides as the professor goes through them...it's not really a video. when i try to save it to quicktime or windows media, it says that the file cannot be opened. is there any alternate way for me to speed it up?
 
the problem i'm having is that our lectures are not recorded as quicktime or windows media player files. the lecture is audio and it shows the powerpoint slides as the professor goes through them...it's not really a video. when i try to save it to quicktime or windows media, it says that the file cannot be opened. is there any alternate way for me to speed it up?

I had a similar question and another person told me to try this, which seems to work for a lot of streaming video/audio: www.net-xfer.com (look at the supported formats and try to figure out what you have based on the player).

This tool takes streaming video and allows you to save it in a format that you can then open. Then you can use windows media player or Enounce 2xAV with RealPlayer.
 
Can you use winamp to convert them to .wav or mp3 files?
 
google search a program called "quick scribe." this will let you play the audio at whatever speed you like.
 
http://www.enounce.com

You can thank me later.

I, along with everyone else at my school, uses 2xAV from enounce. This plug-in works with Real Player to change the speed of a video from 0.3-2.5 times the original pace---without giving the speaker a chipmunk voice. The website even gives you a 7 day trial.
 
that program is awesome....but does anyone know how to speed up and save an mp3 file which can then be put on your ipod?
 
that program is awesome....but does anyone know how to speed up and save an mp3 file which can then be put on your ipod?

Doesn't the ipod have a feature for listening to something at a faster speed? (I realize it might be high-pitched). I know my iriver clix has such a feature for listening to an audio file faster (but no pitch correction).
 
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I take my lectures and import them into Audacity (open source software). I increase the Tempo to 65, then I resave it to MP3, and listen to it in Media Player. Why WMP? well, I agree with others that it has a really decent play speed feature, and even lectures sped up to 65% could be sped up more, I mean sometimes the professor is just saying something you know, or don't care about, just listen to it in super fast speed mode.

Have fun with my trade secret :thumbup:.

WMP:
CTRL + SHIFT + G = Play Faster
CTRL + SHIFT + N = Normal Speed
CTRL + SHIFT + S = Play Slower


You could turn the audio files into AAC files using Itunes, then delete them from itunes, rename the file on your harddrive from m2a to m2b, reimport them into Itunes... then onto your ipod. Now they're considered Audiobooks and can be played faster or slower. Frankly, not worth the time. You're better of just listening to it at normal speed. I recommend you do the Audacity step and then import them into itunes->ipod.
 
Hehe, good luck with that! Maybe hearing your lecturer sound like a chipmunk would make things easier... lol
 
You could turn the audio files into AAC files using Itunes, then delete them from itunes, rename the file on your harddrive from m2a to m2b, reimport them into Itunes... then onto your ipod. Now they're considered Audiobooks and can be played faster or slower. Frankly, not worth the time. You're better of just listening to it at normal speed. I recommend you do the Audacity step and then import them into itunes->ipod.

I tried this with my goljan audio. It places the file in the audiobook folder on itunes, and it says it syncs the files with the ipod, but then nothing appears in my ipod. I can get a regular song to work, but not goljan. Does this have something to do with the bitrate? Maybe I will try the audacity route.
 
I take my lectures and import them into Audacity (open source software). I increase the Tempo to 65, then I resave it to MP3, and listen to it in Media Player. Why WMP? well, I agree with others that it has a really decent play speed feature, and even lectures sped up to 65% could be sped up more, I mean sometimes the professor is just saying something you know, or don't care about, just listen to it in super fast speed mode.

Have fun with my trade secret :thumbup:.

WMP:
CTRL + SHIFT + G = Play Faster
CTRL + SHIFT + N = Normal Speed
CTRL + SHIFT + S = Play Slower


You could turn the audio files into AAC files using Itunes, then delete them from itunes, rename the file on your harddrive from m2a to m2b, reimport them into Itunes... then onto your ipod. Now they're considered Audiobooks and can be played faster or slower. Frankly, not worth the time. You're better of just listening to it at normal speed. I recommend you do the Audacity step and then import them into itunes->ipod.


Thank you so much for that idea.... it worked perfectly
 
I tried this with my goljan audio. It places the file in the audiobook folder on itunes, and it says it syncs the files with the ipod, but then nothing appears in my ipod. I can get a regular song to work, but not goljan. Does this have something to do with the bitrate? Maybe I will try the audacity route.


Seriously, there is nothing better than Audacity. Don't waste your time with itunes/ipod. You really wouldn't save any time at all, and the speed up isn't that great either. If you have no time use WMP; if you have some time to spare use Audacity (once you learn how to use Audacity you could do it blind folded). Itunes well its hard.

To sync the file with your ipod, make sure the file isn't on your Ipod (delete it). Make sure its not on your Itunes (delete it from there). Then, bring it into itunes from your harddrive (make sure to change the file extension from m2a to m2b). The audiobook format must be m2a. (PM me if you need help, but seriously, Audacity is great).
 
Seriously, there is nothing better then Audacity. Don't waste your time with itunes/ipod. You really wouldn't save anytime at all, and the speed up isn't that great at all. If you have no time use WMP, if you have some time to spare Audacity (once you learn it you could do it blind folded). Itunes well its hard.

To sync the file with your ipod, make sure the file isn't on your Ipod (delete it). Make sure its not on your Itunes (delete it from there). Then, bring it into itunes from your harddrive (make sure to change the file extension from m2a to m2b). The audiobook format must be m2a. (PM me if you need help, but seriously, Audacity is great).
I didn't do any of that file conversion stuff and it worked just fine. I just imported the file into Audacity->raised the "tempo"->"exported" it to mp3->loaded file into itunes->sync w/ Ipod
 
I didn't do any of that file conversion stuff and it worked just fine. I just imported the file into Audacity->raised the "tempo"->"exported" it to mp3->loaded file into itunes->sync w/ Ipod

Oh yeah, that would definitely work fine :).

The alternative not-preferred method I was explaining was to convert files into the itunes/ipod Audiobook format. There is a built in feature to play back audiobooks faster with itunes. (This is if you are an Ipod addict, don't want to use any software other than itunes, and would like to listen to your files on your ipod.) This is not a good method at all.

It looks like you have Audacity down. When you make a sped up file with Audacity you can do anything with it as you figured out, including putting it on your ipod through itunes.
 
will Audacity work for real player media? (.rm files), I'd love to speed some stuff up that I have and put it on my iPod but haven't found anything really good for .rm files yet
 
will Audacity work for real player media? (.rm files), I'd love to speed some stuff up that I have and put it on my iPod but haven't found anything really good for .rm files yet

I'm 99.99% sure that it won't work. .rm files are super harsh to convert (although there are some tools out there to convert RM to mp3. I haven't used any of them.) It all depends how much time you want to spend and how much time you will save by listening to sped up files.

Please let us know if I'm wrong about lack of rm support in audiacity.
 
thanks for the free RM to MP3 converter link, works well, very easy.

audacity does not like the RM files, mp3 is fine though once the RM is converted. I did find that I can open RM files in WMP though and then use the speed up feature documented above by Taus.

ALL VERY HELPFUL, THANKS GUYS!!!

-J
 
I know this is an old post but with so many lectures going to Flash format, I thought you would like to know that Enounce now has a plug-in for Flash (like on youtube). This is a free plug-in for a limited time while the software is still in beta.

http://www.enounce.com
 
Quicktime can play audio at increased speeds. Just go to Window --> A/V Controls, and adjust the Playback speed.


Is there a way to enhance the audio in Quicktime at increased speeds?
 
Now if only there was a program for cutting out the 20 minutes of professors going on about their cranberry farm and plant viruses... :thumbdown:sleep:
 
Awesome stuff! Been looking for a way to do this for a while. Thanks y'all.
 
Hi all,

I have a netbook with Windows 7 Starter with Windows Media Player 12...however the Enounce website said it's not compatible with even Vista. On my other computer with Vista, Enounce 2xAV works fine with streaming lectures even though the website says it won't. When I downloaded it onto my netbook, the Enounce 2xAV slider didn't pop up. I seemingly tried everything, even downloaded Realplayer and attempted on that with nothing happening.

Anyone have any insight on this, do you think it's a limitation of Windows 7 Starter? Thanks for the help.
 
Hi all,

I have a netbook with Windows 7 Starter with Windows Media Player 12...however the Enounce website said it's not compatible with even Vista. On my other computer with Vista, Enounce 2xAV works fine with streaming lectures even though the website says it won't. When I downloaded it onto my netbook, the Enounce 2xAV slider didn't pop up. I seemingly tried everything, even downloaded Realplayer and attempted on that with nothing happening.

Anyone have any insight on this, do you think it's a limitation of Windows 7 Starter? Thanks for the help.

What program does the school use to record lectures?
 
How is the increased playback from enounce any different from VLC or quick time speeding the lectures? besides increasing beyond 2x.
 
Related: Sometimes when I only have time to watch half a show i'll just watch it double speed on VLC. I feel like everything in my stupid life is efficiency and cramming.
 
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