Amazing Slow Downer

I am violin teacher and I use and recommend this app a great deal. However, there is one thing I would really love if the developers would consider (which would make this a 5-star review) and that is a way to adjust speed percentages by + or - 1 with the tap of a +-1 button just like you can with moving forward or backward in seconds. I would also love love love if you could either modify the small movements back & fwd or have more options available to do so (e.g. 5, 10, 15 seconds.) It would also be out of this world if you could develop place markers or tabs for points of difficulty that you could just jump to go practice. E.g. One at 1:36, one at 2:30, one at 14:53, etc. (Also would be great for jumping to the next movement in classical music). That being said I will continue to use this app and hammer on the << or >> 1 second button until this feature (hopefully) comes out. I haven't tried other similar apps (if they exist) but this one has been great to me, so am true blue all the way. Highly recommended. Get it.

More than worth the price! Truly a game changer! I tried cheaper options and their interface looked more interesting, but those looks were deceiving. Those others were difficult to effectively manage and really buggy. ASD proved to be “amazingly” intuitive, easy to organize what you’re learning, and completely bug free. You do have to “own” your iTunes music that is imported, and they have to be downloaded to your device—Apple won’t let you work in other programs with their music otherwise. I do pay for Apple Music, so I have to individually purchase those pieces I decide to accompany on my banjo. But that is a very small added cost for the time ASD saves when learning the song. Besides having quick and easy control of pitch and speed, the setting of focused sections of songs is very easy—I was setting focused loops on the fly the first night of practice using ASD. Each loop only took seconds to create and are automatically organized under a disc looking icon linked to the song. Having the loops organized with each song like that is one of the many details that make using ASD intuitive and effective. I do not typically leave reviews—less than a half dozen made in my lifetime across all platforms—so this review is a sign of how impressive and helpful this app truly is. Thanks for this great product!

This app consistently crashes. Even as we speak I’m trying to play a song on it because I have a show Saturday and have a bunch of songs with key changes to learn, but have to keep pulling up the app and let it tell me numerous times it failed to play the song. Or it just won’t do anything when I select a song to play. One of the only times I can “practice” is when I run in the morning. It’s been a huge headache. It will get through a song, not move onto the next, I’ll have to stop and totally interrupt the flow of everything, open the phone, try to get the next song to play, half the time it still won’t play and I’ll actually have to restart the entire phone to get it working again, when other normal music apps will just keep playing through each song. I don’t think it’s worth the money I paid. I have never bought an app this expensive and don’t like the fact that it crashes, freezes, and doesn’t work right. If it was a free app, I wouldn’t care as much because I didn’t have to pay for it. But $15? I’d almost rather get my money back, but conversely I need a way to practice these songs with the key changes and this is the only app I know of that can accommodate. If there is an option to actually download the playlists with their changes to avoid all this that I’m not seeing, forgive me. But I’ve searched and don’t see anything like that here.

Great for slowing down difficult percussion passages. Some distortion is present at very slow speeds, but it's still completely workable. Didn't read all other reviews, but if you come across a "protected" file that won't import - there's a way around that too. ————- Checking back in on this app in 2018. I’ve used it religiously for the past 6 1/2 years and it is STILL amazing. Someone complained that it was too expensive at $15 (a few years ago). Are you kidding me?? For the serious musician that works at getting things right, this app is priceless. Given the amount of use, time saved, and difficult passages learned - I would in retrospect have gladly paid $50 for this. Regular updates keep it working smoothly. I also dislike that it won’t import protected songs from iTunes (which I HAVE paid for). Not the app designer’s issue - it’s Apple’s. But you can simply burn the songs you want to slow down onto a CD as a regular mp3 file, then import that version into your ITunes and import it into ASD. It’s an extra step, but again, if you’re serious, it works and is worth it. THANK YOU, app designer - this has been a godsend!

As a lifelong cover musician who has always played by ear, my life has always involved tuning my guitar to whatever tunings the original artist used. Not a huge hassle, but not hassle-free either. The Amazing Slowdowner has changed the game for me. I only wish this technology had been available when I was in my 20s, but I’m sure glad to have it in my 50s. This app not only allows you to slow music down to the extreme for the purpose of learning, it also allows you to tune the source material to your guitar, rather than tuning your guitar to the source material. Playing in a band that typically detunes guitars by 1/2 step, this feature is extremely handy. And while similar technology has always suffered from digital artifacts when using time compression/expansion or de-tuning algorithms, this app suffers very little digital artifacts distorting the sound. Tuning a whole song down a half-step produces a high enough quality source audio file, that you can use it over a PA as an intro with no real noticeable drop in audio quality.

This app is wonderful and when it was shown to me and recommended to me by a friend I got it and was worth every penny. Within the first 20 minutes or so, was able to learn a phrase from a song I could never figure out for years. Especially good because i'm completely blind and rely on iOS' voice over and was happy to learn that the app was fully accessable to me. All in all a stupendous app and would highly recommend. Just a few requests. - add flick gestures for voice over users - a function to adjust the quantity a slider will change - The ability to change the name of imported files that are just a jumble of numbers and letters Thanks again for a great app :)

My vocal teacher suggested I get this app. And it has been so incredibly helpful. I am able to load in songs I’ve purchased and slow them down enough so that I can really study the singers vocal technique. It’s also been where I keep all my vocal exercises in a playlist so that I can just run through them every day. I also appreciate that I can slow down some of the more difficult ones that I can’t do at full speed already. In addition, being able to take any song that I like and change the pitch is a huge help!A lot of the songs I like are sung by men and out of my vocal range. This way I can change it to my range and sing along. Lastly and maybe most importantly is I needed help with something and they got back to me immediately! With a personalized clear answer that really helped me take advantage of features I wasn’t sure how to use. Highly highly recommended please support this company they are great and the product is great.

This app is so awesome for practicing and learning new parts. I remember the old days when you had to slow a tape down the transpose back to the correct key. No more of that with ASD. Even at 50% sped it maintains the original pitch. You can adjust the tonal settings to highlight the instrument your trying learn in the mix. Once you get the hang of it it’s super easy to set a loop to repeat over and over in perfect time. Another great use is finding a few bars of a drum part from a song you’re learning and looping it to practice over. Once you get the section of whatever you’re trying to learn dialed in you can save it and open it right back up where you left off. Finally, being able to open tunes from your iTunes library is amazing!! (This wasn’t so easy in earlier versions). I soooo wish I’d had this app when I was a jazz sax major in college trying to transpose recordings. I love everything about this app.

ok so how many of these have you downloaded just to be told you cant use apple music songs? well this works, only it meets you half way. no pitch or eq adjustment of apple music songs but the slow down sounds INCREDIBLE. any music file will load. the looper function is great because it can gradually get faster every few repeats which is perfect for learning new riffs. but yeah the algorithm for speed is a solid 10/10, while the pitch adjustment is more like an 8/10, which is still better than most. its worth the 15 bucks for the pro version. it works so smoothly and only looks kinda dated. a new updated UI would be nice.

This app is simply ... “Amazing”. I use it constantly to slow down difficult Guitar passages AND then loop them so I can practice long or short sections. It is perfect for learning solos or riffs with difficult timing. The sound quality is terrific though (as another reviewer mentioned) some distortion becomes audible at very slow speeds, but it is not intense distortion and doesn’t prevent hearing what you are trying to learn. Because I am using either MP3 or AAC, I’m sure the distortion is due to file compression. Having said that, there is zero doubt that I am a better guitarist because of this app. I would buy it again in a heartbeat due to its ease of use and solid feature set!

This is an awesome app, everything I needed and more. Cutting my transcription time 3 fold. I would have rated it 5 stars only for the problem Apple created with its MP4 proprietary crap not allowing music you've purchased through them being used with ASD. I hold Apple/iTunes the blame for this. I paid for the use of the music I should be able to use it as I please. I've sent the request as ASD suggested to Apple requesting they allow ASD access to iTunes purchased music!

I’ve used this app to learn a ton of songs. I’m a professional singer, musician and actor and this has served me very well. Perfect for singers who need different keys than the originals, and also to learn the words. I like to speed each song up to practice the lyrics faster so that when I sing it at tempo I can think faster than the words. If you’re looking for a tool to practice songs as a singer or instrumentalist, there’s no better app to do it. I never leave reviews. This one is special. Also, to the developer, please don’t ever abandon it, I need it! Thanks!

This is easily one of the most useful apps I have purchased for learning tunes. I originally purchased this primarily to slow down songs but I now use the pitch option almost as much as I use the slow down option. I wish I had a looping option back in my youth rather than having to pick up and drop the needle on the record over and over. Great app and I have had absolutely no issues on my iPad or MY iPhone.

I think this is the first review I have ever written. Normally I wouldn’t go out of my way, but this app has truly revolutionized the way I teach and practice. Everyone who plays an instrument needs this app! Also, a couple of days ago, I was having trouble with the app, which was probably due to Spotifys servers being down. I emailed the company and got a quick response and shortly the problem was fixed. It was at that moment, I realized how much I depend on this app! Worth everything you pay and more!

The app existed for years on the pc platform, I used it for a decade to help learn guitar licks. About a year ago I learned that they ported to iOS and I downloaded it immediately, as I’m now learning drums. This app is invaluable not just because it has the same functionality as the desktop version — it has even more functionality AND it’s portable! The only function missing from the pc version on this app is the ability to mute the frequencies where the vocals reside, but that’s a minor sticking point.

I’m a music producer and songwriter. ASD is an excellent tool to organize bounces of mixes/songs I’m working on. I’ll airdrop an MP3 to my files folder on my phone, and then I use ASD to access it while I’m on the go to listen in different keys, tempos, and select specific loops. I use this app literally every day to listen to things I’m working on. iTunes would not do the trick, it’s not as seamless and doesn’t have the functionality I need. Thanks so much for making such a great product!

This app helps tremendously to learn my parts gradually working up the tempo. It allows me to loop difficult sections and recall them to play along until they’re smooth. Several loops can be stored within a song and played at variable speed. This app seriously improved my ability to work on my part independently of the band rehearsal time. We can now spend our time working on dynamics instead of figuring our timing.

I'm a classical singer who has been relying upon this wonderful app for years. If I have a recording of a song's accompaniment, the app can transpose it so I can try it in different keys, or I can slow down passages to work on them (and set it up to repeat that section over and over again while I practice it). It is very reliable, doesn't take long to download and update, and I have nothing but admiration for the developer.

This software is unquestionably the very best that I have ever used to slow music down and change the key. It has at least tripled my ability and speed to learn new fiddle songs. I learned of this software when playing in NY from a musician who worked for Fender. He said it was his best kept secret as a session musician. I’ve tried others, but this one is the best by far for me.

I love this app but the part that’s not working is the whole point of the app. The speed bar does not affect the song whether I slow it down or speed it up, the speed stays the same. I’m trying to learn jazz/blues improv and need to be able slow some sections down so I hear the exact notes being played. Please fix this!

I have had this app for years. At first didn’t use it much but then moved to China where I slowed down transcripts so I could copy the pronunciation (along with the tones). I am now using it to slow down songs so I can learn the rap portion in Chinese as well as instrumentals! Well worth the money I bought it for. I have dropped pitch of songs too. Does a good job of changing key without too much distortion.

I love this app. So many famous artists have tried to keep me from learning how to play by writing fast, complicated music. They would have succeeded if not for this app. I have very slow ears. I can’t believe how long I’ve had it. I think it was before computers. Yep, the first app was written on a sextant. It worked and it still does!! Thank you! You make me seem so smart.

I am currently a mandolin student and purchased to learn an advanced solo. I fell in love with this APP immediately and wished I would have bought years ago! You can slow down and learn at a speed to catch every little detail and as you progress, you then reward yourself by increasing the speed! Easy to follow! I only wish it would work with my Bluetooth speaker!

This app works great for me so far. The help screen features an e-mail option. My questions were promptly and concisely answered. If you need a tool like this, buy this app. I really like the ease of use. At first, I needed to re-start my iPad to access my purchased songs. After re-starting, everything works great and no crashes yet. I love this app and the price is fantastic! Thank you for such a useful music tool.

You can’t judge an app by its user interface. Not to mention the user experience is pretty solid especially for such a difficult conceptual notion. But most impressive is the apps ability to slow down a song without changing the pitch. I’ve tried many apps , including various mixing software and they don’t even come close. This app is a blessing for my life.

I have used this app for years and it has worked wonderfully, but it within the last month it has stopped opening mp3 songs that I’ve downloaded. I brought this to the attention of support who told me to just turn off my phone and turn it back on, lol. This did not work. I deleted the app and re-download it again and still not working.

I’ve been using it for years now and it keeps getting better. I’m able to reverse engineer songs by slowing them down and creating smaller loops, learning portions at a time then piecing them together through practice, gradually increasing speed as my muscle memory kicks in at each plateau. I play the diatonic button accordion Tex-Mex, Nortena, my own tunes. It also helps me with piano. Love it!

I first thought the app was too pricey. After I had it now for a month I would say it’s a bargain. The only thing I wish they would improve is the quick back “one second” arrow. I wish you could modify it to set however many seconds you want, ie: 2,3 4,5 seconds, etc. It really helps in learning songs. If you are thinking will this really help my practicing? The answer is yes, so buy it.

I love the amazing slowdowner app. I use it for my clogging studio and it’s easy to adjust the speed to dance to the music. I would like to add a suggestion of a (+) or (-) button option on the sides of the speed. Sometimes it’s hard to adjust the speed by just 1% without the speed moving too fast or too quick. Having a button that we could use to adjust it by 1% by tapping it would help a TON!!

The latest update is a positive game changer. I purchased this app at least a year ago only to be disappointed that it did not support Apple Music content, but only purchased content. The latest update is a game changer by supporting Apple Music. The app is now a no brainer must have. I think the time stretch algorithm could be improved upon. Therefore a solid 4 out of 5.

This is my go to app for learning/transcribing music. Easy to use. Love the eq options to pull out each aspect of audio. As I am always on the move I would like to see a built in keyboard option so I can work anywhere without having to be in front of a piano.

Initially, for the first dozen or so tries, which involved numerous downloads of the App, it did not work at all. I could not import any songs, and the App went blank and unresponsive every time I tried it. No error message, nothing. A few hours later, after emailing the developer, when I tried it I got the message that the songs needed to be downloaded from the iCloud. I did that & it worked as promised. Not sure why it was not telling me about downloading from the iCloud initially.

I use this app and think it’s great. The only drawback I have is every time I try to access the music I bought from Apple, it immediately gives me a prompt to join Apple Music. When I hit not now, it takes me back to the home screen, and repeated attempts are frustrating as they are exactly the same. Can you please fix this?

The Amazing Slow Downer completely transformed how I approach and study music. I’ve been using it for several years now, and it’s accelerated my learning to such an extent that I’ve been able to become a professional musician. I’ll never be without this incredible tool!! Thank you!!!

I thoroughly rely on this program for school, and I paid for the license on iPhone, but for some reason it started only allowing me to hear three minutes of a song, as a week ago I could hear 6 minutes. Who do I contact about this and how do I resolve this problem?

I’ve used this thing for months now and it’s super helpful. Now that I have an iPhone tho, I can’t shift the speed and pitch when I connect to my Apple playlist. It’s fine when I learn worship songs, but it prog metal songs are impossible to learn without speed shift

This is the best practice / jam tool! I use it all the time! I have had this for years and it still does everything I need it to do. Wanna jam along or learn a Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, or SRV tune and don't want to tune down a half step? No problem! Just raise the pitch! Wanna set a loop to play a solo or difficult part over and over? You can do that! Need to slow a difficult part down and slowly increase the speed as you get better? This app can do it! You can even export songs you adjust!!! I use this about every time I play and it is the most important jam app I have hands down!!!

I was just sorting and cleaning up my files on ASD and realized that I have been using it regularly for over ten years on an ipad. Works beautifully for learning by ear. Amateur fiddler here with classical music background and I find I need to get my eyes off the page : )

The first version of Amazing Slow Downer that I bought was on a floppy disk and ran on my Windows 95 computer. The software was great then and the iOS version available today is even better! Thanks for continuing to develop this useful tool for musicians.

I've enjoyed the program for years. I needed to reinstall the slowdowner, so I installed the lite version and then tried to restore the full version. Which never restored, even after more than an hour of waiting and several attempts.

I am not a music teacher or musician, but I’ve always like slowing down music to get different chords. It’s nice that this app lets me do that. Too bad this app doesn’t have a karaoke function. You can’t have everything.

It would be lovely if an app I payed $15 worked reliably! No such luck with this one. When it works does exactly what I wanted (except for letting me play the music I own in iTunes since I’m not paying an additional $10 a month for Apple Music). It runs on an irregular schedule of not functioning, and has left me in the middle of teaching dance classes with no ability to slow down the otherwise too-fast music I was using

I feel bad for the dev as I know how Apple can change things under devs’ feet. I bought this because it worked with Apple Music. Please contact Apple Developer Relations and make your case as why they should restore old functionality or hack in a fix.

This app is more than worth the price. As a classical musician, it’s helpful for slowing down recordings and backing tracks for practice. The export function is also super useful so I can take adjusted tracks and put them into GarageBand for recording projects. 10/10

I purchased this to be able to slow songs down without changing the pitch. Apparently that can not be done anymore when using apple tunes. You use to be able to but not anymore. Is there a reason why this is now happening?

By enabling me to slow music down without changing pitch, I could get solid at a double speed and then increase it gradually. It also enabled me to get used to playing with other harmony parts, also slowed down. What a blessing!

First of all, thanks for supporting this app for as long as you have. I have both iOs and the PC version and find them invaluable. Keep supporting it and making it better!

This app was recommended to me by my guitar teacher and it’s really good and worth the price. But I have Apple Music. So only about 1% of the songs that I own can work on the app. This app is great but please get Apple Music to work with it. Thx

I never write app reviews. However this one is something unique, an ultimate tool for the jazz musician. Thanks for making it available for us all and supporting the music. Well worth the purchase price

This app is awesome. Having to transcribe for students and for my own studies is a breeze with this app. And the pitch adjustment slider is a life saver when it comes to learning older tunes where the instruments or the recording weren’t quite in tune. Great practice tool also!