Nowadays, people are very attentive to social media such as videos, images, and audio recordings. These media formats have been used for educational and business purposes for years. Such files have been watched and downloaded time and again by people for personal reasons.

After you get some audio files from Internet, chances are you may wish to slow down audio for lots of reasons. For one, it aids in the better understanding recording’s subject matter and information. If you are trying to learn a language through voice tutorial, you can slow the pace down so that you don’t miss any of the important details. Moreover, lots of people have an awkward accent that makes their voice recordings sound like an alien language. You need to have a good tool that can slow the speed or tempo of the audio as we will evaluate three solutions in the following parts.

Solution 1: Free tools for reducing the audio speed
Solution 2: Special program for slowing down audio
Solution 3: Simple software for slowing down MP3 file

Three Recommended Methods to Slow Down Audio Files

1. Windows Media Player and Apowersoft Free Audio Recorder (Free Way)

This method is easy to handle, and the two tools are both free and efficient. Windows Media Player comes with your system as default. For the Apowersoft free audio recorder, you only need to download it from its official website. The process of making an audio file slower comes in two stages:

Stage 1: Playback

First you have to open the Windows Media Player and you would normally arrive at the library. The following steps will guide you through it:

  1. Play any audio file and then go to the “Now Playing Mode”. Maximum the window and you will see the button for switching at the lower right corner of the entire user interface just above your computer’s time display.
  2. Just right-click anywhere in the player like the visualization display and mouse over the “Enhancements” tab. You will be shown a list of categories and then you can click “Play Speed Settings”.
  3. You will see a small window that contains one adjustment bar and three links for slow, normal, and fast. You can either adjust the button in the bar or click any of the links to slow down an audio file. After adjusting the settings, your changes will be applied to audio playback.

slow down play

When you are done, you can close the window and proceed to the next stage.

Stage 2: Recording

Install Apowersoft Free Audio Recorder, open the application and you will arrive at the main user interface. The rest is as follows:

  1. The function keys are aligned at the top of the window for the application. First, you need to click on the “Audio Input” button next to the start button. You will be given a choice of system audio (computer audio), microphone (environment audio), or both. Since you will be recording from the computer, choose system audio so no external sound is heard.
  2. Next, configure the settings you want by clicking on the next button labeled “Tools”. Choose the “Options” menu and then set your preferred file format, controls, etc.
  3. Click the “Start” button and the music will be recorded accordingly.
  4. For additional settings on the file, simply right click on the file name. Choose “Rename”, “Clear” or “Convert” to manage files.

record slow down audio

That’s how to slow down audio using the two programs. For reference, I’ll introduce another audio slow downer.

2. Audio Slow Down Software (Pro Way)

Amazing Slow Downer is capable of changing the speed of an audio file up to 20% to 200% of the original. It can slow down most types of audio formats including WMA and AAC types. The software comes in different versions compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems. Moreover, it also has a downloadable version for iPhone and iPad. Some of the advantages are as follows:

  • Looping song parts until the desired audio arrangement is reached.
  • Slowing down all types of audio without changing or affecting the pitch of the recording.
  • All its processes can be done in real time.

slow downer

To use it, you need to download their software first and install it in the computer. Once you open the user interface, you will find different adjustment bars and buttons. You only have to notice three areas: the playlist, the speed bar, and the three basic buttons (play, pause, and stop). These controls are what you mainly need to slow down songs.

3. Decent MP3 Speed Changer (Simple Way)

MP3 Speed Changer is a software which is able to accelerate and decelerate the speed of MP3 media files. For slowing down an MP3 audio, you only need to take several clicks. Firstly, download, install and launch the software on the desktop. Secondly, click plus sign shaped icon to add the MP3s that you want to slow down. Thirdly, drag the tempo bar to change the MP3 speed as you required. The last thing is to click “Convert Now” to export the audio files. All right, it won’t take much time and effort to slow down MP3.

change mp3 speed

Except of slowing down MP3 one by one, this software also supports to slow down audio files in batch. In the case, the efficiency of audio slowing task is improved. After adjusting the audio speed, the pitch won’t be modified. In addition, you can adjust the audio quality when slowing down it. However, the MP3 Speed Changer only can output audio to MP3 files. And it compatible with Windows only.

Simple Comparison of the Ways for Slowing Down Audio

Amazing Audio Slow Downer is a good and professional software that provides good features but you have to pay before using it. Since it is made for audio arrangements, there are several controls that might get you confused. MP3 Speed Changer is overall good, but the function is somewhat plain and limited. Besides, it fails to operate on Mac OS. Using Windows Media Player and Apowersoft audio recorder is much better when you are only doing the process for personal reasons. The procedure is a little complicated but doable plus you don’t have to pay even a cent to use it.

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