Overclock Your Audio Learning (Blog)

[Tcharves]

Personal Development for Smart People? Wow!
i'm not sure i belong here, but i sure hope i will be able to soon.

In order to increase my studing i started audio books, i would listen to the book and then read the same chapters.

A few days ago i heard about overclocking audio books for increase studying and i had to learn more. That's how i got here, to this fourm.

i'm sure this fourm has more to offer then overclocking you audio books and of course i hope i can likewise offer something to this fourm.

FYI
i use a lower case "i" to represent myself whenever i write.

[djnoronha]

Steve mentioned in his original post that Windows Media Player could not overclock video and retain sound. This is true; however, PowerDVD 5 (which comes standard with new Dell laptops) can overclock video at 2.0x while retaining audio. The current version is 7, which perhaps has faster capability.

[BillPerry]

I've read before about using theta brainwave detectors to switch on audio of material to be learned when the brain hit a frequency of 7Hz, and if the frequency starts to get too low/relaxed, the audio volume gets ramped up accordingly. I was thinking, what if someone could figure out how to rig up the detector so that the SPEED of the material were controlled in the same way.

So, a person gets to 7Hz, and the 2x recording turns on...if the brain starts to get too relaxed, the volume goes up and the speed goes slightly down.

This way, it would be auto-optimized for optimal absorption of the material.

[Ekwoman]

See this article from the iPod Observer on changing the playback speed on your iPod and iPhone:
http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/32683

[AnthonyM83]

Hi guys,

Most of the software advice discussed here has been for audio. Does anyone know of a way to increase playback speed of both sound and video (or heck even just sound) of DVDs. When I try it on my computer's video players, it either doesn't have the option or only increases video speed.

Also, any recommendations for faster playback of audio CDs? The Windows Media Player speed option doesn't allow me to change playback speed when listening to a CD, only MP3 files. I imagine it would take a lot of hard disk space to convert all my CD programs to MP3s.

[Psycho]

Sorry for bumping this, but is there any media player that can perform this function on Mac OS X Tiger or Ubuntu Linux? Thanks in advanced.

[wulph]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Sorry for bumping this, but is there any media player that can perform this function on Mac OS X Tiger or Ubuntu Linux? Thanks in advanced.

Quicktime Player (mine is v7.3) does it.

Go to Window -> Show A/V Controls and adjust the "Playback Speed" slider.

[Psycho]

Yeah, that's right! I've just made a note of the Quicktime method so I'll remember to use it. I just realized that in my googling I've somehow been overlooking AlsaPlayer, which boasts being the first Linux player to carry that functionality. I'll try it out next time I use my PC (typing from my Macbook).

[Max W]

In QuickTime you can speedup both video and audio. I have just watched some personal development video at 1.5 speed and it works fine. I have only testes videofiles of the format *.m4v

[mockdeep]

Originally Posted by Niki

...how to easly and freely(as in free beer) Overclock your audio books.

I have been listening to audio books at increased speed on my work computer, but my mp3 player, a Sandisk Sansa, can only change play speed for .aa files from Audible.com. Niki's method gets the job done, though it is a bit labor intensive. I suppose it is a bit of a niche market to produce a tool that can change the play speed and remove silence on batches of files, but still it kind of surprises me that no one has come up with such a program (hmm...).

At any rate, I'm wondering if anybody has come up with a way to do similar modifications on Linux, as that is what I run at home. Are there programs that I can use to change play speed or remove silence on my home computer?

[Psycho]

mokdeep, I think Alsaplayer is what you're looking for. Look it up in your distro's repositories or google it.

[Crystal401]

Dear members,

Google: "GOM player" and give it a try. (free)

This player solved all of my problems.

I can listen to mp3 and video files (avi, mpg etc), and
do the following.

1. convenient pause (space button)
2. Increase and decrease speed manually.
I listen to 4x, but move back to 1x when something
difficult comes up... using keyboard mappings.
NOTE: Corrects the chipmunk effect !!!!

3. Bookmark feature
Bookmark certain points in mp3 or video file that
I can access later really easily.

Application: yoga or dance videos where I want to review the process multiple times... I set the bookmark,
and play on repeat mode a 20 sec clip.

Cheers,

[Fullcrum]

Book marking sounds awesome.

I'll check it out .

[OndraTomec]

Originally Posted by mockdeep

...produce a tool that can change the play speed and remove silence on batches of files, but still it kind of surprises me that no one has come up with such a program (hmm...).

I am using my own program called MP3 Speed Changer. It speeds up batches of audio files, but doesn't remove silence.

See my signature if you want to check it out.

[funDivaChristy]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Sorry for bumping this, but is there any media player that can perform this function on Mac OS X Tiger or Ubuntu Linux? Thanks in advanced.

I have been on this quest for years, and used audacity to manually manipulate the stuff that was important, but it was the unimportant stuff I wanted to listen to or watch faster on the fly that was the bulk of what was wasting my time. Mostly video, which I strip the audio from cuz I find its a waste of video when audio will do.

Here's my recent HG solution - mPlayer
MPlayer - The Movie Player

I am using the SMPlayer front-end. For SMPlayer, the important setup change is: Options-> Preferences-> Audio -> High Speed Playback without altering pitch [choose Yes or Auto] Then choose Apply and OK

If you are a Windows user, installing mPlayer may appear very confusing to you! From their site: For a complete MPlayer installation you will need sources, a set of binary codecs, and a skin if you want a graphical user interface.

If that sounds like gobblydegook to you, go here:
Download MPlayer for Windows (Full Package) 2008-05-27 - The award-winning OpenSource Media Player is now available for Windows - Softpedia

Understand that this is a very nice geek who has (for free) gone to the trouble of bundling all the components that you require into one nice neat exe package. The Full Package includes two different GUI skins, one of which is SMPlayer, which is the one I prefer and am referencing above.

SMPlayer - General Info

If you install this with "normal installation" it may change your file associations for audio and video files, and install shortcuts.

I was trying to make this easy for non-geeks and I also don't want to sound condescending so I hope this is sufficient!

So if you're a geek jump in and help if anyone is interested.

[wolverine]

I just need to say thank you Steve for posting this! I needed to go over some lectures when I realised I didn't understand the topic very well, but the lecturer taaaalllks reeeaally sloooowwwly. And I put the speed up to 2x (the only option I had) and then he only talked slowly! I could have put it up to 3x or even 4x probably without a problem, but even 2x saved me half the time it would have taken and a bunch of frustration. So, thank you!


Wolverine

[Hyperchiller]

Crystal,

Sounds like an awesome program. I'll check it out!

Yang

[uberinquisitive]

Originally Posted by seeker5

I assume you are talking about their download service?

I'm thinking of subscribing to their CD delivery service so I can then listen to their audiobooks through my iPod.

I think iTunes has audiobooks also? I saw Eckhart Tolle's A Power of Now audio on there.