How to Speed Songs Up on PC or Mac
This wikiHow teaches you how to play an audio file at a faster playback rate on your computer. You can use VLC media player or QuickTime to speed up a song during the current listening session, or you can use Audacity to speed up...
Method 1 of 3:
Using VLC Media Player
- Download VLC media player. Go to https://www.videolan.org/vlc in your computer's web browser, then click Download VLC on the right side of the page.
- If you're on a Mac and doing this downloads the Windows installation file for some reason, you can click
- If you're on a Mac and doing this downloads the Windows installation file for some reason, you can click
- Install VLC media player. Double-click the downloaded setup file, then follow the on-screen prompts to install VLC.
- On a Mac, you'll need to double-click the downloaded setup file and then click and drag the traffic cone-shaped VLC icon onto the "Applications" folder shortcut to install VLC media player.
- Find the audio file you want to speed up. Go to the location of the song that you want to speed up.
- Right-click the file. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu.
- On a Mac, click once the file, then click File in the upper-left side of the screen.
- Select Open with. It's in the drop-down menu. You should see a pop-out menu appear.
- On a Mac, this option is in the File drop-down menu.
- Click VLC media player. This option is in the pop-out menu. Your song should now open in VLC.
- Click the Playback tab. This button is located between the Media and Audio tabs in the upper-left corner of the VLC window. It will open a drop-down menu.
- On a Mac, the Playback option is in the menu bar at the top of your Mac's screen.
- Select Speed. It's in the Playback drop-down menu. Your speed options will pop up on a new sub-menu. You can select any speed option to speed up or slow down your audio file.
- Click Faster. This is in the Speed pop-out menu. This will speed up your playback rate, and play your audio file faster.
- The Faster option can cause music to sound distorted, so select the Faster (fine) option if you want to listen to music at a balanced speed.
- Alternatively, you can also slow down your song by selecting Slower here.
Method 2 of 3:
Using QuickTime
- Open
- Find the audio file you want to speed up. Browse your files in Finder, and locate the song you want to play.
- Right-click the audio file. This will open all the file options on your right-click menu.
- Alternatively, you can hold Control and click the file or click on it with two fingers on trackpad.
- Hover over Open With. It's in the drop-down menu. This will show you a list of recommended apps to open the selected file.
- Select QuickTime Player. This will open the selected song in QuickTime Player.
- Hold ⌥ Option or Alt on your keyboard. This button is located in the lower-left corner of your keyboard.
- Click the Fast Forward button. While holding down ⌥ Option or Alt, click the Fast Forward icon. This will speed up and play the song at a higher playback speed.
- The Fast Forward icon looks like two rightward arrows next to the
- If you click Fast Forward again while pressing ⌥ Option, your playback speed will keep increasing by small increments.
- Alternatively, you can hold ⌘ Command and click the Fast Forward button. This will speed up the song by larger increments.
- The Fast Forward icon looks like two rightward arrows next to the
Method 3 of 3:
Using Audacity
- Install Audacity if necessary. If you don't have Audacity, first download and install it for your Windows or Mac computer by going to http://www.audacityteam.org/download/ and selecting your operating system, clicking the download link you want to use, and then double-clicking the downloaded setup file and following the on-screen prompts.
- Click File. It's in the top-left side of the Audacity window (Windows) or the screen (Mac). A drop-down menu will appear.
- Click Open…. This option is in the File drop-down menu. Doing so opens a File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window.
- Select a song. In the File Explorer or Finder window, go to the location of the song you want to edit, then click once the song to select it.
- Click Open. It's in the lower-right corner of the window. Your song will be imported into Audacity.
- Select your entire song. Click anywhere on the blue waveform in the middle of the Audacity window, then press either Ctrl+A (Windows) or ⌘ Command+A (Mac).
- Click Effect. You'll find this in the menu bar at the top of Audacity or at the top of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
- Click Change Tempo…. It's in the Effect drop-down menu. A pop-up window will appear.
- While you'll see a Change Speed… option in the Effect menu, using this option will also change the pitch of the song.
- Increase the tempo. Click and drag right the slider near the top of the "Change Tempo" window.
- Click Cancel. It's at the bottom of the window. This will close the "Change Tempo" window. Due to a bug in Audacity that prevents you from increasing tempo, you'll need to use a work-around to apply your tempo settings.
- Re-open the "Change Tempo" window. Click Effect, then click Change Tempo... in the resulting drop-down menu. The "Change Tempo" window will pop up again, and you should see the tempo value you chose earlier at the top of the window.
- Check the "Use high-quality stretching" box. It's near the bottom of the window.
- Click OK. It's at the bottom of the window. This will apply your tempo changes to the song.
- If you're not sure about your selected tempo, you can click Preview to listen to a small section of audio. If you don't like the way it sounds, decrease or increase the tempo, then close and re-open the "Change Tempo" window and click OK.
- It may take a few minutes for the tempo changes to finish applying.
- Save the song as a new file. This will ensure that you don't accidentally replace the song's original version with your sped-up version:
- Click File.
- Select Export.
- Click Export as MP3.
- Enter a name and select a save location (e.g., Desktop).
- Click Save.
- Click OK when prompted.
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