Tatjana you are so right. It’s a great community! Thank you, everyone.
I have some recordings that I would like to speed up to double speed. Does anyone know how I can do this? Preferably free
Tips collected from various forumists, free:
Potplayer
VLC
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I think you can do it using Audacity too, which you can also download for free. I haven’t worked out HOW to do it with Audacity yet, but I think it’s possible.
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Great thank you. I will give them a try soon😊
Thanks to you too Dai. I am planning to look at all three and choose the simplest one. Better for my brain 
Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org/
If you’d do something else, not just speeding up, you’d need some encoders etc but it all can read on their site and download through the site too. You might need to download additional files in order to play with effects such as speeding up, slowing down, changing pich, frequency etc. Some things I’m explaining partially in this post and additional info is in this file. The instructions on the last link are a bit old, but i believe they still can be useful.
Once you’ve got everything you need (encoders, effects etc - and audacity of course) you do as follows:
- open Audacity
- search for the file you’d like to speed up and drag it into Audacity
- select the whole track
- Click “Effects” on the upper menu bar and then select “change speed”
- You’d want to cange speed to these values and click OK
- walla, here you are. If you want the track faster you just enter the first value to desired value (from 2.00 to 3.00 (3x faster), 4.00 (4x faster etc.
Unfortunatelly it affect the hight of the pich (tone) aswell.
You of course can select just part of the track and speed it up
Then you have the option to save the file or just listen to it. Just make sure you save the speeded track under another name so you wouldn’t loose the original track though.
I hope it helps.
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Yes, the effect “Change speed” works kind of like a record player that plays the record at other speeds as intended. The other effect that can be used to create faster material is called “Change tempo”, which does so without affecting the pitch.
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Yes, you’re right. It’s listed right below the “change speed” effect in the menu. Not that I forgot about this effect but I simply didn’t play with it for who knows what reason so thank you @Hendrik for putting in another, actually more useful, way to do this. 
I’m not going to use this particular option. I’ll speed it up to 2x. It may help others 
. Trusting that you honestly mean it to sound like this & it’s not a glitch of some kind.
Listening exercises 2-5 on my iPhone are faster than claimed. They sound faster than 2 x the lesson speed & I’ve listened to them on speed 1 & the lesson on speed 2x & the practice sounds faster. In fact about 0.7 or 0.6 practice level 2-5 about equals 2x lesson speed plus distortion. I did find it helpful to review lessons at fast speed. I don’t know how to handle them at Level 2. Even 1/2 x is pretty distorted & I can’t go slower.
I have to admit I worked my way up to Level 3 and ignored ALL the listening challenges as I naively assumed they wouldn’t help me, as my brain just couldn’t make out more than the odd word (on a good day!). But I was always slightly curious as to WHY we had these available, and was I missing out by not doing them? I had thought not. But then logic finally found its way in to my little brain and I thought there MUST be a scientific reason for including these fast listening practices, bearing in mind SSiW is a ‘new way’ of learning a language. So, I searched for the subject on the forum and found this thread. This was SO helpful. As a result, I am now committed to going back and listening to those super-fast listening practices whether I ‘like’ them or not! I am even in danger of ‘trusting the process’, as Aran regularly compels the listener to do. I’m sorry I have not completely trusted it until now! Hands up, my bad!
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It’s deliberate. The point is that it accelerates and improves your listening skills. I’m level 1 but the time you get to the last exercise you’ll find the first one audible and understandable. It’s quite amazing.
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I for one am excited about reaching that point! At the moment it seems hopelessly out of reach but from what @gareth-mitchell and others have said on here, it WILL happen some time! Thanks 
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3x eh ? Well there’s something to look forward to 
. Roedd hi’n gwych y cwyrdd â ti @aran n yn y Bachgen Du penwythnos diwetha. Dw i wedi anghofi i gyflwyno fy hun. Gwnes i fwynhau ymweld â Caernarfon!
Gareth
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O, ti oedd hynna? Braf iawn dy gyfarfod di - roedd yn edrych fel grwp bywiog iawn, gobeithio bod chi gyd wedi mwynhau yn fawr…
Let us know how it goes for you, @david-44! 
Well @aran, I can safely say that after only two days of listening to the speeded-up listening practices half a dozen times, already I am picking up a whole load more than the first couple of attempts! It’s working!
I feel such a chump now for not doing this before, like you told me to! Bad David!
Let this be a lesson to any other skeptics out there. Even if you think it’s bonkers, believe me it works. The brain is such a funny old thing.
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I do not know why or how it works, but it does. At least, it did for me, and has evidently done so for many more of us on the Forum. Listening to the “chipmunk” exercises apparently builds up neural connections in the brain without us being aware of it - more than that I don’t know. But it’s great!
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Here we go, folks - that’s the take-away message here… 
It’s a very well-known neuroplastic process - the brain adapts to input - so using it in this particular scenario is not plucked from thin air, honest!
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I admit never liking them. But since they were part of the course, I just did them, following the instructions. Bare minimum. 
Now, it’s about a year and a half since I had started SSiW, and I decided to go back and check what impression I get by listening to them now.
Well, Listening Practices from Level 1 actually seem…normal speed now. I can easily understand 100% of it without any effort.
Those from Level 2 are still a bit weird and tough, but way better than in the beginning!
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I’m in the beginning of Level 2 now and one of my tasks this week was to listen to the first five listening practices in reverse order. When I reached #1 in the end, I thought Aran sounded like a person with a stroke or something (SORRY Aran!) 
The Welsh was just ssssooooooo ssssslooooowww aaaaand deliiiberaaaate.
But I vividly remember my first attempt at listening to #1 mere three months ago. It was such a ride, it left me breathless!
What a fun demonstration! 
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