Audio Speed Changer

Load an audio file and play it back from 0.25× to — slow down a tricky music passage or speed up a lecture — then export the result as a lossless WAV, all in your browser.

ℹ This is varispeed: like a tape or record player, speed and pitch change together (2× is one octave up, 0.5× one octave down). It is not pitch-preserving time-stretch — that needs a phase vocoder, which is out of scope here. Output is WAV (browsers can’t write MP3/AAC). Everything runs locally — your file is never uploaded.

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Free to use on your own website — WordPress, Wix, or any platform. Paste one line and it works instantly, resizing to fit.


How It Works

This audio speed changer decodes your file to raw audio samples in the browser, then resamples them to the speed you choose. At 2×, the tool reads the source twice as fast, so the result is half as long and plays an octave higher; at 0.5× it does the opposite. When you change playback speed this way — exactly like a tape deck or turntable — tempo and pitch move together. Rendering uses the browser’s high-quality resampler (an OfflineAudioContext), keeping the original sample rate and channel count, and the audio to WAV conversion produces a lossless 16-bit output. Nothing is uploaded; everything happens on your device.

Popular use cases include slowing down audio for transcription and using it to slow down music so you can learn a difficult passage note-by-note: set the speed to 0.5× or 0.75× to make fast speech or a tricky melody easier to follow word-by-word. The pitch will drop (0.5× is one octave lower), but the words remain intelligible and the export gives you a permanent slow-motion copy to work from. Conversely, setting 1.5× or 2× is useful for speeding up a podcast or lecture when you want to absorb content faster — the classic “chipmunk” pitch rise is a side-effect of the varispeed method. To check the pitch of the original recording before or after processing, the Pitch Detector can identify fundamental frequency in real time.

If you need to change tempo without changing pitch (or pitch without tempo), that’s time-stretching / pitch-shifting, which requires a phase-vocoder algorithm not included here. Use a desktop editor such as Audacity or Adobe Audition for that. For MP3 output, re-encode the exported WAV in a desktop app. If you only need to cut out a section of the audio rather than change its speed, the Audio Trim Tool handles sample-accurate cropping without any re-encoding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my file uploaded?
No. Decoding, preview and rendering all happen in your browser; the audio never leaves your device.
Does the pitch stay the same when I change speed?
No — this is varispeed, so pitch rises when you speed up and drops when you slow down (2× = +1 octave, 0.5× = −1 octave). Keeping pitch constant requires time-stretching, which isn’t part of this tool.
What speed range can I use?
From 0.25× (quarter speed, two octaves down) to 4× (quadruple speed, two octaves up). Use the slider for any value in between, or the preset buttons for common speeds.
Why is the output WAV, not MP3?
Browsers can’t encode MP3/AAC from JavaScript without a licensed encoder. The result is exported as lossless WAV; re-encode it to MP3 in a desktop app if needed.
Does slowing down add quality?
No. Slowing down stretches the existing samples (interpolating between them) and speeding up discards some — neither creates detail that wasn’t in the original. The WAV export itself is lossless, with no extra compression.
Can I use this to slow down audio for transcription?
Yes — setting the speed to 0.5× or 0.75× makes fast speech easier to follow. Bear in mind that pitch drops proportionally (0.5× is one octave lower), so voices sound deeper. The words generally stay intelligible, and you can export the slowed WAV to work from at your own pace.
What audio formats can I load?
Any format your browser’s built-in decoder supports — typically MP3, OGG/Vorbis, FLAC, M4A/AAC, and WAV. WebM/Opus is usually supported too. The specific set varies slightly by browser. Unsupported formats fail silently at decode; if nothing loads, try converting to WAV or MP3 first.
How does export file size relate to playback speed?
The output WAV holds exactly the resampled audio: at 2× the file is roughly half the duration (and half the uncompressed size) of the original; at 0.5× it is double the duration and double the size. Channel count and sample rate are kept from the original, so those do not change the speed/size relationship.