How To Change Audio Speed For Videos, Podcasts & Music

Staff Writer / August 8, 2024

Ever wished you could slow down a video to catch every word that’s being said, or maybe speed up a podcast to get to the most interesting bits? If you did, then it might not be hard to imagine that your viewers likely have the same needs and desires as you.

Changing the playback speed of an audio or video comes in handy in a variety of situations, from enhancing learning experiences to making content consumption accessible to anyone, regardless of the speed they’re comfortable with. With a professional video editor, you can change audio speed and video speed individually, without compromising their quality. So let’s see how to change audio speed for videos, music, podcasts and more.

What are the benefits of changing audio speed?

As we mentioned previously, there are several scenarios that warrant the use of an audio speed changer. Whether you want to increase or decrease the tempo of an audio track, a dedicated tool can help you alter the speed of the audio to emphasize key moments and improve comprehension. Let’s review some of the benefits of changing audio speed:

1. Efficiency

Speeding up audio playback can help people skip all unnecessary or irrelevant pauses and silences in a recording, therefore consuming content faster. With more time on their hands, they’re free to watch or listen to more of your content — therefore increasing your watch time and engagement.

2. Accessibility

Not everyone consumes content at the same pace, so by learning how to speed up audio online or slow it down, you can create different versions of your content to match everybody’s style and preferred playback speed

3. Higher comprehension

By offering your audience a slowed-down version of an online lecture, webinar, or other educational material, you enable them to better understand complex concepts or foreign languages. With a video or audio playing at a slower pace, they are also encouraged to take detailed notes, which further increases their understanding of your content.

4. Highlighting key information

By using a tool to slow down audio online, you can draw attention to the most important parts of your content. A change in tempo naturally draws people’s attention, making them more engaged with what’s happening and getting them to focus on the crucial sections.

5. Creating unique content

With the help of a music speed changer online, you can manipulate playback speed to create new audio content with just a few clicks.

How to change audio speed with a professional video editor

Oftentimes, creators are hard-pressed to download and/or purchase an entire suite of tools to handle multiple aspects of video editing. This not only crowds their computers, it also results in a lot of time spent juggling different tools to achieve a perfectly edited video. Changing audio speed is an important part of video editing, and it can be easily done with a powerful cloud-based video editor like Flixier, that can handle just about every other editing task you can think of – all contained within a single dashboard in your browser. So how to go about changing audio speed with Flixier, you may ask. Let’s go over the key steps:

1. Open Flixier

The first and arguably most important step of this whole process is to open Flixier in your browser tab, by going to Flixier.com and clicking on Get Started. This will take you to the editing dashboard where all the magic happens.

2. Upload your audio file

Next, click the Import/Record button at the top of the screen, and select your desired import option. The possibilities are endless here. You can drag and drop a file from your computer, import from cloud storage, your phone or via an external link, just to name a few. Don’t worry about converting your audio to a different format, Flixier accepts a wide selection of audio formats, including but not limited to MP3, MP4, MPEG3, MIDI, FLAC, WAV.

3. Change audio speed

Once the audio is loaded, you’ll find it on the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Select your track, navigate to the right-side menu, and click on Playback speed. From here, you can choose one of the default playback speeds (0.5x, 1x, 2x, etc) or use the slider to select a particular speed that matches your vision.

4. Keep enhancing your audio

You’ve successfully changed the speed of your audio, but with Flixier, you can do more to improve the quality of your audio files. For instance, if you select the Enhance Audio option, you can easily remove background noise and reverb, turning poor-quality sound into crystal-clear audio.

5. Save your audio or add it to a video

At this stage, you can save your audio using the Export feature. You also have the option to publish it directly from your browser to a streaming platform or social media. Alternatively, you can incorporate it into a video. Upload or record a video directly in Flixier, use stock video footage, or choose from the many motion title templates available in the app to create the perfect complement for your audio file. And don’t worry, you can adjust the playback speed of your video to match that of your audio, so the two will always be in perfect sync.

Final thoughts

With a professional video audio speed changer in your corner, you’re more than ready to create accessible content for any type of audience, emphasize key sections in your videos, and make it easy for your audience to consume more of your content. Now that we’ve gone over the main benefits of changing audio speed and the steps you need to take in order to do this task efficiently, all that’s left for you to do is to get busy editing.