Speed up audio books

I listen to large numbers of audio books, and I usually speed them up between 2-3 times. Previously I've done this with Adobe Audition - which does a really crisp job of this. However purchasing a license of Audition is a bit expensive. I've tried Audacity, but the quality is nowhere near as good. VLC does this pretty good but I'm not able to save the output.

Is anyone aware of an inexpensive tool that does a good job of speeding up audio (while preserving the pitch)? And be able to save to an mp3.

Alister

Posted 2011-06-06T00:49:38.630

Reputation: 647

1Have you tried manaualy changing the bitrate? – soandos – 2011-06-06T00:52:46.713

Answers

After a bit of research I've settled on GoldWave as it seems to do a good job of speeding up audio, while preserving pitch and supports batch processing. Currently I'm playing around with the trial but will probably register it shortly. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.

Alister

Posted 2011-06-06T00:49:38.630

Reputation: 647

There are now many apps that will do this real time, for instance on Android - Smart AudioBook Player – Alister – 2015-09-29T01:33:17.590

Just change the bitrate using some of the tools listed here. For convenience, links are:

CDex

besweet

I am sure there are other tools that can do this also.

soandos

Posted 2011-06-06T00:49:38.630

Reputation: 22 744

Changing bit rate will only effect the quality of the file and make the files smaller (or larger), could you be referring to the sampling rate - altering this will effect the pitch, which I want to avoid. – Alister – 2011-06-13T00:04:01.737