[linux-audio-user] Pulling off old 2-track reels and trying to slow them down

[Alan Taylor]

In a nutshell, my issue is trying to slow down recorded audio and
maintain decent sound quality.

Here's the extended explanation:

A number of years ago I recorded some of my live performances on a
stereo 7-inch reel-to-reel deck.  Just recently I borrowed a friend's
Fostex Model 80, which is an 8-track deck.  I am able to pull off both
channels of my music, but the Fostex plays it *way* too fast and does
not have any speed adjustment that I can see.

What I have done so far is use Ardour with JACK running at 48KHz to pull
off the music.  Then, I exported it to a WAV and used AlsaPlayer to
playback the audio at approx 25% normal speed.  My problem is that the
quality is quite poor.  Sure, the original recordings are less than
stellar to begin with, but my results are less than expected.  Note that
I am using an M-Audio Delta 44 to record through, so soundcard quality
should not be an issue.

I'm looking for some suggestions as to how to go about doing this the
proper way.

1.  Is my approach reasonable?  Record with Ardour and then slow it down
with something else?

2.  AlsaPlayer plays back my audio, but how do I permanently change the
speed and save it?

3.  Would a higher sample rate in JACK help the quality?

4.  Anyone have a Fostex Model 80 manual that tells how to slow down the
speed to begin with?


Alan