VLC & the chipmunks

Disabling scaletempo

VLC 1.0 and later versions enable the "scaletempo" audio filter by default. That filter tries to preserve the audio pitch regardless of the playback speed. That's what most people want.

But a number of users have asked how to not do that. They want to keep the original audio signal, even when playing back faster or slower than normal. Slower means more grave, whereas faster means more acute.

To disable audio time stretching, go to Tools / Preferences / All / Audio and disable it:
VLC audio preferences


Setting the playback speed

Starting with VLC 1.1, the playback speed can be configured from the preferences. From Tools / Preferences / All / Input/Codecs, there is a playback speed setting in the playback control section.

If you've played with your parents (or maybe your own) vinyl/gramophone record player, the magic playback speed values are of course 0.733 (33 divided by 45) and 1.36 (45 divided by 33).

In earlier version, you need to press + or - keys to accelerate or decelerate the playback by speed of the current media by 50%.