Hymn Accompaniments

We try to match the speed to the nature of the music - relatively quick for Worship Songs and slower for traditional hymns. It's a good idea to try singing along a few times before you decide it really is the wrong speed for you - we get used to singing at a certain speed, but after hearing something faster or slower a few times it becomes familiar.

It is possible to change speeds using an editor, and it's still okay to sing along to, but it is likely to make the recording slightly fuzzy. If that's not a problem for you, read on.

If you have a computer, it's relatively simple to edit the music and change the speed. Note that this can't be done directly on CDs - you have to have a file, either imported from a CD or one of our MP3s or downloads to work on.

The first requirement is a piece of music editing software. We recommend Audacity, which we use to edit our tracks - it's free and available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It looks a bit overwhelming to start with, but it is relatively simple. Or choose your own preferred software. When you open a sound file you will see the hymn as a set of waves - it's usually visually very clear where the (shorter) playover and then the verses are.

Assuming you are using Audacity (other editors may or may not offer this facility), choose Change Tempo from the Effects menu. If you want to make the playing faster enter a positive number in the Percent Change box. We suggest trying 10 first. You can hear a preview of the changed speed to see if it's right for you before saving it. If you want to make the playing slower, enter a negative number in the Percent Change box. We suggest trying -10 first. When you are happy with the speed, click OK. When the change is complete export a copy of the file by choosing Export from the File menu. We suggest you give it a different name to avoid overwriting your existing file, in case you want to make further changes.

We can edit files to change the tempo for you - but bear in mind what is said above - the file with the changed tempo is still okay to sing along to, but it will sound a little fuzzy compared to an unedited file.

Make sure you have bought the relevant tracks first, then drop us an email with the details of the tracks you need edited and the speed change you have in mind. We can send you a sample file with a changed speed to hear how the sound quality is affected. We will send you a link to download the updated tracks. As this is quite a time-intensive process we do have to charge £4 per track: if you need more than 5 tracks changing, we can offer a discount. Send us an email to info@cul.co.uk and we can provide you with a quote.