Introduction

The time stretch/pitch change function allows make regular Hebrew broadcasts easier to understand for a learner. It does this by slowing down speech - without lowering the pitch (which is what you get when you slow down a tape recording).

Mobile Software To Stretch Speech Files

On your mobile platform App Store, search for "Pitch Time Shift" or the like. For example, Time Stretch / EQ. This is the preferred, modern way.

Hebrew Audio Sources

If you find more, please get in contact

• http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hebrew/- SBS Australia - choose Hebrew from the list ffor a great one hour weekly program.

• http://feeds.feedburner.com/radiohebrew - SBS Australia Hebrew Podcast

• http://foundationstone.com.au/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?language=en&page=easyHebrewText - Yanshuf easy Hebrew magazine with Audio CD option.

Songs -

• http://www.hebrewsongs.com/ HebrewSongs - learn the lyrics to your favourite Israeli tunes from Kol Cambridge.

Audio -

• http://www.milingua.com/ Milingua - Hear and Read easy Hebrew on the Web - for English speakers.

• http://foundationstone.com.au/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?language=en&page=movie - Hebrew Movies on DVD.

• http://www.kolisrael.com/ Kol Yisrael - voice of Israel online - read or listen.

• http://bible.ort.org/ Navigating the Bible - the Hebrew scriptures online. Includes audio of all texts.

• http://mabat.iba.org.il/ IBA Israel Television channel 1 - TV broadcast in Real Media.

• http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/ptmp3prq.htm Mechon-Mamre's MP3 Recordings of the Hebrew Bible

Practice File

Here is a short file to practice on.

speech.wav

Helpful Hints

• Time stretching a file requires a lot of resources on your computer. You might like to use the task manager to lower the priority of the application, to make your computer more responsive while it's processing.

• The length of audio you can do is limited by the size of the intermediary files the application can create. These are put in your home directory, or in the C:\Documents & Settings\username\ directory on a PC. On 32 bit Windows, the largest these files can be is around 1.4 GB, which limits you to around 30 minutes of mono CD quality sound at any one time.

• Saving your audio as mono doubles the amount you can do at one time.

• If possible cut out the bass frequencies of your audio (pre time stretch), using a graphic equaliser in your media player/sound editor/stream ripper software.

Bugs

See Latest Bugs.

Useful Software

If you know good software for your platform, please add some details

PC Specific

• http://all-streaming-media.com/record-audio-stream/Super-Mp3-Recorder-Professional-Wma-Vqf-Ogg-Wav-Mp3-recorder-editor-player.htm - Super Mp3 Recorder Pro can record any signal played through your sound card into mp3, wma, vqf, ogg or wav files. This is how to convert any audio stream on a PC into sound files that FoundationStone can work with.

• http://www.audio-grabber.com/ - some more audio grabber software for converting formats, some free.

Mac Specific

• http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/ Audio Hijack - This app allows you to record sound from any source.

• http://www.felttip.com/ Sound Studio - shareware audio file editor, with some Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions for cleaning up the sound (eg in a lecture, remove the sound of the chairs rumbling, people chattering etc).

Cross Platform

• http://apple.com/itunes - integrates with the ipod, allows you to compress and organise the resulting files FoundationStone creates.

• http://apple.com/quicktime/ - edit functions requires payment of a small fee. Allows you to work with audio, primarily changing format, editing and compressing.

• http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/ Stream Ripper - this app allows you to save to disk MP3 (& other formats) broadcast as streams on Internet radio stations. The saved file may then be transformed via FoundationStone's Time Stretch feature (for example).

• http://videolan.org/ Video LAN - open source media platform that plays most formats (except Real).

Unix Specific

• add some