A/B Looping and Speed Adjustments- What do you guys think???

[Casey Willis]

Howdy, all you awesome Fiddlevideo members. One feature we’ve had requested several times since we launched this site is user-defined A/B video looping. For those unfamiliar with this technology, it allows you to highlight a section of the video which then repeats. That way you don’t have to constantly press pause so you can work something out on your fiddle…you can just play along over and over with the section you are working on.

Another request we’ve had is for there to be some way to slow down videos when they are playing. It makes sense that this feature would help folks learn, especially when it comes to slowing down a performance video.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve launched both of these feature in beta mode on a couple of lessons. The technology will not work on all mobile devices, but it seems to be working fine on desktops, laptops and ipads.

Before we roll this change out to the entire site, it would be great if you took a look and gave us feedback. Do videos still play without skipping? Does A/B looping work for you? Does the slowdown function work for you?? If you have any issues, please post your hardware device and browser so we can research. Thanks in advance, guys! Below are the lessons:

Hector the Hero
Blue River Waltz
Jerusalem Ridge
Sally Goodin

[Roland White]

Hi Casey, Wow that is really a great feature. Kudos for getting that on the site. I know from my own learning how important it is to repeat the trouble spots or to just play along with the tune learning by ear where to correct and when to make it your own. Looping really promotes the learning curve. I’m sure the FiddleVideo members will love this feature. Thanks for all you do to make this the awesome site it is.

[Casey Willis]

Great, Roland. Thanks for the feedback, sir. I think it’s going to be a real benefit to members. I just want to make sure it will work for all…or at the very least, doesn’t cause folks any issues in playing the lessons.

Any others want to chime in with their experience??

[Anonymous]

Hi, Casey,

I find the A/B looping very helpful and plan to use it a lot. It eliminates the need to keep going back to the same spot over and over again for those of us who don’t get all the notes the first time.

As far as the speed adjustment goes, I would like to see more and finer increments for slowing down the tune. That helps out a lot when you’ve learned a tune and are trying to get it up to speed. Maybe something like 0.5 – 0.6 -0.7 -0.8 – 0.9.

Really enjoying the site lots.

Thanks,

Chuck Markowitz

[Casey Willis]

Great, Chuck – thanks much for the feedback. Glad to hear it’s working for you. I’ve submitted your request for more granular speed increments to our development team. We’ll see what they come back with.

Any other folks want to chime in??

[Roland White]

Hey, Casey I just viewed the slow dower on one of the samples and I think you have just created the Holy Grail for fiddlers. This is the best combination of ear training and slow motion video I have ever seen for learning tunes. Excellent detail with the video shows important details like shifting, slides and subtle accents. Great job Casey this is special.

[Casey Willis]

Awesome, Roland. We’re really exited about these new features as well. Being able to both loop and, at the same time, be able to slow down video playback will be very helpful to Fiddlevideo members. I’ll take this feedback, along with the emails we’ve received, as the go-ahead to move forward in the next few weeks with implementing the enhancements across all lessons.

That said, for any other folks who wish to chime in with their feedback, please feel free to do so!!

[nice man]

I think this is going to work well. I have used another program that slows the speed, and it works well. But to have the video to go with it is really sweet. Thanks for the work you put into it. I will have fun using it.

nice man (Gary)

[Casey Willis]

Awesome, Gary!! And you’re welcome. Happy subscribers is what we are striving for.

I just wish I had these kinds of tools when I was starting to learn…they’re pretty helpful!!!

[Xavier]

Very good, thanks! 😉
Now write and play Casey!

[Casey Willis]

Man I wish, Xavier! I need three of me at this point…

[Xavier]

Yes, I imagine well that it is a lot of work, but which pleasure for us!

[Pat Willey]

Casey,

I can’t thank you enough for doing this enhancement. I have had great experience with it, and it is going to put more pleasure in my learning.

My favorite way to practice is to use my Apple TV interface (model A1469 3rd generation) and stream it to my television screen (no ugly wires). On my TV It is more like an in-person lesson, close to life-size on a modest 46” screen.

I never had trouble streaming the non-looping videos through my Apple TV module, but I have had a some video stuttering while streaming the A-B/looping videos. The videos function just fine if I just watch on my computer screen, so the weak link is between my computer and my Apple TV module, not FiddleVideo, and not with my internet speed. I know they have faster 4th generation Apple TV modules ($$ 32Gb, or $$$ 64Gb).

I will just hardwire my connection (by-pass the Apple TV) while I search for a solution to the Apple TV problem without spending a bundle of money. Hopefully it is just a setting that I need to configure, like adjusting the buffering.

[Roland White]

HI Pat, Thanks for you kind words. Casey has upgraded this site to be a place in Heaven for Fiddle Students. The looping and slow down Video is way ahead of the curve and it’s great to hear of the success you are already having. I have Apple TV so thanks for those tips on using that for a more real life approach. I bought the new version that came out last Christmas so I will test it out to see how it works with the video slow down. I’m sure Casey will chime in on your comments. Thank you so much for letting us know how its working on FiddleVideo for you. We appreciate your feedback.

[Pat Willey]

Thanks for the reply, Roland. Don’t bother wth the private message I sent you. All is well now.

I have solved my video stuttering problem. It does lie in the Apple TV box, as I suspected. I never had put an Ethernet cord from my router into the Apple TV box. It always worked well without it before this, but the new functions may require slightly more resources. I plugged a cord from my router to Apple TV and the stuttering has disappeared. The cord connection may not be necessary with the newer, faster Apple units, but by using the cord, I don’t have to waste time and money on a faster unit.

[Casey Willis]

An update, folks:

I received confirmation today from developers that we will be able to provide more granular speed adjustments in the next release. So you should be able to bump up the speed from .5-1.0 in increments of .1 each time. This will greatly help folks who want to play along with performance videos and work on speed….look for that enhancement in the coming months.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys!!!

-C

[DanRoseberry]

Works great on my MacBook Pro. Haven’t tried it on my iPad yet. I must say that I am very impressed with Hanneke’s playing of Hector the Hero. She plays it just as well at 2x as she does at 1x! Impressive;)

[DanRoseberry]

It works on my iPad Air2 also. The only difference I see is when changing speed I have to hit the play arrow each time on my iPad, but on my laptop the speed automatically changes without having to hit the play arrow each time. All in all I believe this will really help me a lot. Thanx! And by the way Casey, you really scream on Jerusalem Ridge at 2X. That must have taken a lot of practice!

[Casey Willis]

That’s hilarous, Dan! It is odd to slow down the videos…all of the little minor timing things that slip by at regular speed are painfully obvious when slowed down. And if I hit a note slightly out of tune, it stays that way for a long darn time till I fix it at .5 speed!

But you’re right; it’s pretty impressive at 1.5 or 2.0!!

Thanks for the feedback on your playing experience across multiple devices, sir.

-C

[GreenFiddler]

Great job in increasing the usability of the website and helping us to do what we came here for – to learn all these songs. Thank you!

-Shannon

[Casey Willis]

Thanks, Shannon. I really appreciate that.

I’m hoping to have the rest of the lessons converted over by the end of this weekend.

[Roland White]

Hey it’s really fun to see all these positive comments for the Looper and slow down video. This will certainly advance the learning curve for many of you and I’m very excited that this is offered on this site. I don’t know of any other sites with this technology. Fiddling is a very hard skill to learn so enhancements like this are just going to allow everyone to learn faster and better and this all means MORE FUN with your MUSIC. Kind regards to all, Roland

[Casey Willis]

Thanks for chiming in, as always, Roland!

[Rosie]

Thank you very much for providing this amazing facility. I’ve just had a great evening going through some of the tunes using the looper and slow-downer. It’s so much easier to follow and learn when you can see the fingering slowly and practise sections at your own pace. Very impressive!
Rosie

[Roland White]

Hi Rosie, Thanks for your kind words. So glad to hear the new features allow you to learn better and practice at your pace. I know I love it and there is no better way than repetition slowly and correctly till you have the freedom to make it your own. Thanks for posting on the forum, check in with us again and tell us how you’re doing, Best Regards, Roland Forum Moderator

[Casey Willis]

An update, folks. Based on Chuck’s request above, we’ve been working with the development team to get more granular speed adjustments in place on the site. This enhancement will allow you to slowly work up to playing at performance speed.

To do that, we’re pulling the feature down for a day so we can get the new coding going.

Please stay tuned as we roll this feature out. We appreciate your patience! Thanks!

[Casey Willis]

We updated our website coding today to provide more granular video playback speed controls. This update was in response to Chuck, in this thread.

You can now adjust the playback speed of lesson videos by .1 increments. This should really help those folks who are playing along with performance videos. Let us know if you have any issues by posting in this thread. Enjoy, and thanks for being awesome Fiddlevideo.com subscribers!!!

[Pat Willey]

Casey, that “more granular” adjustment is nothing short of fantastic. Slowly increasing my speed is much easier than the big jump to full speed.

I want to give a big thanks to you, Roland, your software developers, and anyone else who helped you in this effort. I did not even notice any downtime, so I am sure you must have been working while I slept. It is much appreciated.

[Casey Willis]

Thanks, Pat. So glad everyone seems to find the new features helpful. It’s been an interesting journey getting the site going while recording other artists and also working a regular job. I do end up working on this stuff into the wee hours of the night. Glad it’s appreciated.

I also saw your email regarding hot keys. For any other folks out there, Pat noticed that using the Command + keys on a Mac toggles hot keys which may be helpful during video playback.

Now I’m off to record Hanneke’s last day in the studio. She’s cut some great lessons so far…more to come!

C

[Pat Willey]

Actually, I just noticed the hot keys display just by entering the +/= key. I don’t have to enter the command key. Several of the hotkeys are not functional for me. I don’t recall this as being available previously.

[Roland White]

Hi Pat, thanks for the extra feedback. There may some subtle commands programmed in that we don’t know about, but thanks for adding that. Best, Roland Moderator

[Casey Willis]

Just a note to let folks know that the more granular speed adjustments are back up on the site. We’ve ironed out the minor issues we were seeing. You should now be able to back off video speeds by .1 intervals again.

Carry on!!!

Thanks

C

[Victoria_maples]

Hey there! I love this feature, My favorite at the moment is jerusalems ridge and it has made it so much easier for me to follow the bowing patterns more closely. Thanks for the awsome work you guys and gals put into this program:-)

[Casey Willis]

You bet, Victoria. Thanks for feedback. It’s a pleasure to get this material produced and available to members. ??

[Pat Willey]

Casey,

Congratulations on your one-year anniversary of the looping and speed-control features. They have been very helpful to me. I knew I could click the A/B bar to set the ‘A’, or begin looping point, but I never quite got the hang of setting the ‘B’, or end of loop point. Up until today, I would just slide it over on the track pad.

This morning I decided to double-click the ‘AB’ bar and popped right to where I clicked. I am sure all the young folks and techies will think I am slow and they knew this all along, but a sometimes a year is not bad for me to learn something 🙂 You do have to have the video stopped to make it work for the ‘B’ point.

Thanks for all your work and improvements.

Pat W

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Pat Willey.

[Pat Willey]

Correction:
Actually, you don’t have to double click the AB bar. You can single click it. I think my problem was I had the video running when I tried to set the B-point, but that just always moved the A-point. That is when I went to sliding the B-button. So… double-click is not the answer, just have the video stopped and ‘activate’ the B-Button by clicking it one-time, then click the AB bar where you want it. 🙂

Is this the most expeditious method of setting AB points?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Pat Willey.

[Casey Willis]

There you go, Pat! Yeah, I believe it depends on the device and browser that you use in terms of how the A/B feature works. I’ve always clicked and dragged the points…but clicking directly into the bar seems like it might be a little more accurate…

Thanks again for suggesting that we provide this feature as a part of membership, sir!!!

Casey

[antonvon]

Hello Casey and everybody, is r-there somewhere a list of keyboard shortcuts for playing, ab etc? many thanks

[George Bretz]

Antonvon,
I can’t find any keyboard instructions for video controls.
on both computer and tablet the only control I can find is to use the curser on the menu at the bottom of the video.
Can’t find any keyboard controls.
Thanks,
George

[antonvon]

Hi George,
thanks a lot for looking
at the moment i use the pedal as is and one of the presets is arrow left arrow right which goes back or forward 10seconds which is perfect for my purpose.
I’ll research a-b later, at the moment my brand new violin is going to finally be in my hands so I’m a bit distracted!
cheers!
anton

[George Bretz]

Anton,
Tell us what pedal you use! The 10 second shift would be awesome! What a time saver.
I’ve seen you mention a pedal before but I didn’t get make/model.
Best wishes with the new fiddle
George

[antonvon]

it’s a pageflip dragonfly (the only one that can be programmed) by default the small pedals (it has 4) are arrow left arrow right which are 10sec before or after
it’s great not having to use a hand to scroll back while learning aurali tunes from kevin burke!!!

keep us posted if you get a pedal too – I’ll look into the programing of it later!

cheers

[Casey Willis]

Hi, Antonvon.

I’ve pinged the coding folks to see if we can’t come up with a listing of hot keys to which you can map your pedal.

C

[antonvon]

thanks a lot!!!!

[pgmcqueen]

i tried the features on all four of the listed music videos, and I really think they greatly enhance the lessons. I am using an iPad 5 w/ iPadOS 17.3.1.

Phil

[George Bretz]

Phil,
Thanks for your input.
I use the features on my iPad every day.
Great tools.
George

[Stephen Hebert]

There’s a Chrome Extension called “Transpose” that supports live transposition, looping, and tempo customization for any HTML5 video. Highly recommended!

• This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by Stephen Hebert.

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