Guides

Slowed and Reverb in Audacity vs Online: Which Workflow Wins?

2026-10-11

Step-by-step Audacity instructions (Change Speed, Reverb, export) against the browser editor, with an honest look at where each one is faster, cleaner or the only option.

Audacity has been the free way to slow down a song for twenty years. It is still a perfectly good way to make a slowed and reverb edit. The browser editor on this site is newer and does one job, and it does that job with fewer clicks. Neither is universally better, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

This guide gives you the full Audacity procedure, then the equivalent in the online slowed reverb editor, then a plain comparison. If you want the one-page summary, the Audacity comparison page covers it, and the online vs DAW guide widens the question to Ableton, FL Studio and Reaper.

The Audacity method, step by step

These steps match Audacity 3.x. Menu names moved slightly between versions; where they differ, both are given.

1. Import

File, Import, Audio. Or drag the file onto the window. Audacity decodes MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG and AAC (via FFmpeg if installed). The waveform appears as a stereo track.

2. Slow the track down

Select the whole track with Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac). Then:

• Effect, Pitch and Tempo, Change Speed (older versions: Effect, Change Speed).
• The dialog shows a Speed Multiplier. Type 0.85 for the classic slowed sound. The Percent Change field updates to -15.
• Click Apply.

Change Speed is the right effect for slowed + reverb because it changes speed and pitch together, like a slowed turntable. Do not use Change Tempo, which keeps the pitch, unless you want the practice-track version. Do not use Change Pitch at all for this.

A note on arithmetic: Audacity's Speed Multiplier matches the browser editor's speed value one for one, so 0.85 in Audacity is 0.85x here. A 3 semitone drop lands at roughly 0.84 in both.

3. Add reverb

Select all again, then Effect, Reverb. The dialog has nine controls:

Use Preview before Apply. Audacity's Preview plays only a few seconds, so place the cursor on the chorus first. If the lyrics blur, lower Wet Gain by 2 dB rather than lowering Reverberance. If the tail rings over the next phrase, lower Reverberance.

4. Shape the tone

Effect, EQ and Filters, Bass and Treble. Bass +4 to +6 dB, Treble -2 to -4 dB. This stands in for the Bass and Tone shelves in the browser editor.

If you want more than two shelves, Filter Curve EQ gives you a full graphic curve. That is one of Audacity's real advantages, covered below.

5. Check the levels

Reverb and a bass boost add energy, and Audacity does not stop you clipping. Look at the waveform. If it hits the top and bottom edges, Effect, Volume and Compression, Normalize to -1 dB, or Amplify with a negative value. The browser editor manages this for you; Audacity trusts you to.

6. Export

File, Export, Export Audio (older versions: Export, Export as MP3). Choose format and quality:

• WAV, 16 or 24 bit. Lossless. Use this if the edit is going anywhere other than a social platform.
• MP3, 320 kbps. For sharing files directly.
• MP3, 128 to 192 kbps. Fine for YouTube and TikTok, which re-encode anyway.

Audacity needs the LAME encoder for MP3; recent builds include it. Export takes a few seconds for a four-minute song.

Total: six steps, perhaps four minutes once you know the menus, longer the first time.

The browser method

1. Open the slowed reverb maker and drop in the file. No install. Nothing is uploaded.
2. Tap a preset (Haze Chamber or Wave Drift) or set the sliders: Speed 0.85x, Reverb 40%, Space 2.8 s, Bass +5, Tone -3, Width 1.1.
3. Press play. Adjust while it plays. Every slider responds live, and the preview is the same chain as the export with Preserve pitch off; with it on, the export will be pitch-shifted.
4. Download. The MP3 is encoded in a background worker at 96 kbps, 32 kHz.

Total: about a minute. Processing several songs adds a few seconds each; add them all, Select All Tracks, Download All, and a ZIP appears.

Head-to-head

When Audacity wins

You need a lossless file. If the edit is going to a distributor, a client, or a video editor where you will do further processing, you want WAV. The browser editor exports MP3 only, and at 96 kbps. That bitrate is tuned for fast in-browser encoding and is fine for social platforms, which re-encode uploads, but it is not a master. The export bitrate guide goes into why.

You need to cut. Trimming to the hook, fading the end, removing an intro, or adding a chopped-and-screwed stutter all need an editor with a timeline. The browser tool processes whole files.

You need surgical EQ. A boomy 120 Hz resonance that gets worse when slowed cannot be fixed with a bass shelf. Audacity's Filter Curve can notch it.

You need pitch and speed separately. A song slowed to 0.85x but only 2 semitones down, not 3, is a two-step job in Audacity (Change Tempo then Change Pitch). The browser editor cannot do it.

You want the reverb a specific way. Nine parameters give you control over pre-delay, damping and the tone of the tail that the browser's two sliders do not expose. Pre-delay in the browser editor is fixed at 10 ms.

When the browser editor wins

You want to hear the result while you turn the knob. This is the big one. In Audacity you set a value, apply, listen, undo, change, apply, listen. In the browser you move the slider and hear it. Dialling in a slowed edit is a listening task, and a live chain gets you to the right values far faster.

You are on a phone or a locked-down machine. No install, no admin rights, no desktop required. Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS run the full editor.

You are doing more than three songs. Audacity macros can batch an effect chain, but setting one up, pointing it at a folder and checking the output takes longer than adding files to the browser list, selecting all, and downloading a ZIP. For a channel producing weekly uploads this difference compounds.

You want consistency. Presets in the browser editor are exact values you can apply to any track in one click. In Audacity you can save effect presets per dialog, but the full chain is three separate dialogs, and it is easy to drift.

You are new to this. Two reverb controls instead of nine is not a limitation for most slowed edits; it is a sensible default. The reverb decay guide explains why mix and decay are the two that matter.

Using both

Plenty of people do. A common pattern:

1. Audition in the browser. Try the song at 0.82x, 0.85x and 0.88x, play with Reverb and Space until it clicks. Note the values.
2. Decide whether the edit is for a social post or a release.
3. Social post: export from the browser and move on.
4. Release or client work: open the WAV source in Audacity, apply Change Speed at the same value, then Reverb, Bass and Treble, and export WAV.

The browser becomes a fast sketchpad and Audacity becomes the finishing room. Since the browser's speed value and Audacity's Speed Multiplier line up, you can carry the number straight across.

Translating settings between the two

The reverb models are different, so there is no exact conversion. These pairings sound close enough to use as a starting point.

Open the free editor: upload MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG or FLAC, adjust speed, reverb, bass, tone, width and space, then export MP3 or a ZIP of many tracks. Everything runs in your browser.