It's great that the possibility to change the playback speed has been implemented in MusicBee.
However, it is still quite unhandy. In order to change the speed, one has to click on the equalizer, scroll down DSP Plugins (at least with my laptop's resolution), click on Tempo Control and manually set the speed.
For those of us who use the function a lot with different settings for different stuff, it's not an optimal solution. Plus, if you see that you've set it too slow/too fast, you have to go back and do the whole thing all over again, hoping for better results.
When is the playback speed important?
- audiobooks
- podcasts
- language learning materials
- in some cases even for music (e.g. practicing playing a song)
In my case, I learn a couple of languages and tend to slow down the audiobooks/podcasts in the languages I don't know well yet. On the other hand, there are always some audiobooks or podcasts that are just way too slow (you literally feel the time you're wasting if listening at the regular speed, or you just get bored).
What could be done to improve the user experience?
Here just a couple of ideas:
- adding an optional button that takes you directly to the speed regulation slider
- defining 'custom speeds' (e.g. 5 different settings) to be easily accessed directly from the player
- setting the speed per medium type (so that if you've set e.g. slower/faster speed for podcasts, your music is not affected)
- setting custom speed per podcast/audiobook (that's what's done e.g. in the Android app 'Podcast Addict') - very convenient, as in most cases the speed of a given podcasts/audiobook does not change a lot
- changing the speed dynamically while modifyng the slider position (for easier adjustments)
Basically, any kind of (semi-)automatization/customization/easier access to the speed control feature would be very much appreciated.