Grooves: Song Speed Changer

I’m really enjoying the new set list options! I use this app to practice music. A lot. I’ve found when trying to practice a song in a different key I’m having some issues in set list mode. When I change the pitch on a song I own, switch songs, then go back to the previous one, the pitch shift controls go away (and it’s stuck in the new pitch). The only work around I’ve found so far, is to pick a totally different tune, close the app, reopen it, and then go back to the one with the pitch adjustment… Kind of a pain for now. EDIT: I found a much better workaround to this little glitch… If a song you own is giving you trouble after you transpose it, open Apple Music, play that song for a split second… When you go back to Perfect Tempo, your transposition options magically reappear.

I really appreciate that this app existed since Apple Music refuses to offer a similar feature. After noticing some old favorite music was being unnaturally sped up by ~6% on Apple Music (like Billy Squier’s songs), this app did the trick to fix that. However… Issue: After manual setting the correct playback speed for Squier’s songs in my playlist, I noticed the app would not automatically play the next song. It allow repeating of the same song but would not play through to the next. This should be the expected default behavior and I could find no way to play an entire playlist. I had to tap each song individually to get it to play. Unless I’m doing something wrong, this seems like a serious failing of an otherwise pretty good app. Hopefully this will be fixed.

2022 review update: super bummer. It does still work with some of my songs but not my playlist that I built, paid for all the songs, and downloaded onto my phone. No longer useful for my running. 2019 review: Was delighted to find this super simple option for matching songs I love to my ideal running cadence. I am happy at 162 bpm but several of my favorite running songs are 158 bpm. After a few days playing with different software including GarageBand, I stumbled across this app! You do have to do a little math but it seems that 2% increase from my playlist is perfect. The interface is simple and familiar, and lets me access my playlist, any of my purchased albums, and Apple Music. It lists everything by song title but you can filter a little. So I set like 9 songs on a playlist, with a mix of original tempo and +2% tempo. The songs keep the choice I made, and there’s a toggle button to “repeat” or “off” or “repeat section”, but even when it’s off it still just plays the same song again. If it would go forward to the next song on the playlist, I’d like it better. As it is, I’ll have to mess around with my phone to manually choose the next song. Luckily they’re each pretty long!