Greetings,
I’m an uilleann piper and I recently posted the following to the C&F Uilleann Piping forum. However, someone on that list thought that my post would be of interest to whistle and flute players too.
Original Post:
I thought readers of this forum might be interested to know about a Winamp plugin that I recently found. The plugin is called ‘Slow Me Down’ and allows one to alter the tempo of an MP3 file without altering the pitch (however, the pitch can also be adjusted independently of the tempo so that minor tuning differences can be dealt with).
In practice, this means that if I want to learn a tune from an MP3 file, but the tune is being played a little too fast for me, I can slow it right down, and pick out the individual notes at a much more leisurely pace. However, the beauty of the plugin is that the pitch of the tune remains unchanged. Basically, its a bit like sitting next to a great piper, listening to him/her play a tune, and then saying “could you play that again, but much more slowly so I can try to learn what you are doing”
The plugin (and the Winamp program) can both be downloaded from the Winamp site:
Winamp player:
http://www.winamp.com
Plugin:
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml;$sessionid$24ACBAAABBNKRTN24GARCZQ?componentId=21827
Hope this is useful,
All the best,
Steve