I’ve been holding off buying the Slow Speed CD Transcriber because it wouldn’t work on wave and mp3 files. Now Roni Music has released the Amazing Slow Downer. Certainly not the most clever name, but it can stretch a track on a cd from -50% to 400% without changing the pitch. It’ll also work on wave and mp3 files from your hard disk (Basically they’ve combined they’ve combined the Slow Speed Transcriber and Musician’s CD Player into one) You can loop a section of music and change the pitch to your favorite key.
I find it very helpful for learning tunes, and for picking up ornamentation. I also like to slow down the tune until I can play along, then speed it up as I improve. A godsend for those that don’t like metronomes but want to check their rhythm. It’s pretty reasonable at $40 (heck that’s pretty cheap for a whistle!) A free trial version is available at Roni Music I think there are both windows and Mac versions. You’ll need a cd-rom that does digital audio extraction, but just about all modern ones do. Oh, and you’ll need a soundcard too.
Cheers,
Rey