What software is being used to manipulate music for the purpose of slowing it down (without altering the pitch) and transcribing it, and what options do each have? I have never purchased any software and think that it is about time. So opinions about the benefits and detractions are appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Neil
For the purpose of transcribing, what works best for me is to simply change the sample rate from 44khz to 22 or 11. When I do that, the pitch drops an octave (or two). I find this to be an advantage – to me it’s easier to hear, and also, a lot of the things you probably don’t want to transcribe get so low they’re hard to hear.
I use Adobe Audition, and it’s pretty good, but for the purpose of transcribing (with my method), Audacity would work just as well, and it’s free.
I’ve tried a number of software and hardware solutions for slowing down while maintaing pitch, and they all produce a lot of jitters in the sound. I’d rather have a clean sound (so I can hear the deatils) an octave lower than a messy sound at pitch.
You might want to check out this post started by Michael Eskin in the Trad Music Forum:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/how-i-learn-tunes-by-ear/55472/1
I thought it was very informative and provided a decent range of feedback on a few different software packages.
I use Logic Pro 9. Works great.
May not be the cheapest solution you seek though! 
Jon
Logic Pro is a ridiculous suggestion. That’s a professional DAW (digital audio workstation) and shouldn’t be considered. It’s like recommending an earth mover to bring in 1 bag of eggs!
Personally, I like the “Amazng Slow Downer,” and have used it for thousands (ugh) of transcriptions. It works for me.
Try audacity first - it’s free, multiplatform, and reasonably well supported. It’s also not radically different from other solutions in terms of interface so time spent getting to know it is probably not wasted. It’s what I use for pretty much everything. Be aware that a few versions have omitted the timeshift slider, so if the version you download doesn’t seem to support slowdown without pitch shift, poke around for one that does - it’s out there.
If you don’t like the results you could try something like ASD before resorting to expensive professional solutions - unless your intent is professional in nature, or your needs are very complex. Your original question was pretty open-ended, but I’m assuming that what you expect to do is slow music down without pitch-shifting, in order to do manual transcriptions. If you are looking for “automatic transcription”, there may be some packages with rudimentary capability but you’re talking big bucks then, with less-than-perfect results.
Thanks for all the suggestions! All that trial and error experience will hopefully save me time, money and aggravation.
Neil
I am a huge advocate for Transcribe by Seventh String software, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I’ve been using it nearly every day for probably 10 years as my primary practice aid. I have no involvement with them other than being a huge fan of their program:
Here’s a couple of videos I put together showing it in use:
You can download a free 30-day eval copy from their site.
Cheers,
Michael
The OP wasn’t asking (directly) for recommendations, they just asked “What software is being used to manipulate music for the purpose of slowing it down (without altering the pitch) and transcribing it, and what options do each have?”
I just mentioned what I’m using at the moment. I’ve used Audacity and ASD in the past. I use Logic now.
Jon
Whether you use audacity or transcribe or other program, do any of them limit you to a format (i.e. MP3), or can you use itunes or a physical cd to select a tune?
Thanks and my apologies for my ignorance.
Neil
Michael, this is particularly helpful. Thanks.
Neil
If you are wanting to ‘transcribe’ i.e, have the program convert a music file into visual notation for printing out, then as far as I know, audacity won’t do that.
If you want to ‘transpose’, i.e, change the pitch/key of the music file, then yes, audacity is a good thing.
Cheers,
DavidG
Hi There, I think you can slow the music down without altering the pitch using the latest version of windows media player.
All the best
Your question is a little open-ended so the answer may be as well…
Generally you will want to start with the tune you’re interested in as a separate audio file. You’re not likely to find any kind of itunes integration - you may find it difficult if you’re dealing with old iTunes stuff with DRM included (or for that matter any kind of encrypted or copy-protected material).
What this means is that you need to get a copy of your audio “out” of the CD or iTunes (if it’s not already an MP3 - nowadays most are). This is not difficult in itself - there are countless ways to “rip” CDs into audio files (mp3 or uncompressed audio files). Most iTunes installations nowadays already store music as mp3 - not being a regular iTunes user I can’t give specifics on finding the audio files on your system, but they are probably there.
Audacity can read and write mp3, WAV, etc. as can virtually all such programs. The process will be similar no matter what software you use. Basically any audio file that would be playable on a non-Apple/DRM mp3 player, or which could be shared with another user, should work.
Bill
QuickTime will let you slow things down without altering the pitch, though it’s very basic (only goes down to half speed) and AFAIK, you can’t save the output (I suppose you could if you were clever about being able to record internally via Audacity, etc.) but I’ve found it helpful for quickly “field dressing” a recording.
I don’t know for Windows, but on a Mac, you just open the player, select “Show A/V Controls” from under the “Window” menu, play your mp3 and adjust the slider to the speed you want. I personally like the 3x Original Speed mode – yeah, that’s helpful! 
You could try looking for audio to midi conversion software. Finale will do this to a limited degree. There are other programs out there that have more robust audio recognition but include a simpler notation section. This may be your fastest option to get a transcription from an audio file. Download.com had some interesting offerings (some even claim to do polyphonic audio files) and investing in something like this would almost certainly provide more bang for your buck than laying down 50 bucks for a program that does what WMP already does for free and still have to manually transcribe it… even at a slower pace.
Most certainly the best beyond all others. My husband has also used it for loads of songs/tunes. There is a free trial but that will only let you play the first two tracks of a CD or the first 2? mins of an audio file but that is enough to get you hooked. He has gone on to purchase the full product. It’s by far the best product he has bought to aid learning.
It’s so easy to use too.
How do you compare it to Transcribe, then, and why do you find it better?