I hope this is an acceptable forum for my question. I've heard that there are devices which can play tapes (I guess) at half speed but maintain the correct pitch. I've asked at Guitar Center and a number of music stores, but they said that they didn't have anything like that. Can anyone give me any information?

While I'm on this topic, I also wanted to ask if there is any REALLY EASY-TO-USE software that can help me slow down solos so I can hear exactly what is being played? WHat I mean by easy to use is something that doesn't require lots of crazy equipment. Just something relatively basic.

Thanks

I use my Korg pandora effects processor to slow things down. A lot of effects processors come with built-in features that do this.

Get your computer to do this.
Almost any audio editor can do it, e.g. Cool Edit Pro.
Or use transcribing tools like Musician's CD Player.
I've gotten the best results with Prosoniq's TimeFactory (but it's a quite high-priced pro app).

www.sharewaremusicmachine.com is a great audio portal.

Go here...


http://www.winamp.com/plugins/detail.jhtml?componentId=38634&componentFlag=P

It's a plugin for winamp that does it.

Flea Claydirnt,

Thanks for the link. It worked great on the mp3's that I already had on my computer. How would I go about using this on a regular CD or something I have on Napster?

Also for anyone interested, I answered my own question. I looked all over and managed to stumble upon this website.

http://www.reedkotler.com/Products/TR-400/tr-400.html

I can't wait to actually get this thing and be able to slow down Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Oteil Burbridge, Jimmy Herring and so many more players. Their solos contain volumes of information, but most of them are too fast and outside for me to hear clearly. (not to mention the range is higher than my bass!)

Use RealJukebox to rip the tracks off your CD's and encode them in mp3 format. The free version only allows you to convert to 96 kbps but that fine for your application.

Heres a link to it....

http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227895-7-2000112.html?tag=st.int.3814-7-1995102.txt.6306-7-2000112

Check out SLOW GOLD II. You can slow any song down to a crawl if needed. (Way below half speed) without altering the pitch. It also allows you to create loops which makes learning very difficult passages much easier. I've found it to be a very useful tool for transcription. They used to offer a free demo download, but I'm not sure anymore. www.worldwidewoodshed.com.