Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I have seen on occasion PC programs or machines that slow down music so you can hear faster solos at a slower speed. Is there any good ones available? If so what are they. Also please tell me if you have some that are crap and you would advise not getting them.

Thanks

Google "Audacity" and download it.
Open the file using that program and change speed to 1/2 or something like that. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.

No it shouldn't change the pitch. There's Change Pitch, Change Tempo and Change Speed.
One of em does the trick. Could be the Tempo one. Either way. If you mess up, hit Undo.

Another program for geeetarists is Guitar Pro. It does that fairly easily along with tabs, musical sheets, etc.

I have been using audacity yet have had no need of those features.
See now I will have to play with it just for kicks.
Thanks a lot guys.

http://www.wikihow.com/Figure-out-a-Song-by-Ear

Squatchy,

Here is a link that you may find helpful on the subject of working out licks.

I worked out many songs and complex licks from phonograph records for many years. Many gizmos have been made available for this purpose over the years. I recall a cassette tape device made by Marantz that would slow down songs but keep them in pitch.
As stated in the advice in the link, the best way to work out stuff is to develop your "workin' out skills"
Sorry I can't be of any more help, but I'm sure you will find something to help you out if you think you really need it.

good luck
Howlin'

I used to use my turntable, or my cassette tape
the best is free, use winamp and get a plug in called "slow me down"
it slows it down to better than half speed, and keeps the pitch. it also has another slider that changes the pitch slightly so you can match your guitar. this helps you learn EVH or malmsteen solos, and you can hear every note, and every mistake that they let go.
I have been using it for years.

All the Sony Acid programs have speed and pitch comtrols.

I have a Tascam guitar trainer. It is great for slowing down a fast solo. You plug your guitar into it and hear the slowed down section in your earphones along with your guitar. It has basic effects as well as a looper.

http://www.tascam.com/products/cd-gt2.html

+1 on the tascam, and I use AudioLobe for my Mac.

I use Transcribe!

It's a computer program, about $50. You can slow down to around 10%? I can't remember exactly, but it's more than 50% and it doesn't change the pitch. However, when you slow a song waaaay down, even without pitch changes, it gets real difficult to hear what's going on, usually because of all the drums and cymbal splashes, etc.

I don't use Transcribe! nearly as much as I use Guitar Pro though. If you can get a good tab to a song, Guitar Pro is a much better tool for learning fast solos and difficult passages because it doesn't just slow down by percentage. It lets you slow down by beat (like changing a song from 124 bpm to 50 bpm ). The best part is the Speed Trainer. You can highlight a section of a song and activate the looping mechanism. Choose "Speed Trainer" instead of a regular loop. You then choose a low bpm and a high bpm , and the amount of bpm you want to increase each loop. So I can loop a solo and start at say 70 bpm and work my way up to 120 bpm, in 2 bpm increase increments. It's a great way to build things up.

The trick, of course, is getting a good tab. Not everyone is accurate. And some songs don't come with the parts I want (like right now, I can't get a complete transcription to Alter Bridge's "Brand New Start" - the two or three tabs on Ultimate-Guitar.com don't have the solo, which is the part I need to learn).

I also use the Tascam bass trainer. You load the mp3 files you want to practice, plug in and go! You can loop the solos and change the tempo without changing the pitch. Best $150.00 I ever spent. (oh yeah, there was that one hooker in Cleveland)

I use the Tascam Bass Trainer. It is pretty good as long as you don't try to slow the music down too much as it will then become choppy. I rarely use this feature, however, as it has a looper that allows me to replay sections over and over and over again. This, I have found, gives me better results in a shorter time when trying to figure out a bass line.

Nice little tool that has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, allows for over 200 mp3s to be placed on the hard drive, has some mediocre effects available, can be played through headphones or you can plug it into an amp that has inputs for such a device. The one gripe I have is that it does not give enough volume through the headphones. The work around is that I plug the Bass Trainer into my amp and then run the headphones through the amp. Problem solved.

I use a program called "Slow Gold". It is available from a company called Worldwide woodshed. You can download it on the net. You can download a trial version to see if you like it before you buy. Just google slow gold and you will be able to find it. It works very well.

All of the programs above are great, however, I suggest a couple hits of White Cross and you won't need to slow it down and you will have fun learning the new riff.