Music transcription software for Windows

Straight answer first: SlowBird for Windows is in development and is not ready to download yet. Rather than let you find that out after installing something, this page says so up front — and tells you exactly what is coming, so you can judge whether it is worth waiting for.

What SlowBird does

It is a player built for working music out by ear. Slow a recording down to a speed you can actually hear without dragging it out of key; loop the two bars that keep beating you, seamlessly, for as long as it takes; and keep every passage you are learning as a named note that is still there, still looped, at the next practice session. There is a searchable library of your solos, a five-band EQ, channel isolation for old hard-panned records, and a pitch heat map for the chord you cannot place.

All of that exists and works today — on macOS. The Windows version is the same idea, rebuilt properly for Windows rather than wrapped in a web view.

Why it is not out yet

The parts that make SlowBird worth using are the parts that do not port for free. Time-stretching that keeps a fast line articulate, loops with a seam you cannot hear, and a waveform that stays responsive while you drag it are all built against a specific audio stack. Doing that badly on Windows would be worse than not doing it at all, so it is being done properly.

If you are on Windows today

Two honest options. If you have a Mac available, SlowBird runs on macOS 14 or later right now. If you do not, Transcribe! by Seventh String has run on Windows since 1998, does more than SlowBird does, and is the tool this niche has trusted for a quarter of a century — we would rather point you at it than have you wait on something that is not finished.

Check back, or watch the main page — when the Windows build is ready it will be announced there first.

macOS 14 or later today · Windows in development