Music transcription software for Windows
SlowBird runs on Windows 10 or later. 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, and keep every passage you are learning as a named note that is still there at the next practice session.
Free 7-day trial · Windows 10 or later · one licence covers Mac and PC
What you get
Variable-speed playback from a quarter of speed up to double with the pitch untouched, and transposition that leaves the tempo alone. Seamless loops you set by dragging on the waveform. A searchable library of your solos that remembers each track's speed, pitch, loops and notes. A five-band EQ, channel isolation for old hard-panned records, and a pitch heat map for the chord you cannot place. And recording: capture whatever your PC is playing straight into the library, with no drivers or extra software. The same app, the same ideas, on either platform. Read the detail on slowing down, looping and notes.
One licence, both platforms
Try SlowBird free for 7 days, no card needed, then buy it once for both platforms: a licence covers two computers, Mac or Windows in any mix, so a Mac at home and a PC at the studio is one purchase, not two. Your library lives on each machine in its own folder. Nothing syncs anywhere, and nothing is sent about what you play.
Questions Windows users ask
How do I slow down a song on Windows without changing the pitch?
Open the song in SlowBird (an MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, or an MP4 or MOV video), then drag the speed down, anywhere from 25% to 200%. The pitch stays where it was. Drag across the waveform to loop the bars you are learning.
Can SlowBird play videos on Windows?
Yes. Open an MP4 or MOV, or paste a link to a video, and the picture plays over the waveform in time with the music, at any speed and round the loop. Press V to hide it.
Is there an Amazing Slow Downer alternative for Windows?
SlowBird does the same core job on Windows: slow down without changing key, transpose, loop. It also keeps your work, saving the passages you are learning as named notes. It is £19.99 / $25 once for Mac and Windows together, against $49.99 for Amazing Slow Downer’s desktop version. There is a side-by-side comparison.
Coming from Transcribe!?
Transcribe! by Seventh String has run on Windows since 1998 and does more than SlowBird does: chord guessing, foot pedals, a spectrum view. SlowBird does the core ear-learning workflow with a built-in library and saved passages, in an interface you do not need a manual for. There is a fair, factual comparison if you are weighing the two.