[Macworld.com]

A fleet-of-foot reader seeks an easy-to-use method for changing the pitch and tempo of her audio tracks. I help. [more]

[Tau_Myx]

Doesn't GarageBand do all this?

[Chris Breen]

No.

[Adwiz]

I create music complications (of legally owned music only) for dance teaching situations as well and found Audio Slow Downer to be an exceptional resource. But it would be nice to know if there are any "live" programs out there that can also do this without having to save the files and then burn them to a CD. ASD can certainly be used on the fly but that's not what it's really meant for and it becomes a bit cumbersome that way. So, it would be nice to know about any DJ-type applications that would allow you to set different tempo speeds for songs in a sequence, kind of like iTune's party mix mode.

[tritone]

I can recommend Transcribe!
It is meant as an aid in transcribing audio music files into notation, and serves that need extremely well. It can slow down without changing pitch and also alter pitch. I'm not sure if it can save to an audio file. I always use it real-time.

[GordianKnot]

Don't forget about what QuickTime player can do: under AV Controls you can pitch-shift and alter the playback speed, as well.
best,
Sean

[Chris Breen]

QuickTime: True, but the pitch settings don't stick when you save the file (or, at least, they don't on my Mac).

[edenwaith]

ASD - Decent program, but too pricey for what it does.
Transcribe! - Horrid interface. Sound quality was decent though.
Audacity - Tried at one time, but don't remember being overly impressed with it at the time.
Stay tuned for a new competitor in this niche. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Luqui80]

I like using Disco at our dance studio. It's a great program that integrates iTunes playlists so it makes music easy to find. It slows down the pitch temporarily while playing the song.
To slow down songs permanently without changing the pitch and make necessary changes I use Sound Studio. It is a simple to use program with some tools that make it very useful. I use it to make very small changes, but it is very versatile and I'm sure you could do a lot more with it then I do. Give these a try. I think you'll like them.
BTW - You do have to pay for them but they are pretty cheap. Definitely worth the price.

[vsmith1]

You have not mentioned the main app - Ableton Live. This has had the ability to alter the tempo of both MIDI and audio clips with a variety of algorithms. Yes, it is expensive compared to ASD, but Live is a fully functional DAW and provides software instruments, and is robust and stable. If you buy an audio interface, you will often get a cut down version of Live free with it.
There is also a demo version you can download from Ableton
Vince