I'm impressed by the quality with which ASD is able to manipulate pitch and speed. Of all the programs I've used, the sound quality on ASD is one of the best.

From a user interface standpoint, ASD is nothing short of an attack on everything that is good and decent in the world. The UI is an unmitigated disaster. I honestly can't imagine how it could be much worse. For this, they have taken quite a bit of criticism over the years, and rightfully so. Someone at Roni must really love it though because they've had the same horrible turd of an interface now for years.

The mind reels at how much more money they would make with a decent interface, and if they'd sell ASD as an AU and/or VST plug-in.

The folks at Roni are geniuses in pitch manipulation and complete retards otherwise. Please, guys, PLEASE come into the 21st century!

Developer: I would like to lend my voice to previous reviewers' calls for a major interface upgrade. There should be some way to access the iTunes playlists from within the program. Secondly, the windows should be resizable; in the sense of having corners that can be dragged. Furthermore, there is no way to search within larger playlist. Overall, there is way to much clutter and it doesn't feel Mac-like whatsoever. Unfortunately, since I feel that I am constantly fighting with the interface it kills the user experience for me. Like the last reviewer, I see the program being actively updated without the UI problems being addressed. On a positive note, the program is second to none at its primary purpose of slowing the track down and changing pitch. Developer, please do something. I am trying very hard to love this program.

Another musicians comment.

Quicktime can't do what ASD can do. It's just not as easy to loop, have presets and so on. There's no Slow down types in Quicktime. This program is meant for TRANSCRIBING. (An art that most musicians don't do alot of these days... for some reason.)

You can also practice along a section of a tune by looping a section at frame accurate resolution. This means that you can loop a section and nudge the start and end points just right so you can practice a section along with it in perfect time. As it loops back to the start point you can adjust it so it's in complete time so you don't break the flow of the pulse. If you don't know what I'm talking about pick up an instrument and try practicing a section looping in quicktime. Good Luck.

In ASD, you can speed it up bit by bit without having to render it. Or try speeding it up in quicktime. Good luck since the slider is small and jumps in huge increments.

Amadeus is NOT a TRANSCRIBING tool. Nowhere on the website does it say that Amadeus is great for transcribing. Thats because it's not. It specifically says "Amadeus Pro is a powerful multitrack audio editor...". ASD is NOT multitrack audio editor because it's not supposed to be.

In actuality I shouldn't be comparing Quicktime with Amadeus with ASD because these three apps are in three different categories. If anything you should have all three of these pieces of software.

Quicktime to pull the audio from a movie , Amadeus to edit out dialog and keep only the score, and ASD to transcribe the score easily.

ASD is a musicians tool made to do musicians things. This is NOT a tool to make cool effects or to edit out a sax solo. It's supposed to help you hear sax solo at various tempos.

Try transcribing "Koko" or "Shaw Nuff" by Charlie Parker (if you know who he is) and you'll quickly realize that Quicktime, and Amadeus don't cut it... because they weren't meant to do what ASD was meant to do.

another professional musician's opinion here. this program has been my constant secret-weapon in prepping for auditions. nothing matches it's power or features.

i've said this before. the interface really needs a LOT of Mac OS X modernization. i wish the developer would spend some time on it or partner with someone who would.

Can't take any software that is over priced and also doesn't work. I thought this newer version was going to be better. No, it isn't. It doesn't work in my G4 anyway. Other than TimeStreach, if you have QuickTime Pro, you can go to menu bar/window/AV control, then you can do everything exactly as this software can do. You can pause the music and slide the control back to find your note instantly. If you have paid for QuickTime Pro already, why bother to pay for something else again to do the same thing you already have paid.

That's the way I see it!!!

BTW, Amadeus doesn't do the same thing.