BPMinus

Many people learn how to play new songs by simply listening to them. Because some of them are difficult to learn, you will find yourself clicking the same area on the progress bar over and over again. There are passages which are just too fast or too complex and it is difficult to hear everything in one second or less. This will not be a problem for BPMinus. It is basically an audio player, but if offers some extra tools which make it possible to study any fragment in an audio track, no matter how short it may be.

Downloading the 4.74 Mb kit will not be a challenge, but installing the software may take a bit longer than expected. If you do not have certain prerequisites, like MS .NET Framework 4.0, you will have to install them. Fortunately, the setup wizard will automatically detect if you need any additional tools or services and it will start installing them on its own.

Making use of the interface will seem familiar. It may not look like other media players, such as WinAmp, but you can find the same type of functions. Multiple files can be loaded in one run by dragging and dropping them over a playlist on the lower area of the interface. In a second list, in the same area, you may create and manage more than one playlist just like creating new folders in a tree menu.

During the playback, you can change the track's tempo and pitch with two sliders, found in a column, on the right edge of the window. Here you can also find options for playing a certain fragment in a loop. This requires marking the start and stop positions of the fragments by typing their corresponding times in two separate dialog boxes. Alternatively, the segment can be marked by clicking and dragging with your mouse cursor over the track's sound wave, displayed over the playlist. While playing the selected segment repeatedly, the tempo or pitch adjustments will remain the same.

Advanced options, like enabling smoothing or selecting quality levels, can be accessed from the Options menu. The loop or the entire audio track can be saved in MP3, WMA or AAC format, so the software can be used as a converter as well.