Testimonials

Love it, helps in all as you mentioned.I use it for practice, learning new songs,i enjoy the chord finder, helps quicken my learning.I slow it down for lead, and just go over and over a song with your chords, and improvise from there, like two guitars.
All is good thank you.

Very, very handy program. Use Song Surgeon quite often.

For a beginner trying to learn a song, without the singing, this program is indispensable. Even for intermediate or advanced players of instruments ( not just guitarists), this is a brilliant piece of programming. Congratulations to all the programmers and those involved.
Everyone, go and get it!

Learn from the best (ie: your favorite musicians). Song Surgeon is an audio microscope that facilitates precise examination of those delicious musical details that otherwise fly by in a blur. Then, through repetition and gradual speed increases, what was previously inaccessible becomes integrated as freshly minted skill. I love this product!

I am sure that the product is very good but I cannot use it

I play for my own enjoyment and haven’t used it near enough to comment on all the features but I am happy to have signed up.

Learn from the best (ie: your favorite musicians). Song Surgeon is an audio microscope that allows precise examination of those delicious musical details that otherwise fly by in a blur. Then, through repetition and gradual speed increases, what was previously inaccessible becomes integrated as newly minted skill. I love this product!

Just a great tool for learning

Does what it says, very simple and easy to use

Me and Layne Staleys mom. Circa, 2019.

Song Surgeon has all the features I need to Analyse, Transcribe and Transpose Songs.

… but I am a beginner without a music education or background. I like what I can do with SS but I don’t know enough to take advantage of the possibilities. Yet.

I plan the music for the Sunday services at my small Anglican (Episcopal) church in Ajijic Mexico. We are small and cannot afford a keyboard player, if there were even any to be had. As so often happens, the hymns in the hymnal are really meant for choral singing and are most often in a key that is too high for most of the parishioners to sing. I can alter the tempo and transpose, cut verses, add verses and many other things that I have yet to explore. I have been out of the country dealing with family emergencies for the last 2 months. I look forward to exploring the program and learning all it is capable of.

Performs very well, as advertised. My only issue is that it sometimes crashes my computer. Admittedly, my computer is old.

So many options to customize the playback, really like the looper. Would like to see ability to use music files not owned and to display notes or tabs for lead guitar.

I use it primarily (pretty well solely!) for the slow down feature. Have had earlier versions but lost them due to computer crashes, which is why I repurchased a few months ago.

I really never have the time to play around with all of the other features. If they are as good as the slow down feature, I would certainly recommend them!

Great bit of kit once you get used to how it works. Simplifies learning licks, riffs & songs. Previously just used the speed function in you tube. SS does so much more. Heartily recommend.

Works very well on slowing music down to hear exactly guitar leads to certain songs.... all well as many other features .. I had Riffstation before but Song Surgeon is much better

Absolutely amazing!!! I’m going to look into your new level 3 Pro Song Suegeon update

I love Riffstation, best app for me and initially I was lost without it. Thanks Gibson!

Took me a long time to find a replacement, which eventually was Song Surgeon, and once I did download it, it took me quite a while to get my head around it, but fully working now.

I am not able to open music downloaded from my Apple Music account, I have to purchase a version before SS is able to open it.

I still believe Riffstation was an enormous loss to musicians, but SS5 is a pretty good replacement.

Thank you

Great product

Bought it in Texas. My wife got sick. Travelled back to Canada.
Loaded the software but have not used it yet since I did not look at any videos.
Will try after my wife starts Chimo and we can establish a routine

I want to make backing tracks
for guitar and remove the lead guitar part - is that possible ?

I use song surgeon for adjusting temp and key, I have used others but they distort, making it difficult, thank you for providing something I can use confidently

I love the software, but occasionally the software crashes with no warning. It just closes itself out. You have to relaunch it but lose any unsaved info. I’m using a MacBook.

Perfect practice makes perfect. Song Surgeon is a great tool in achieving this goal, by virtue of the fact that it enables you to change both the key and the tempo of a song.

Started using Songsurgeon a few months ago and love it. Easy to use and does everything I need it to do

This program does about everything you could want. It takes a little while to learn but it has great learning videos to get you going.

The Pros...
Very responsive product support

Very effective EQ for instrument isolation.

Much more versatile than competitors for detailed analysis

The Cons...
The metronome does not follow the actual rhythm of a song (like Riffstation), but merely follows a constant BPM at detected upon startup.

Programming back-to-back (contiguous)loops very difficult.

SS does not automatically identify measures (i.e., bar lines)or bar numbers.

I am a beginner and a slow learner and this software is very helpful, I particularly like the slow downer and the loop function, I am still not the greatest at using the loop yet , Wish that I would have gotten the deluxe so that I would be able to use the metronome.
Thanks for a product that helps a older slow learner be able to begin learning songs, something that I have wanted to do for some time now.
Thanks

The product does what it claims to do, and the company backs it up with outstanding support. Communication is timely and professional.

great for changing key of my accompaniment tracks

I noticed that after I slow down a tempo of a song that the Fidelty of the song drops ! it becomes more "muffeled" . Any reason and or fix ?
Thanks

About time a great product like this has arrived.

Good product. Great for working chords and changing key lots more too. Excellent

Can't wait to see the piano chords availability in the next release.

Song Surgeon is an amazing teaching aid whether learning new songs for the band or individual songs for students to use, Song Surgeon is easy to use and has slow down features and a host of other features.

I started with version 3 and renewed earlier this year (2021) to current version. The improvement in the algorithm is discernable and better.

An indispensable tool. Makes learning solos so much easier, especially playing in a cover band that prefers note for note. They don't always get what they want. Been playing rock since the 70s, and the Song Surgeon program sure beats wearing out a record to learn the riffs..The kids today have no idea of what the old generation had to go through to learn songs. Song Surgeon sure simplifies things.

I PARTICULARLY LIKE THE GUY WHO OWNS/MANAGES/INVENTED THIS SOFTWARE. HE'S HONEST, AND VERY DETERMINED TO GIVE HIS CUSTOMERS WHART THEY NEED. CHEERS

Absolutely amazing!!! I’m going to look into your new level 3 Pro Song Suegeon update

Awesome product.

Incredible product so fast in the process of learning a song absolutely brilliant

I've found this a really useful tool for learning difficult tracks with no tabs or notation present on the internet. It is great being able to slow down tracks and filter the frequency of vocals or bass etc.
The only real oddities I've found are
The BPM doesn't always seem to be accurate e.g introduce a track that was 100bmp and reduce it to 80 on the software makes it slower than 80, it seems inaccurate at times.
The chord discovery is good but tends to be generalized across large section of small variations, and tends to only define major, minor or dominant tonality.
Otherwise the tendency to be a little sluggish in terms of file management is the only other slight bug bear.

Excellent Software, very detailed and very easy and clear instructions

A useful piece of software. Would be nice if it could integrate with Apple Music. I typically use it in conjunction with Surgeon 3 to pull songs from YouTube.

Provides a quick double-check as to what the perceived/published chords are. Loop function is valuable for noodling out those difficult riffs and solos

Even though I purchased complete product I cannot for the life of me learn how to strip lead vocals from my tracks!

[Admin] - Stripping vocals is done using the VRII Tool. Customers get free access to this tool. It can be found here:

https://songsurgeon.com/vocal_removal_tool/

15 years ago I produced over 200 Midi file song backings.
Used an old Yamaha V50 keyboard. Full midi works, i.e. varied drum instruments all created individually,. For posterity I sang on 30 odd of those recordings.
Since then I lost all Yam V50 midi information, except for these 30 odd recorded MP3 songs, including some medleys I really wanted to keep and use somehow.
Along came James Todd, to the rescue. With his way of stripping the voice out I have now the medleys I wanted so badly.
The preserved backing sounds are superb.

Thank you James and your team!!

Regards
Robert van Eekeres

Hi James,
I'm sure this is a great product; however, I'm sort of a technological retard, so I have just figured out how to load songs into Song Surgeon. And I am able to slow down the songs, so that I can track the drum parts more easily. However, this is what I cannot do: I can't figure out how to turn up the drums in a song, while keeping the other instruments at a lower volume. This is frustrating because my drum teacher wants me to exactly map out what the drummer is doing, so I need to be able to hear the drums more clearly, and headphones don't help enough. Can Song Surgeon help me with this issue?
Thanks, Anthony

Hi Todd. Your removal tool is the best !

My group sings with tracks and has used Song Surgeon for years to change keys. I sometimes can not find performance tracks for some songs. With Song Surgeon Pro 5, I can buy the song, go to Song Surgeon Vocal removal page, remove the vocals and now I have a performance track. It's not perfect but good enough for the small venues we do. Highly recommend this product.

I sing with tracks and have used Song Surgeon for years to change keys. I often cannot find accompaniment tracks for some songs. With Song Surgeon Pro 5, I can buy the song and use the vocal removal web page to have an accompaniment track.It is not perfect but good enough for the small churches and venues that I do. I highly recommend this product!

singing and making beats

My needs are simple. I will probably never use all the functions of the program but I recognise how useful it would be to a more dedicated musician. That said I have found it very useful for slowing down audio files when learning a new piece, albeit relatively simple banjo tunes. I am particularly impressed by the way that program maintains the pitch even under very slow playback far superior to other programmes that I have tried.

Been to busy to really sit down and really use, but so far A O K. Seems easy to use and covers everything one needs to learn songs.

Thanks

Still getting aquainted with the program & it's many features. Loving the VR tool as well as the ability to go in & accent different parts of the song. This is a very useful tool. Would like to print out chord sheets in a more "music style" view, probably in there just haven't met it yet. Thanks for your product.

I am a professional vocalist using backing tracks. In the past when I needed to change the key of a song, the new key was often distorted and not useable when changed. By using this amazing product, I have significantly increased my number of usable songs! Thank you for this user friendly and intuitive product! I could be your biggest fan!

I haven't had a chance to fully explore the capabilities of this program but what I've experienced so far with my limited use has been positive and hopefully will have more time in the future to delve deeper into the program.

It makes it easy to dissect a piece and work on it. It is a great tool.

Hello. I have been unable to provide feedback because after getting off to a fine start using Song Surgeon I have been distracted by other matters. I look forward to returning to SS and music pronto.

I've used Amazing Slow Downer for many years. That is a really good program, but Song Surgeon is in another league. The ability to create multiple loops within a song clip, and the feature of the program identifying the chords --- these are the main reasons I'm so pleased with Song Surgeon.

What a great piece of software. I find myself using it more and more.
Favourite features are slowing down and repeating sections and chord identification.

I would like the timeline to show beats and bars.

This is an excellent tool and I have just begun using it. My only problem is that I’m running in on a Mac in my Den and have a PC where I’ve set up my music area, so I’m not using it as much as I could. Having to different platforms is a problem but just have to deal with it I guess.

But it’s a great program.

I use the Song Surgeon to practice chord changes and some lead playing. It's a good application software that allows most musician's to excel quickly .t have not used it yet. I use Song Surgeon in conjunction with Ableton DAW studio recording software. As I go forward I will surely investigate Song Surgeons full capability.

My issue is not being able to reposition the White (0.00) vertical start line. I understand the use of the scroll on/off switch. But, I would like to be able to relocate it further left. Refer to the manual page #10 figure #9. This shows how my display appears after loading an Mp3 music file. I want to see more of the waveform (view length) as it starts playing. Maybe this function is not available, okay I can work with that.
Also there is a application that is only available on the Song Surgeon website that allow users to upload a file and have it dissect separately the vocals, and/or instruments and give back three individual file elements of the song uploaded. I would like to see it as a complementary downloadable application.

Great product.
My only suggestion would be to have an easier, downloadable user manual.

Excellent tool and good interface : thank you Mr. Todd! Best regards, David

Riffmaster on steroids.

Song Surgeon is a tool I use every day. Song Surgeon along with Video Surgeon allows me to continuously expand my repertoire of tunes and skills. Song Surgeon has many features adding to the enjoyment of musical production. Slowing down music, looping and instrument audio reduction really assist in perfecting tunes and skills. Love it! Dr Ray Havlicek

Ottimo software, ben sviluppato.
Intuitivo e veloce.

First things first. The SS support staff is pretty much perfect. Best help anywhere. The program itself is easy to use (the training videos are very helpful). I would like to see larger Chord Bubbles as my sight is not great any more. And I really don't need the sound waves showing at all. The chords should be a little more accurate (but we are cautioned about that) I'd also like to have the songs load and decode faster. Riffstation was very quick with that. All said... definitely worth the money. Way more useful features than Riffstation; just different. So it's just like getting used to any new program.

Really happy with this software program. It has stepped up my practice sessions and has helped me play along with songs.

I've been using Song Surgeon for a while now and it really helped me create far better Guitar Pro transcriptions.

There's parts I never would've been able to pick apart if it wasn't for Song Surgeon's combination of slowing the tempo, retaining the pitch, bumping some frequencies and indicating the chord value.

Absolutely worth every penny for me.

Love all the features that come with this software! it lets toy do things that would other wise be most difficult to say the least. Thanks for your efforts in producing a fine and useful learning tool.

I am choirmaster for our local church choir. I often have to transpose music backing tracks or speed music up or slow down. Song Surgeon is the best software by far for this. Top marks!

Versatile and user friendly.

The SS tool I wish would generate the music score given the song key and tempo at the minimum. For single-note playing instruments generating the score to play along with the music and being able to mute certain voices within the playback would greatly aid one's learning.

Another music theory tools for learning is a graphical -built-in- tool would be cord progression mapping tool. When MT learning chord progression for different genres is very illuminating.

I love SS. I have been using it several years. Without it I could not do the vocals on some of my very favorite songs due to key limitations. Also extending/shortening, editing instrumental parts and beginnings and endings, making medleys etc.

I do wish you we could change key for dynamics mid song. And wish the zoom would stay where I set it till I change it.

But overall, great product. Will need to test instrument removal as only Karaoke Version does that satisfactory as it literally allows removal of the instrument track ...at additional 1/3 cost.

I have been using Song Surgeon 5 for a couple of years but have used the new instrument removal tool for the first time today and I was totally blown away by the level of separation achieved. I have been trying to master the guitar part to one of my favourite songs - "Time for the Leaving" by Magna Carta and having removed the guitar and played this separately it is like having a solo version. Add this to the tempo change, loop and other features of Song Surgeon and I can finally identify all the "twiddly" bits! Great job and many thanks for a superb product.

I use Song Surgeon predominately for adjusting pitch and tempo of recordings. I am a Church Minister and this helps me create better accompaniments for congregational singing (when we are allowed to sing in worship again).

I used this for high harmony backup vocals. The key changer is awesome!

1. Song transposition to other keys for singing
2. Cleaning my voice recordings from unwanted mic picked up noises
3. Volume adjusting on some of my recordings. I miss a normalize feature here
4. Writing a fake book (chords and bars) to document the songs we play. Here I haven´t been able to send the chords to Musescore with I normally use as my writing staff sw.

Very useful for my work in the band a with my students

A well designed app that provides all of the functionality I need and much more that I have yet to investigate. Keep up the good work!

- very good and useful product
- easy to use
- improvements could include:
1. better voice/instrument separation
2. more accurate chord detection
3. it would be nice if the melody/riff notes could be displayed

Song Surgeon is an awesome product. I use it along with Download Surgeon to learn new songs. BTW, I love the vocal removal tool. I am totally amazed at how well this works.

I have to say that Song Surgeon is so useful for learning the chords for new songs, for changing keys, and for practicing. So easy just to drop in a recording, see the chords and the key, and play along. Great product.

Excellent product and value. Easy to use and navigate. The 'help' vedios do help. The chord locator alone is worth the price of admission!

enjoy using and playing songs on song surgeon.wow its AMAZING.If you are currently learning music theory it will take you to a higher level quickly.

Useful app but could be better-behaved as a Mac app. For example file associations don’t work properly.

Recently bought a new MacBookPro, and soon after, I also purchased the upgrade to Song Surgeon a month or so ago. I have not used the new version much yet.

Thanks for providing the 'fix' for the Mac OS upgrade to 'Big Sur' although when I updated the laptop to this latest Mac update, it opened Song Surgeon correctly. So far so good.

Sadly, the pandemic has been a bit of a dampener on teaching in general, but when we get back to some more normal procedures...in person lessons mostly...I am sure I will be making more use of this very useful product that I have used for almost a decade now.

Kind regards,
Mike McGreevy

I like the ease of operation.

I love Song Surgeon because I can take songs that I am learning, cut it into learnable chunks, slow it down to learn, and speed it up to performance speed. I really love the feature that speeds the playback of a selected interval from slow to fast in 5 bpm increments. I am playing up to speed on new songs in half the time I used to take to learn a new song. Of course, that means I can learn more songs. Thank you JT and Song Surgeon.

The best improvement I would like to see would be the addition of Bar lines (and numbers) to help place the chords when transcribing

very good support

Software obviously needs quite a time to understand fully.
My main comment is that the software does not always choose the correct chords. I appreciate that it can be a question of personal taste.
However, it can often display just one chord when clearly I can hear many chord changes in the music. I can understand a chord progression can be simplified or even Jazzed up. Maybe I have missed a setting to do this somewhere within the software.
One thing I do find slightly annoying is that when an 'enharmonic' chord is shown why does it NOT show the obvious choice within a key.
For example: in key of E (4 sharps) it ought to shown chord G#minor but in fact shows Abminor!

I have noticed other software doing the same. It is still annoying.

It would be great if .cda file formats could be imported directly into the program.
Will this be an update in the future because it would be incredibly useful?

I had beeen using Transcribe for many years, but since purchasing SS it's become my go-to software for transcribing. It's easy to use and the quality is very good. so much so, that I have recomended it to fellow musicians who were also using Transcribe

Play guitar for my own enjoyment. Use Song Surgeon to make backing tracks to play in my Boss eBand. Great fun, and speeds up learning.

Maybe I am too old, but I can't figure it out and not much support from app folks.

Thank You very much for this magnificient software. I also bought your Video Surgeon.I wish I had more time to use both.

I purchased Song Surgeon in order to slow down songs and figure out solo's and guitar parts. I also use it to teach beginner lessons. This has been a terrific resource so far. The interface looks a little dated, but the functionality is on point. Glad this software is available.

Great for tempo and pitch changes.

I have had a lot of trouble with the cut and paste. Also not able to paste in sections of music with a different key, so I do tempo and key change with SS- then paste the output file in audicty to cut, add, and reconfigure audio files.

I'm very pleased with this software. Works as advertised.

I'm mainly using SS5 to slow down recorded songs so that I can learn a song or riff more quickly. And it's great for improving my timing as I slow down a song to play along with and then gradually increase playback speed to get back up to 100%.

Song Surgeon 5 has been even more useful than I expected and I can already feel the improvement in my playing. Great fun to use too as I've continued to explore more of its capabilities through watching the many excellent training videos.

I wish I had this software 20 years ago. Its easy to use and very high quality audio.

I used two other tools for breaking down solos and chords. Now that I'm older I find the need to transpose, which I can do manually, as quickly as possible. Song Surgeon allows me to quickly listen to the song in different keys. We are an oldies band and we know old recordings did not have the benefit of tuners. Song Surgeon allows me to quickly tune the recording to standard 440. Setting loop points on my Macbook Pro is easy but adjusting them is tedious. I must hover for a couple seconds over the marker before moving it. Also, after leaving Song Surgeon on for long periods of time it will shut down on its own with no warning. Overall this is THE BEST tool for song training and transposition.

So far I like everything about song surgeon. Only I haven't worked out how to make the fonts a little bigger but no doubt there is something easy somewhere. I'm still learning ....

Perfect software for learning about the keys and chords of already composed music

Song surgeon is a great tool for get your practice in and learningal the great licks and solos from slow to fast.

Song surgeon is a great tool for get your practice in and learningal the great licks and solos from slow to fast.

Song Surgeon, I use this product regularly and find it meets or exceeds my expectations.

Extremely useful program for many utility functions when it comes to song analyses and just plain fun picking apart song parts in general. Mainly used for guitar parts, but useful for integrating piano and guitar parts as well for me.
I think the nature of the program is such that it takes a lot of CPU or processing power overall, so having a really powerful computer helps a-lot! I have found Jim to be quite helpful if you run up against problems or issues regarding program usage.

I had used Tascam Bass trainers for years but they wear out after about 3 years and are now no longer made. I got Song Surgeon because it was the best available option, and even with the price of a small mixing board added in to allow output from my iMac and bass to be mixed together and heard through headphones, it was less money than a BT2. The advantages of Song Surgeon are that you don’t need to put your music on a CD, the chord search function is helpful, though not perfect, the visual display is helpful for selecting the sections of tunes you want to work on, and the scrolling function allows you to see and hear where chord changes are coming up as a song plays. Plus, Song Surgeon should last forever. The only real disadvantage is the lack of portability that Song Surgeon has compared to a BT2. A version compatible with an iPad would be nice.

Great product keep up the good work.

I have a problem reading the Menu bar.
background is too dark.

Song surgeon is a great tool for get your practice in and learningal the great licks and solos from slow to fast.

So far I haven’t been too adventurous with Song Surgeon but it has, satisfactorily, enabled me to decipher a number of songs.

I can transpose a song to a lower key, that works better for my voice, and the vocal on the song still sounds natural, no digital artifacts. And I can turn the volume down on the vocal in the song, so that I can sing the lead, and I still have the professional vocal in the background, for me to sing along with. It’s great practice, and it makes practicing enjoyable.

Seems very difficult to pick up and use this software. Reminds me of cad software I used to use.

Great way to learn new songs and tough licks!

Works well!

Still learning it but so Far East to use and I nice interface.

Could use a Search option for help.
How do I adjust the playback tempo?

Easy to use and excellent tutorials. Bought this along with Video Surgeon and I'm very pleased with both products.

I'd just like to say that I've come to rely on Song Surgeon to the point where playing guitar without it is unimaginable. This software is amazing and getting it was one of the most sensible things that I've ever done. You just can't go wrong getting Song Surgeon.

I'm using the program mainly to slow down passages and to slice and loop bits of them to learn songs and solos. I've barely scratched the surface of the program's capabilities, as far as I can tell, but I'm pleased with the way it works so far. I expect to get deeper into it as time goes by.

Having worked with Riffstation I needed something that would go further to help identify song cords and notes. Song Surgeon is ust the thing I was looking for to get our group to the next level. Now we can get the right key and tempo and use the right cords to get our sound just the way we want it.

I used it a few times to dissect a new song and used the export function

Song Surgeon is ok, especially if you are a rhythm player primarily and have a great ear for learning. the video program is great. Love it. It gives me a chance to learn riffs that are way beyond my level and have a chance for me learn things that would other wise be impossible for me to grasp. I am a visual learner so it is perfect.

Excellent.

1. Adjustable keyboard scrub to speed up from .01 sec. like 2 taps on the arrow key .02 sec., 3 taps .03 sec.

2. On iOS ability to set default sound input and output sources with out changing to internal I/O source. Every time I open SS I have to make sure source is selected or if I want to change sources when SS is open I have to close make change and re-open.

Excellent tool for practicing guitar playing. Especially tempo and transposing functions are very handy.

So easy to use! No more having to tune instruments to match a song’s key signature. Simply choose the key YOU want, click the button and presto! The song is in tune with your instrument!! Love it...
My other favorite feature is the tempo changer. Can’t quite hear what note the guitar player is landing on, or what the singer is saying because the song is too fast? Not anymore! Slow it down on Song Surgeon and hear it all.

Back in the day, to get the similar results you had to spend hundreds for a piece of hardware that was bulky and cumbersome to use.

And that’s only part of what S.S. can do...,very much worth it as far as I’m concerned.

Thank you Song Surgeon!

I have been using Song Surgeon 5 Pro for just a short time, but already I am noticing a number of features that were not available in Sonar Cakewalk Professional. Firstly, the speed with which it performs changes of key and tempo are amazing, fairly well instantly. Cakewalk would take minutes to transpose an audio file and then there were issues with chipmunking or the run out of battery power effect, which does not happen in Song Surgeon 5 Pro. The chords panel is a bonus, sometimes it is difficult to determine what chords are used in a song, this is instant, even if not all chords are shown, you at least know what key it is in. I am also impressed that you can change the basic tuning foundation, so if you want to hear orchestral sounds as they were actually played in previous centuries, you can adjust the overall tuning from 440 to whatever you want. The price is another positive factor, even though the exchange rate is woeful at present, it still represents better value than Cakewalk which was horrendously expensive. I purchased it in 2015 and now it is taken over by Bandlab and, while that was free, I had no end of problems downloading and activating. So I have had to give Bandlab the flick as well. Song Surgeon surpasses everything that was available in Cakewalk and more, so I am very impressed with the program. I just hope that the program continues, once Cakewalk died on me, the files I created were useless and now I have to start from scratch again, and I can see already, that Song Surgeon is going to make that task easy for me, much easier than I would have expected at the start. So yes, I am happy.

Recommended easy to use
Thank you

I primarily use the loop function and reduced tempo function so I can develop my ability to learn music aurally. I don't want to rely on tabs to learn songs because I think learning by ear will develop a much deeper and more intuitive understanding of my instrument. BUT, learning by ear is difficult at full speed and having to manually "rewind" a track so I can hear it over and over again. Song Surgeon has changed all of that for me and my practice time has become much more effective and efficient.

Love the transpose feature. Please, please, please - include a Sheet Music Transposition feature in Song Surgeon v.6. Also, found the recording mode an invaluable tool - can capture any audio from YouTube or even online Radio.

I've been a loyal Song Surgeon customer for the past few years and the Sandy Shore - One Man Show's repertoire would certainly not sound as professional without Song Surgeon.

I will sometimes change the pitch, tempo or the EQ to make a song my own.

Like Frank said...I did it My Way! (and I did, with Song Surgeon of course!)

Wishing you "All the Best"!

Cheers,
Sandy Shore

Being an older vocalist, the original keys become increasingly difficult to maintain, therefore this program is just what I need to keep these songs in my repertoire. Some I have used in the past struggle with quality vocal backing reproduction - not so with Song surgeon.

I've been transcribing tenor sax, trombone, and trumpet jazz solos from CDs. The process has been very tedious especially when transcribing jazz chromatic runs. When slowing the song down to 30% and below, the program often trips out and I have to reload the file multiple times

For future revisions of Song Surgeon, will there be the capability to detect recorded music and automatically transcribe it to sheet music such as the "Anthem Score" product? It would also include the capability to edit the sheet music.

So far I've used Song Surgeon to change the key and or tempo of guitar backing tracks that are in key I can't sing in. And the chord display under the tracks finds nuances that can enhance your playing.
There are many features I have not explored as yet. Four stars because moving to the spot on the track is not intuitive. Saving files is not intuitive.

Hello!

I am enjoying your amazing Song Surgeon software. It has been a great discovery for me and I am already recommending using it to other musicians. It has features that I would never have imagined, such as chord detection.

I love the quality of the tempo changes and other features that I've looked for previously and only found on Song Surgeon.

I have been a guitar player and teacher for many years and I work all the time with MARKS and tempo changes.

It would be extremely helpful if the "GUI Resizing" option also expands the Marker Bar and Loop Bar

Song Surgeon software is a dream come true.

Thank you

Just got SS5 couple mos ago... used SS4 for couple of years. Use it almost everyday. Makes a great player even if not altering the music in anyway. Good search feature on SS5 as searches your whole computer. Generally use it to slow down a song and or loop it. Key change quite often as well. Does many more things.. still learning. Great tutorials and support via email. Will always have a version of SS. Only downside is loss of the sniffer in 5. Kept SS4 to use for that. Will close in saying that I am generally not a fan of new software but this is easy to learn and use.

Really helpful for my guitar journey started 3 years ago. Plenty useful features. Will I be happier in the future ?

I use it primarily to changing key of instrumental music for matching to singer.
I've not taking the time to delve into it deeply because of how I use it.

it is a great tool for all levels of experience. I mainly use the looping function to learn and play along with song

We use in conjunction with Small Church Music to offer backing for services at pitch and tempo that suit us. Fabulous tool, very little distortion on lowering key. Highly recommend.

Best yet for slowing down tempo but not losing tone. It would be more useful if Bass could be isolated better.

really love this software

I added learning the guitar to my "bucket list" several years ago, and I am mainly self taught thanks to the internet that didn't exist 50 years ago. Song Surgeon has been a pleasure to use in conjunction with my lessons and practice. I had some initial problems with the system "crashing" intermittently, but with valuable and responsive help from Jim in SS5 Support, the cause was traced to a defective programme on my computer ... and no fault of Song Surgeon. The product support is second to none .... thanks Jim.

I use sound tracks to sing gospel music and I use Song Surgeon mostly for key change and tempo. I'm still watching the training videos to learn all it has to offer me. I'm very satisfied so far of how easy it is to use.

I use the product for singer backgrounds mostly for key change. Love it no quality loss even at a 3 step lower. Having the ability to trim or fade a song would be a nice feature on the basic version.

My only wish for Song Surgeon is that it would print the chords detected in bars rather than timeline. Other than that it is a superb piece of software, a must have tool for any musician.

This is a great program I would recommend it to anyone

I had used Slow Gold for years hoping for something better. I bought SS-1 and was very impressed. Then life got in the way of my plans, and SS-5 was offered. I snapped it up because I saw that it had many improvements to SS-1. I am still preoccupied by life’s demands, but I will definitely send you my reviewafter I’ve had a chance to use it.

My very best,

Jerry Lobdill

Your product has helped me to advance my playing skills better than anyone could

Thank you and God bless

Song Surgeon rock!!!

It would be handy if when opening the program it would display the path of the last entry.

Also to be able to save a changed file to its original format. As in midi to midi.

in addition there seems to be enough room on the display screen by moving the buttons to the left or right, thus allowing you the room to display the lyrics.

And if you can display the lyrics, have the ability to change them.

Mike

I play a lot of Bluegrass music. To get my flatpicking licks up to speed I multiply the BPM by 4 and insert that number into the unlocked metronome. That get the metronome ticking extremely fast but that's the speed I need to be at. Only wish I could save the metronome settings. Try it sometime. 128 BPM x4=512. Set your metronome to 512 and pick that fast.

I am happy with the product.

I'm a happy Song Surgeon user since many years and it provides everything I need as a musician: plays files in a great variety of file formats, distortionless change of speed, change of pitch, chord detection, loops and so much more. For me Song Surgeon is the most comprehensive audio tool for musicians.

Have not been able to upload songs from itunes. It just keeps spinning.

[SS Admin - This sounds like a technical issue that needs to be addressed on your computer. SS DOES open songs in an iTunes folder]

If you take your time to really slow stuff down and learn, you pick up all the little nuances in that passage, that really make all the difference when it comes to the feel of the song. I’ve been relearning Surfing With The Alien, and the first legato lick in the solo at 30% speed, plays nothing like most instructors will track it. Danny Gill shows this passage on his DVD with all these notes sharing roughly the same timing, at 30% speed, that’s anything but the case, and it’s Joe Satriani’s style how he speeds up, slows down and holds certain notes longer than others that really breaths the life into this playing, without it, these fast passages sound sterile and lifeless. But you really only hear it, and learn it at these very slow speeds! ;)

I have a hard time figuring out how to set it up and do a lot of trial and error, before I get it working each time. There must be tutorials that I should use. Really bummed that I can't use it for MP4 songs. I'm just using it to help me learns songs that I have already purchases so I can play them. This is strange to blocked from this. Over half of my songs are useless and I am wondering if it was worth the purchase?

[SS does open and allow you to work with mp4 files]

I mix songs from a karaoke site where I can different instruments, but their pitch change is only marginally useful, sometimes not as all.

I used song surgeon and redid all the songs I couldn’t effectively pitch change for my voice. After a few of these, I began to change songs I was already singing due to the volume change and eq functions.

I added over 30 more songs to my set list.

On my wish list is if a volume control where I could ensure volume consistency between one song to the next.

GREAT PRODUCT

We are a small congregation in a rural area. Our organist of many years retired and we were completely unable to find anyone to take his place.

I learned of a free web site where 90% of our hymnal is recorded, and we took a look at the music that was there.

We were delighted to find that we could play it through our sound system, and the pipe organ music was more than our little organ ever produced.

But there were problems. Most of our congregation are older folks, and the recorded hymns were too fast and in too high a key.

I saw an ad for Song Surgeon and tried the free trial. It solved our problems! I download the hymn in .mp4 format, and then adjust the tempo and key so that it is within the singing capabilities of our congregation. A plus is that it is exported in .wav format, which sounds better through our sound system.

We quickly upgraded to the paid version, and we are singing better than ever, thanks to Song Surgeon.

As the current generation of church organists reach retirement, and there are almost no students today learning to play this kind of music, the combination of the website that makes the recordings available, along with the ability of Song Surgeon to make them singable, is truly a blessing to our little country church. God bless you for your hard work in creating and supporting this product.

As a little background for you, I’ve done concert stage and/or studio backing vocals with artists including David Bowie, Billy Joel, Madonna, Jeff Beck, Simple Minds, Cindi Lauper, Chaka Khan, and legendary French entertainer Serge Gainsbourg, and have TV and movie credits as an actor. For the seven years I’ve lived in the south of France, I entertain as a soloist in a wide variety of venues, performing a nearly 100-song repertoire from the golden era of the variété française.

For a number of years, I struggled to find the instrumental backing tracks I was looking for, which suited my range. As experienced singers know, just one half-step modulation in either direction can give you the comfort you need and the tones you wish to produce. As a male soloist, if I choose a number popularized by a female, I’ll often need quite more than a half-step up or down.

Every program I found — before Song Surgeon 5 — did a terrible job at changing the pitch, even when I only need a half-step. More than that was catastrophic. The instruments wowed and fluttered, most notably the guitars and strings. I cannot perform with confidence if I’m not happy with my tracks.

Song Surgeon changed everything. I haven’t tested it to the limits of absurdity, but every pitch change I’ve made so far has been miraculous. No distortion, wow or flutter. The tracks sound like they were originally recorded in my key. I arrive at gigs knowing that my music has been perfectly set, throughout my repertoire, and I don’t have to remember to make pitch adjustments on stage (which my chosen playback program attempts to do, but does horribly).

Most importantly, with great-sounding tracks behind me, I’ve got full confidence to do what I love most and give the audience what they came for. Thank you, Jim, and whatever magician created Song Surgeon 5. I can’t describe what a boost it has been to me on stage. I’m sold for life.

I just had to write a review of this product and the SS5 customer support team. SS5 worked extremely well for me until I botched something up doing a system OS upgrade. At that point a number of applications crashed when trying to start them. Since SS5 is my most cherished App, I contacted their support team for assistance. Over the course of a couple of days they worked to repair my system so it would work again. Through the entire process Jim was extremely helpful and when needed he got a programmer to make changes to my system using remote programming. Simply put, this support group is the best I have ever encountered. After their assistance ALL of my Apps are now working properly again. THANK YOU.

I use Song Surgeon to change the key of a song to the one that the band is doing that week. In addition, I highlight and repeat sections of the song at slower tempos, to learn the mites of a riff. After I have figured out the notes, I slowly increase the speed until I can play it comfortably at actual speed.

Mr. Renman is a internet-based guitar instructor with a large following. His site his https://www.masterguitaracademy.com/ . Below is a video he recent posted which discusses how he uses Song Surgeon’s chord detection to find the chords in a backing track.

I use the song surgeon to lower the key of songs I want to learn and then use the altered key to practice my vocals. Works perfectly for me. I also use the looper and slow down functions to learn and practice new guitar solos. Fantastic product.

I've been using Song Surgeon for a while now. However, there was one piece of music I was trying to lower the key and Song Surgeon would seem to quit working while analyzing peaks. So, I tried doing the same thing in Audacity, Adobe Audition, and then some online applications. Each one would lower the pitch but badly distort the music. I'm amazed how well Song Surgeon changes pitch and there is absolutely no distortion! Thank you for such a great product!

As a long time banjo instructor,I have found Song Surgeon to be a superb product in helping banjo players decode bluegrass licks and songs. In addition to the tempo and pitch options, the preset EQ options help to isolate the banjo sound from the rest of the instruments. (I found the trumpet setting to be especially useful!)

Students like the ability to change the pitch to either play in the key of G or capo up the neck in order to get used to the capo's effect on the neck layout. A very cool feature is the decoding of chord progressions. Many people find this very challenging to learn and SS allows players to see the chord changes in real time and this helps to train one's ear to identify chord changes. Technical support and guidance is an email away and the tutorials are very clear and well organized in the Help tab. Oh, and I don't want to forget the foot pedal option on SS Pro, which allows you to free up your hands to navigate across a song. Oh wait, one more thing! Once you set up a project with various loops, you can save your work so when you come back the next day, you can get to playing right away! And then there's the speed training option to create more challenges....Somebody stop me!

As you can see, I highly recommend Song Surgeon as a great tool to accelerate one's learning curve! Jim and his staff deserve a huge round of applause!!!



P. Fairbanks, Ithaca NY

I sometimes do duo work, I play percussion & my mate plays guitar. We use the audio from karaoke tracks as backing. I'm able to ckeck the tempo against the tempo I want to use on stage, and adjust it accordingly. No other product can do this. I also have SS-4 and KS which are all great products. Kind Regards--Denis.

Song Surgeon has proven invaluable for my music learning process. I play Blues Harmonica and Song Surgeon allows me to import a tune, slow it down and thoroughly learn all articulation. I can then record my work and check to make sure I'm hitting all the bends!!
Song Surgeon also has the ability to detect and display the chords of the music as it's being played so I can import a piece of music, note the chords then write either and accompaniment or solo to suit.
I have looked at other products but I haven't found anything that comes close or as easy to use.
I would totally recommend Song Surgeon to anyone serious about learning, recording or playing music.

p.s. I've just purchased Download Surgeon you've got to check that out!!!

I have been using Song Surgeon for several years. Slowing down a song without changing pitch, or changing key o play along when learning a song. Great product.

I use the song surgeon to change to beat of of some songs to speed up or slow down depending on if we are teaching beginners of dancing or be it the professional? it is just great for that purpose, I also change the tone where possible to make the sound much better for large halls.
Great product, many thanks.Merv

Forgot to hit the 5 stars on my last comments.

Fantastic!! And that goes for the product and the service. Thanks, James!

Song Surgeon does everything it says and does everything extremely well! I use the markers to loop my difficult passages, thought out various tempos, until I get the performance right. I also use the pitch feature when I need to, without any noticeable change of fidelity. In addition, the user-friendly GUI makes achieving these features very intuitive, so that I am able to focus my concentrate on my performance rather than the computer. Great program! I wouldn’t be without it when I practice!

This program is well organized and easy to use. It works well handling a large library of scores. I use it for daily practice. Especially useful for learning tones. I am most impressed by the rapid response provided by the developer to questions I may have.

Seaside Funk is always adding new material to our set list.

I remember the old days listening to a song over and over trying to figure out the chords and writing down the lyrics. If the song was too high for my voice I had to transpose the chords to fit my range. It was a very frustrating process!

I originally ran across Song Surgeon during a google search for a tool to help with learning songs. I down loaded the free trial version and after working with it a few days decided to go for it and purchased the Pro version. Great choice!

So happy with my purchase that I felt I needed to let my musician blog followers in on it too.

It is so freaking cool what it can do. Even my son who is a Video/Audio tech professional said he had never ran across anything like Song Surgeon.

Tr it out!

Yes, I do like the software Song Surgeon! I'm having trouble with using the Main Sniffer, it doesn't work properly on my Mac. I do appreciate the quick response I get when I have a question, James Todd responds very quickly and I appreciate the assistance and help.

Right now Song Surgeon is my main source for playing along with the band. It's excellent for working on my timing and chord changes.

Ken

I use Song Surgeon to customize the backing tracks I use as accompaniment for my singing. Making key and tempo changes and complex song structure changes is critical to my performances. I use SS to shorten or lengthen songs, to rearrange song parts, to create song medleys. Using dual windows gives me great flexibility. If it were not for these capabilities I would not perform as I am able to adjust the songs and arrangements flawlessly to suit me. The zoom capability alone is amazing for great edits. I reduce or cut out long instrumental sections, change intros and endings, blend songs for medleys etc. Great tool. Would like capability to modulate to different key within a song and easier reverb changes but those are small things compared to all its great features. Like I said, couldn’t do it without SS.

I have both SS4 and SS5. I use SS4 for YouTube Sniffer to get the audio for songs and then SS5, with its newer features to work off of. I need to look at some of your instructional videos for singling out the instruments I'm working on though. Just haven't taken the time to do that. Love the product though. May get your Video Surgeon as well!

I can use this flawlessly for practice and learning parts. For the folks in the band, I can export files in amended keys. The chord tool is already astonishing in my books ( feed it Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon and see how accurate it is).

Sure, you may have to apply yourself to a few missteps , but it is nearly always well within the ballpark and an invaluable tool. For someone who spent years , picking the needle off the turntable repeatedly in an attempt to learn parts or chords, this in invaluable and thank you for your continuing efforts

Software is excellent. Still learning and working my way through the video tutorials which are clear and very helpful

Probably little early to say definitively but from usage over last 3 months very happy with the software

I’m a bassist and music teacher and being able to slow down performance to analyze bowings and fingerings using Video Surgeon is extremely helpful.

I’m also impressed with Song Surgeon - the quality when slowing down audio is impressive. However I noticed that it has issues importing FLAC files. It will start to import them but the “Scanning Peaks” process never end.

Song Surgeon actually helped me win an audition. Last summer I had two days to learn songs for a band and Song Surgeon was my tool of choice that helped. I have several audio programs to adjust pitch and speed but yours has the best quality and features.

Thank you so much for this program. I have been at my wits end and was on the verge of giving up. Untill I came upon this program my enthusiasm just rocketed. Changing a chord is such a nice tool to have. Absolutely no change when changing a chord. There is no disturbance in the song. You have really saved my life in music. Once again thank you.

Tim Jelliman

have purchased Song Surgeon 5, and have been using it for some months. I totally agree with you that this is the best music editing tool available and I tell all my Musician colleagues of this fact.

As a guitar player I am confused with the chord diagrams shown in your latest update. The B & F# chord diagrams shown in 'Chord viewer' are correct as a guitar player views the neck. However, the Amaj chord diagrams as shown in 'Voicings' don't make any sense to me. Amaj in open position should show fingerings on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th strings on the second fret of the diagram from the top. The A chord shown is incorrect no matter which way you view the neck. What am I not seeing here? Much looking forward to this update. Been using your product for years. It is without a doubt the best value for a guitar player of any skill level available.

{ Clayton was correct. There were some mistakes with the voicings that have now been corrected. }

I've used the slow-down feature on version 3 for years. It helped me play songs like Pinball Wizard and Pleasant Valley Sunday. It also gave me the ability to hear how recording at half-speed must have sounded to Les Paul.
Now I'm thinking of upgrading to the Pro version because of the music doc features. One thing, though. I'd like to re-size the open file permanently instead of resizing the box each time I load a new file. I have a lot of music in each file.

I've been using Song Surgeon Pro 5 for about 8 months and have grown to depend on it for much of my song editing and practice. From day one the software performed as described. A couple days ago I invested in Band in a Box. Along with SS they make a powerful composing and training set up. I'm not sure if loading BIAB impacted it but Song Surgeon would not work properly after that. I contacted Song Surgeon Tech support via the ticketing process and within a 1/2 hour they got back to me. The problem was with some coding issues with my computer (not their product) but the tech support folks James Todd stayed at it until they had a customer who's software was working properly. I was skeptical because my experience with on line tech support hasn't been great but these guys really cared and saw the job through - even when it got a bit frustrating. Song Surgeon is a great produce and is backed up by a reputable company that cares about service after the sale.