Often when listening to audio, I find on the first listening it is too fast. Sometimes I also want the audio to pause, so I can repeat the phrase. I find the best way to do this is to use the free and open source Audacity sound editor.

First I can see the wave patterns for each phrase so I can easily break the audio down into the spoken phrases and can automatically repeat each phrase - useful for dictation. One of the effects you can apply in Audacity is to slow down the tempo so I can drop the speed down by 20% without changing the pitch - very handy to pick up individual sounds. Finally I can insert 'silence' of a few seconds so I can digest the phrase and repeat it. This is much easier than pausing and replaying manually.

There is so much more you can do with Audacity. Do other people use this or similar software?