These days, I also go to Youtube to find out how to play stuff. But, a long, long, time ago, in a faraway and distant youth ...
I had a record player that would slow down to half-speed (16RPM). I was about 13 or so and it was 1982'ish. Man, the sound stunk - BUT - it was better than full speed. My problem transcribing is just being able to hold enough notes in my memory while I tried to find them on the guitar and THEN go back to the right part on the recording. Invariably, you always return some measures before the place you were. Transcribing is hard enough to begin with.
Then, in 1987 or so, I got a Marantz tape deck that cost me several hundred dollars - yippeee! I could go slower than half speed and return to my previous spot using the counter. Plus, it had better sound. :D But it wasn't till the computer age that the tools available are cheap, and awesome!
The first software I used was called Transkriber by Reed Kotler. It came on a floppy disk and ran on Windows 95. It could slow down while holding pitch, but didn't have strong/efficient loop control. Riffmaster 3 is another tool I've used. Loop control on it is - not good. These days, I use a program called Transcribe. So far it's the best I've found. (no I don't work for them, but it really is so good)
Yeah, I'll let the bygone days be a nice memory
Alex