Big frustration with tempo/slow down and liked older software much better

First of all, praise for great work on great software BUT…

I am a musician and used Audacity for a specialized application (that a lot of people did) which is slowing down a small sections of mp3 music to practice or transcribe in real time. It was quick and easy. So, I am not using for ‘audio engineering’ but to instant highlight segment/loop, choose speed and play. Maybe 5 seconds.

So with older version…

I could 1) import MP3, 2) highlight a desired 10 or 20 second section (which would automatically loop and that is highly desired), 3) had direct onscreen slow down speed slider (love that slider and did not need to go to other screens to select effects menu, and then select tempo function, and then select more parameters etc.), 4) it would just play immediately (did not need to ‘process’ or render… quality was good enough) and 5) did not write altered speed section back into the file (it just played and looped that segment temporarily).

My software version that I liked I think was brown/yellow in color if that helps. Today the version I opened is blue in color. So i have must have updated some how and lost the simplicity and ease of use of the older version.