Piano Wizard game: does it teach?

Shiva Stella over at Gaming Horizon has been testing Piano Wizard with 49E Keystation, which claims to teach piano playing through games.

Short answer: it doesn’t.

It seems its main shortcomings are:

• no musical notation display option
• no instruction on piano technique
• limited songs and games

Whilst learning musical notation is certainly not everything, learning good playing technique is essential.

Mimicking piano playing doesn’t produce musicians – it produces robots.

The game is Windows only, though ironically the keyboard is just as happy functioning on its own on a Mac.

It’s a shame – perhaps a future release of the software will improve things because it’s a great idea. At the moment, Shiva recommends you spend your money on a tutor rather than this combo.

M3 “mobile speed demon” for travelling digital music producers

MusicXPC have introduced a new laptop computer designed specificially for musicians.

The Professional M3 is a beautiful, sleek, super-fast mobile notebook that is the ideal companion to the digital music producer on the move. Cloaked in a stylish silver and black exterior it is light, quiet and, we’ll say again, very fast. With the M3 you will complete projects in ProTools, Cubase or Sonar with greater speed and operate your production schedule with the peace of mind that comes from the industry’s best backup and restoration utility. Apart from being a top performer for music software, the M3 is mainstream with everything you would expect like USB 2.0, FireWire, Wireless LAN, PC Card Slot, etc and other features you may not, like Gigabit LAN, DVD+/-RW and live telephone support.

It lists these five advantages over standard PC/Mac laptops:

1. Very quiet operation
2. High performance
3. Tweaked for music
4. Recovery
5. Service and support

A full writeup and specifications can be found at their website.

Steinberg Releases Cubase SE3

Press Release

Steinberg Media Technologies unveiled the latest version of its Cubase SE entry-level music production software. Cubase SE3 offers music technologies tailored to musicians, producers, students and educators. Offered for Mac and PC, Cubase SE3 will be available in October 2005.

For beginners and newcomers to computer-based music production as well as students and educators, Cubase SE3 offers powerful yet easy-to-use features designed to support those taking their first steps in recording, editing and mixing music on a PC or Mac. The VST Connections window allows simple, quick connection to music hardware such as mixers, audio interfaces and monitors.

Cubase SE3 provides ample creative space for professional musicians and producers looking to expand their music-making environment. With its 48 audio and unlimited MIDI tracks and the included range of VST instruments, virtual effects and MIDI effects, Cubase SE3 offers a huge palette of creative potential. A 32-bit audio engine offers 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback, including full delay compensation.

Existing Cubase SE owners will find a range of new features and capabilities. These include a new user interface and audio engine, drag and drop for MIDI files, superior Hitpoint detection, a redesigned Track Inspector and much more. Cubase SE3 also introduces new capabilities that support an even faster, more efficient workflow, including new key commands and editing functions.

Not only is Cubase SE3 fully upgradeable to Steinberg’s Cubase SX3 and Cubase SL3 applications, but all projects created in Cubase SE3 can be easily opened in either of those two professional music applications, regardless of computer platform. Cubase SE3 also hosts VST instruments and effects, allowing Cubase SE3 owners to add to the virtual recording studio through the addition of professional virtual instruments and effects, including Steinberg’s VSTi range.

Price and Availability

Cubase SE3 will be available for $159.99 from October 2005.

For more information, visit their web site at www.steinberg.net.

New Video Tutorial Released for Reason 3

Press Release

“Enter Reason!” is the latest release from Groovebox Corp, taking you from opening your first Reason song, to recording MIDI, programming and arranging patterns and loops, sequencer editing, quantizing, exporting, saving and more.

The CD-ROM is designed for the beginner to intermediate level user, and contains over 30 tutorials running over 3 hours. The CD-ROM works on both Mac and PC and is shot using Reason 3.x.

The tutorials are shown in a Windows XP environment, but any Mac specific info and keyboard commands are shown as well. The CD-ROM also contains 125 Megs of free Loops and ReFills to use with Reason.

The price of the CD-ROM is $39.99, and includes free U.S shipping. International shipping is also available.

For more information, visit their web site at www.grooveboxmusic.com.

Apple Garageband and Music Loops doing good business

MacWorld writes that some loop-production companies, including Beta Monkey Music and SonicEmulations, are producing and converting other format loops into the Apple Loops format, so that GarageBand users can take advantage of them.

“Business is great – It’s growing every month since we started,” Chris Donlon, Beta Monkey founder, told MacCentral. “The Apple sales are really starting to take off.”

When you think of buying third-party music loops, you may have the vision of some guy in his basement recording himself playing the drums or guitar on his computer. However, the Bandmateloops and Beta Monkey founders both have extensive experience in the professional music business.

“We don’t just release stuff that we like; we make loops that we think we be useful – I think that’s really important,” said Shapiro.”

Read the full article: Apple music loops becoming big business

MakeMusic! Announces Release of Finale SongWriter

MakeMusic!(R) Inc. announced today the release of Finale SongWriter(TM), the latest addition to its family of innovative music notation software. Finale SongWriter allows users to quickly and easily compose and arrange music, hear their work and print premium-quality sheet music.

Created for songwriters of all levels, including those who may be new to notation software, Finale SongWriter offers a large array of powerful but easy-to-use features. Notes can be entered via a computer keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, or by importing MIDI files. Users can effortlessly add key and time signatures, lyrics, chords, guitar fingerboards, markings and musical instructions.

Additionally, Finale SongWriter can automatically generate two- and three-voice harmonies and drum grooves. The software also allows the user to create and edit guitar and bass tablature, save MIDI files and create MP3 files. Musicians can experiment with over 129 professional instrument sounds (a free professional software synthesizer is included). Songs sound like they’re being performed by live musicians thanks to “Human Playback(TM)”. All of these features come at an affordable price of $49.95.

Full article (MoneyPlans.net)

TASCAM Announces GigaStudio 3.10 Upgrade: Press Release

TASCAM is pleased to announce Version 3.10, a free upgrade to the GigaStudio 3 sampling software, adding many features and functions and increasing the functionality of this already-powerful sampling package.
GigaStudio version 3.10 adds new iMIDI templates, making it easier to use iMIDI rules for adding life to instrument sounds, and a host of new iMIDI rules and features. The Stack Instrument Selection feature allows you to quickly assign keyswitches to swap sounds on a MIDI channel during a performance effectively shattering previous limits on the number of Dimensions possible. Version 3.10 also adds drag & drop creation of GigaPulse presets, user interface enhancements, new comprehensive keyboard shortcuts and a list of other improvements designed to improve your workflow in GigaStudio. The release will be available for download at www.tascamgiga.com in early June.

“Updating GigaStudio is a constant process, based on feedback from the top composers, library developers and engineers in the music industry,” says Pete Snell, GigaStudio Sales and Marketing Manager. “Many of the new features in GigaStudio 3.10 were suggested by our library developers. They have a great idea for a new GigaStudio instrument and ask us to implement that feature, like our own new Legato mode that uses GigaPulse to model connecting notes. By working with the best sampler developers, we make sure that the best sample libraries in the world continue to be developed for GigaStudio.”

New Features in GigaStudio 3.10:
iMIDI Templates: GigaStudio v3.10 now supports the use of templates to facilitate loading/saving iMIDI rules. A template is a user/developer-configured rule that can be quickly loaded into the sampler and attached to an instrument or a stack.
Stack Instrument Selection Feature: This feature can extend the playing capabilities of the sampler by allowing an unlimited number of samples to be assigned to a note range

Key Re-Mapping for Stack Instruments: Keyboard re-mapping can be applied at the Port/Channel level for quickly re-mapping input notes to samples as is often needed with drum controllers.

Quick Edit Undo/Redo: New Undo/Redo functionality added to the Quick Edit interface allows users to easily compare changes made to commonly edited instrument parameters.

Naming Stack Instruments: It is now possible to name stack instruments so they can be easily identified, even when the stack view is collapsed. 

Zone Limit for Stack Instruments:  This powerful little feature allows the user to remove overlaps between instruments that are used together on a stack. 

Instrument Selection Within Stack Instruments: This extends the idea of dimension key switching into the stacked instrument realm by providing the ability to key switch between instruments in a stack, practically providing unlimited dimension switching possibilities in real time. 

GigaPulse Enhancements

• New Import Wave Data menu item, which makes creating your own GigaPulse presets from raw impulses very easy & fast. 
• It is now possible to enter parameter values directly as text.

Buy “Tascam: 30 Years of Recording Evolution” at Amazon

Ableton Announces Live 5: Press Release

Includes a wealth of new features and enhancements that cater to the entire musical process

Ableton is proud to announce Live 5, the team’s broadest-ever development effort of their award-winning music software solution, Live. Live 5 presents a wealth of new features and enhancements that cater to the musician’s entire musical process – creation, production and performance.
“Version 5 adds our users’ most sought-after features,” says Ableton CEO Gerhard Behles, “along with an abundance of innovative new sound-shaping and organizational tools. Most importantly, Live 5 strengthens every aspect of Live while making the program more fun and easier to use.”

Live 5 includes advanced and creative DAW features to satisfy any audio professional.
• Clip Freeze serves two purposes: freeing up CPU power and easing the transfer of projects between computers. Unique to Live 5, “frozen” clips retain their real-time launch capabilities, allowing for improvisation, performance or song arrangement. A project with frozen tracks can also be transferred from your main computer and run easily on one with less-than-optimal CPU specs.
• Plug-In Delay Compensation automatically delays tracks to compensate for latencies caused by effects and plug-ins, including those on the return tracks. In addition, both audio and MIDI tracks have a manual delay setting to compensate for human, acoustic, hardware and other real-world delays.
• Launchable Arrangement Locators offer arrangement/song-position markers with MIDI mapping and quantized recall. Using the mouse, computer keys or MIDI messages, you can drop locators on the fly during playback or recording. Each locator can be named and assigned to a computer key or MIDI message. Jumping to a locator is subject to real-time quantization, just like launching Session View clips and scenes. Previous/Next buttons allow you to jump from locator to locator.
• Mackie Control Support enables full implementation of compatible mixer surfaces such as Tascam’s FW-1082/1884, Yamaha’s 01X and Mackie Control, allowing for mouse-free program operation. Easily navigate arrangements and the Session View grid; launch clips, scenes and locators; and access instruments and effects.

Get ready to remix! Live 5 ships with a host of new remix-minded features, assuring instant remix and mash-up gratification.
• MP3 support makes your entire music library available for use in Live.
• Automatic Tempo-Matching tracks the tempo of imported songs and sets Warp Markers for you—instantly synchronizing your files to the project tempo.
• Complex Warp Mode is a frequency-domain warping method specifically designed to accommodate composite signals such as mixed- down music.
• New Clip Transport allows for performance-enhancing looping, editing and shuffling on the fly for any clip in Live. Click anywhere in a waveform to jump there—in sync and subject to real-time quantization.
‚Ä®Never lose ideas again! Live 5 features simple tools for saving, previewing and accessing any idea on your hard drive .
• Live Clips. Clips can now be exported to disk for easy retrieval and reuse in any project. The exported Live Clip not only retains MIDI, audio, envelopes, warping and other clip settings but also the associated instrument, effects and plug-ins. In Live’s Browser, Live Clips are as easy to browse and preview as samples.
• Better Browsing. Live’s built-in Browser now features a search field and standard file organization capabilities such as creating folders and dragging files into folders. In the Browser, Live Sets (.als files) can be “unfolded” to reveal their tracks and clips— which can then be selectively previewed and dragged in. It is also possible to drag a Live Set from the Browser into the currently open Set to merge the two.
• New Preset Management. Presets for Ableton instruments and effects are now managed through the Browser as well. You can organize presets in folders at will and search for presets across folders using the search field. A new “browse” button on every device temporarily links the Browser to the device, allowing for easy preset recall.
• Device Groups allow you to save powerful multi-effect creations, effectively adding all the capabilities of Ableton’s MIDI and audio effects to Simpler, Impulse and Operator presets.
‚Ä®Live 5 introduces a selection of innovative new effects, bringing even more creative possibilities.
• Beat Repeat – An inspirational, expressive and addictive audio effect useful for subtle-to-extreme reorganization of beats and vocals. Create short loops on the fly and control their lengths either manually or via random functions for endless variations of grooves and stutter effects.
• Phaser and Flanger – These are both modeled after popular ‘70s guitar effects and augmented with a beat-synced LFO (with variable waveforms) and a unique envelope follower function. Results range from classic phasing and flanging to drastic sound manipulation.
• Auto Pan – Offers LFO-driven manipulation of amplitude and panning. It can create everything from automatic panning with various curves to tremolo and amplitude modulation and beat-synchronized chopping effects.
• Saturator – Add dirt, punch or warmth to your sound with five different shapes and a set of powerful tone controls for creating subtle-to-drastic distortion effects.
• Arpeggiator – Offers all the classic arpeggiator applications and more—strum notes like a guitarist, morph velocities and create scale-corrected pitch progressions.

Other new Live 5 features
Count-in recording 
Right-click context menus 
Change settings in multiple clips at once 
Resize tracks in Session View 
VST MIDI effect support 
New Live Clips sound library 
New preset library for Live devices 
New and improved Live 5 lessons 
Simpler now includes independent envelopes for filter, pitch and more.

Live 5 Pricing and Availability 
Live 5 will be available for 499 EUR/USD (MSRP) from dealers worldwide and from the Ableton webshop. The release is scheduled for late July 2005.
Buy your version of Live now and be among the first to own Live 5! All customers who unlock Live 4 for the first time from June 1, 2005 until the final release day of Live 5 will receive a version 5 serial number on release day at no charge.

Upgrading from Live 4
• For customers who purchased Live 4 before May 1, 2005, downloadable upgrades to Live 5 will be available for 119 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.
• Boxed upgrades will be available for 149 EUR/USD (MSRP) from dealers worldwide and from the Ableton webshop.

Accommodation for recent buyers of Live 4
• For customers who purchased Live 4 between May 1, 2005 and May 31, 2005, downloadable upgrades to Live 5 will be available for 49 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.
• All customers who unlock Live 4 for the first time from June 1, 2005 until the final release day of Live 5 will receive a version 5 serial number on release day at no charge.

Upgrading from Live 1, 2 and 3
Downloadable upgrades from Live 1, 2 or 3 to Live 5 will be available for 169 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop. Boxed upgrades from Live 1, 2 or 3 to Live 5 will be available for 199 EUR/USD from the Ableton webshop.

Live 5 Beta Test 
Beta testing for Live 5 will begin in June. This is a great opportunity for users to get a firsthand look at what Live 5 has to offer. Please sign up to receive the Ableton newsletter and keep informed of the latest details.

About Live 
Live is the only solution designed for each stage of the musical process, from creation to production to performance. In the creative stage, Live is transparent, intuitive and responsive, capturing inspiration and encouraging the flow of musical ideas. During production, Live provides all of the professional tools and studio compatibility required to complete and perfect projects. On stage, Live delivers the expressive control and stability that innumerable performing artists have come to rely on. Live 5—from inspiration to studio to stage. Create. Produce. Perform.

About Ableton 
Ableton develops modern software technology to inspire creative people. Since the company started in 1999, more than thirty-five developers and business professionals have joined Ableton—many of them active musicians or DJs. The company has received outstanding press, awards and customer feedback since the unveiling of Live in October 2001.
For more information visit www.ableton.com.

miniMusic Introduces New Krikit Audio Engine for the Palm Platform: Press Release

miniMusic has unveiled their new Krikit Audio Engine (or Krikit Synth), a software synthesizer that can generate rich audio on most Palm OS handheld computers without any additional hardware. First to incorporate the new audio engine is miniMusic’s NotePad music notation software, allowing many different instruments to be used together to play back songs. Also announced today is the new SoundPad application to design new instruments for the Krikit Synth that can be used in NotePad and future Krikit powered software; SoundPad will be released in one week, on May 24th, but a free preview can be downloaded now from the miniMusic website.

The Krikit Audio Engine is both polyphonic and multitimbral. “Polyphonic” meaning that it can play several notes or pitches simultaneously (for playing harmony, chords or counterpoint). “Multitimbral” means that it can play those notes using different instrument sounds simultaneously (maybe playing piano, guitar and drum sounds to simulate a band). Unlike an MP3 player or other music players, the Krikit synthesizer generates rich audio in real time without a pre-existing digital recording (e.g. an MP3 file).

“We designed the Krikit Synth specifically for handheld computers and the Palm OS. We used FM synthesis techniques to keep our sound files extremely small and kept optimizing the synth until it ran well on even the slowest CPUs,” says Chad Mealey, President of miniMusic. “It’s like having the best synth keyboard from the 80s in your pocket; and our sound design interface is far superior!”

The NotePad 1.3 upgrade takes what was already the leading music notation software for the Palm OS and adds a vast array of playback possibilities. Now most Palm handheld users can hear what previously required a built-in sound card or additional hardware. The Krikit Synth brings rich audio to a wide range of OS 5 handhelds, like the palmOne Treo 600 and 650, the Tungsten T, T2, T3 and T5, the Tungsten C, the Tungsten E and E2, The Zire 31, 71 and 72, Tapwave Zodiac 1, Zodiac 2, Sony Clie UX40, UX50, TJ35 or similar models.

The brand new SoundPad 1.0 application allows anyone to design new sounds. An innovative graphic interface lets you grab and manipulate any parameter of a sound. Quickly change oscillator frequencies, ratios, waveforms, amplitude envelopes and modulation. This easy sound design interface sets the Krikit Synth apart from any other handheld sound engine.

This Summer the new audio engine will be incorporated into miniMusic’s other products: BeatPad, SpinPad, BugBand, EarTrain, AxisPad and the new MixPad MIDI file player.

Pricing, Availability, and Distribution NotePad 1.3 is available for $29.95 and includes sample songs and a sample sound bank. Current NotePad owners may be eligible for a free upgrade to NotePad 1.3, others will be asked to pay a $5 upgrade fee (The fee may be applied toward the purchase of SoundPad). SoundPad 1.0 will be available on May 24th for $19.95, or both NotePad and SoundPad are included in the new Krikit Bundle for $44.95 (10% off). Educational discounts and site licenses are also available for all miniMusic products. Free demos of NotePad, SoundPad and other software titles are currently available for download from the miniMusic website at www.miniMusic.com and from other Palm OS software distributors. Developers may license the Krikit Audio Engine to add enhanced sound to their products.

About miniMusic

Based in San Francisco since 1999, miniMusic creates handheld computer software for music composition, education, performance, and entertainment so that musical ideas can be explored anywhere and anytime, giving individuals the freedom of musical expression on their own terms. Shipping applications include NotePad, BeatPad, SoundPad, EarTrain and BugBand. Upcoming products will tackle MIDI sequencing, multi-track editing and innovative new musical interfaces.

All prices listed are in US Dollars. For more information please visit the miniMusic website at http://www.minimusic.com

Able MIDI Editor: Press Release

Compose your own ringtone, melody or complete arrangement with ease! Able MIDI Editor is a powerful and inexpensive MIDI Editor for Windows based on the piano roll interface. 

Among the basic functions of Able MIDI Editor are included the capability of adding and deleting musical notes, adjusting the pitch and duration of notes, and playing back results. The Editor provides the means for working with tracks with a wide range of possibilities for grouping and combined note editing. Custom tools such as Note Map and Note Filter make life easier, and different Color Schemas make it comfortable. 

Able MIDI Editor’s unique feature is ability of precise bar-line arrangement. You can adjust bars manually or with Tapping Tool, so that majority of notes do not cross bar lines, without altering the tempo nuances of the piece. In particular, this might be very useful when preparing data recorded with a MIDI Keyboard for score printing. 

Able MIDI Editor is evolved from the TrueTone Editor included in WIDI Recognition System, ‚Ä®which is designed for music recognition (process of extracting note information from digital audio recordings – MP3 to MIDI conversion, etc.). TrueTone Editor enables you to quickly and efficiently correct the results of automatic recognition. Unlike Able MIDI Editor the Editing Area of TrueTone Editor combines the spectrogram of the initial musical piece and the recognized notes. This way TrueTone Editor enables the visual comparison of spectrogram peaks (reflected by color) and notes. Visit widisoft.com to get your free evaluation copy of WIDI Recognition System and check for updates of Able MIDI Editor.

Find out more

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