Monday, April 25, 2005
Music Ace Maestro
If you teach music, Music Ace 1 & Music Ace 2 are "must have" programs for teaching musical literacy, including note names, rhythms, key signatures, ear training and more. If you aren't familiar the series, I would highly recommend downloading a demo to see what you and your students are missing!
Music Ace 1 focuses on pitch and melody, with Music Ace 2 focuses on rhythm. They both use the "sound before sign" approach and integrate ear training into each lesson, along with a game to reinforce what was taught. We've always recommended that teachers use both Music Ace 1 and 2, and to use them concurrently. In other words, it doesn't make sense to do 24 lessons on pitch and melody, and then do 24 lessons on rhythm - they both should be taught at the same time.
A while back, Harmonic Vision (the developer of the Music Ace series) released a solution for home users - Music Ace Deluxe. Deluxe combines lessons from Music Ace 1 & 2 into a pedagogically correct sequence, but it is only available for home users. Lab packs and network versions are not available.
Fortunately, there is now a solution for teachers and schools as well! Music Ace Maestro is a new product that features all 48 lessons from Music Ace 1 & 2. Moreover, you can now change the sequence of the lessons (or leave lessons out), import/export student results and manage settings for groups or individuals students.
If you don't already have Music Ace, I would definitely recommend going with Music Ace Maestro. Not only does it save you money compared to buying the two programs separately, but you also get the improved teacher guide, along with the lesson and student management tools.
Fortunately, if you already own Music Ace 1 or 2, there is an upgrade path that will give you all of the new features, plus access to the lessons in both Music Ace 1 and 2 (even if you only own 1 or 2 and not both!) Contact us for details on upgrade pricing - we have a few examples on our web site.
- Kelly
Posted at 9:58 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Keyboards & latency...
If you've spent any time with a MIDI controller keyboards, you've probably run across the problem of latency.
What is latency? Latency is the delay between when you strike a key on your keyboard, and when you hear the sound. This can be furstrating when recording, especially if you don't want the hassle of trying to adjust the latency settings in your software so that your tracks line up. In fact, anything that requires rhtyhmic accuracy can be difficult - notation programs, ear training, etc.
Why latency? Most MIDI keyboards rely on your computer to create the sound - which is great when you want to get realistic playback by working with some of the huge sample banks such as Sample Tank , GPO , Gigastudio , Halion,
Kontakt and others. However, there is a draw back to working with samplers or software synths - since they use your computer's RAM and CPU to create the sounds, there is going to be a slight delay. The more notes or tracks you have, the higher the latency.
What can you do? Aside from fiddling with the settings in your soft synth, sampler or host program, you could consider getting a hardware sound module such as the
SD-20 or SD-80 .
Unfortunately, these can be expensive! The good news is that Kelly's Music & Computers now carries an inexpensive line of keyboards with basic sounds built in. Now, when entering music, you can rely on the built in sounds to ensure there is no latency. You can still use your great sounding software for playback, so you get the best of both worlds.
Most keyboards with sounds built in are expensive, and usually don't have USB connectors. We weren't able to find any with USB, but we found some good, inexpensive keyboards and included USB interfaces! Check out the CK-65 USB Keyboard Bundle.
- Kelly.
Posted at 12:56 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, April 11, 2005
Videos? Do they help?
Courtesy of Edirol, we have been adding a few tutorial videos to our web site over the past while. For example:
We've been thinking of creating a few more, and maybe even video guides for each product category (how to select a soundcard, notation program, etc.) Of course, we already carry a wide range of video tutorials for various products that you can purchase, but there doesn't seem to be anything along the lines of "how to choose the best product for you".
What do you think? Are these types of videos helpful?
Posted at 5:09 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Friday, April 08, 2005
ASIO 2.1 and DSD
One of the biggest challenges that Sony faces with their SACD (Super Audio CD) format is the use of DSD audio technology. Rather than using traditional PCM techniques, SACD requires all audio to processed using DSD. Currently, there are only a few devices that support DSD recording and they are extremely expensive.
Sony may eventually find partners to help develop hardware that will be accessible to the average home studio, but for now they will have to be satisfied with the progress they are making on the software front. Steinberg just announced ASIO 2.1, which fully supports the DSD format. This will allow developers to build DSD support into their products by using the ASIO technology.
For now, though, most users will have to stick with DVD-A if they want to distribute high resolution recordings (DVD-A supports 24/192Khz audio, compared to the 16 bit , 44.1Khz found on a regular CD.)
- Kelly.
Posted at 2:26 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Wavelab & Audio Restoration
If you are serious about audio restoration, and have over $2500 to spend on it, Steinberg has good news for you. They recently announced that a future free update for Wavelab 5 will feature support for reNOVAtor from Algorithmix.
- Kelly
Posted at 2:21 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Pro Tools - now available to M-Audio Users
We knew it would happen eventually - ever since Avid (the parent company of Digidesign) purchased M-Audio, we've been waiting to see some colloboration between the two companies. As anticipated by many in the industry, M-Audio has released "Pro Tools M-Powered", a special version of Pro Tools for M-Audio soundcards.
Currently you must have Audiophile 192, Audiophile 2496, FireWire 410, FireWire 1814 or Ozonic in order to use this special version of Pro Tools. Similar to Pro Tools LE, the M-Powered edition supports 32 audio tracks and up to 256 MIDI tracks. It includes a collection of over 30 plug-ins, featuring those from Bomb Factory and the DigiRack.
The main attraction of the M-Powered edition of Pro Tools will be the range of plug-ins included, and it's compatiblity with the full Pro Tools package. This means that you can take your project recorded in your home studio and have it mastered in a pro studio that uses the Pro Tools TDM suite.
As a cross-platform product, M-Audio feels that this will put the pressure on Steinberg's Cubase line, the other main Mac and PC compatible production software. However, when it comes to value, many users will find that Steinberg's line offers more features (and more comptability) for their money.
- Kelly
Posted at 2:16 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
New Edirol Products Announced at MusikMesse
Edirol has announced the new UA-101, a USB 2.0 version of the popular FA-101. Their second USB 2.0 device (and one of the few on the market), the UA-101 will offer two mic-pre's on combo XLR/TRS along with 6 TRS inputs. All 10 channels (8 analogue, 2 digital on S/PDIF) will support 24/96, and you can do 24/192 on 6 channels before using all of the available bandwidth for USB 2.0
Edirol also unveiled two new USB MIDI keyboard controllers - the PC-50 and PC-80. The PC-50 is essentially a PCR-M50 without the controller knobs and sliders. It also adds the ability to be powered by either USB or 4xAA batteries for the ultimate in portability. Using batteries is actually a great idea, since powering a MIDI keyboard off the USB bus drains your laptop battery.
The PC-80 actually includes an on-board audio card as well as speakers. It will include a Roland soft synth, and will offer key splitting and layering. Although I would still like to see an Edirol keyboard with an onboard synth, they have provided a "Soft Synth" button that will automatically launch the soft synth on your PC so you can play the keyboard through your computer without having actually having to touch the mouse. If you are like me and pretty much have your computer on all the time, this is actually a pretty good solution - press a button and you are ready to play!
I still don't understand why their "80" series keyboards have 61 notes! I can understand that the PC-50 sounds better than PC-49, but rounding up to 80 from 61 just doesn't make sense.
Finally, Edirol has disclosed that some of their gear, including the UA-25, the new UA-101 and their popular PCR-M series will include Sonar LE starting later this year. The exact details of Sonar LE aren't available, but it looks like it will offer 64 audio tracks, 256 MIDI tracks and support 24/192 recording. I'm guessing that the LE version will be missing a lot of the plug-ins and synths found in the full Sonar, and that there will be some sort of upgrade path to the full version. Edirol's association with Cakewalk seems to be starting to show benefits for the consumer.
- Kelly.
Posted at 2:04 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
If you are a lucky owner of Bornemark's Broomstick Bass, you will want to to check our the two free "Gift Packs" that are available for registered owners.
Once you've registered and downloaded the Gift Packs, you will find the following freebies:
- An old 60s Höfner 500/1 'Beatle Bass'
- The legendary SidStation computer-chip synthesiser.
- 24 more styles
- a rare Hohner Clavinet Pianet DUO keyboard
- and additional sounds from the mighty Moog Taurus bass pedal synthesiser.
If you don't have the Broomstick Bass yet, you might want to check it out!
- Kelly
Posted at 10:36 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Friday, April 01, 2005
Steinberg Key
Apparently copy protection has it's price, and Steinberg wants you to pay for it. Effective immediately, certain Steinberg products that require the USB "dongle" copy protection device won't include it in the box.
If you already own Cubase or another Steinberg product and already have that lovely blue USB dongle then you don't have to worry about it - it will work as the protection device for any Steinberg program. However, if you don't have one yet, you'll have to shell out the $35 or so to buy one.
Steinberg argues that for the products in question, most customers already have the dongle through their previous purchase of Cubase. I guess the money they are saving from cutting down on piracy isn't enough to pay for the cost of the dongle!
- Kelly
Posted at 10:30 AM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::