Thursday, June 16, 2005
Avid Buys Pinnacle...
In an interesting twist, Avid, the owner of Digidesign and M-Audio, recently acquired Pinnacle Systems. Pinnacle Systems was the former owner of Steinberg, before Yamaha's recent acquisition of Steinberg. Avid was rumored to be interesting in purchasing Steinberg from Pinnacle. Pinnacle will add a consumer video division to Avid's offerings, which now includes consumer and pro audio along with consumer and pro video.
Who's next? Cakewalk and MOTU are one of the few remaining players that haven't changed ownership recently...
- Kelly
Posted at 7:47 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
EarMaster 5
EarMaster was recently upgraded to Version 5. EarMaster has always been an excellent value when you consider the range of exercises and the depth of content for improving your aural skills. It is now even more versatile with a number of new features, including:
- interval singing (very useful for developing your sight singing skills)
- rhythmic notation
- a jazz tutor (with over 200 lessons specific for jazz, including swing rhythms!)
- Sound2MIDI 2.0 for better pitch to MIDI
- live rhythm clapping feedback
- solfege note naming options
- transposing instruments (a great feature for instrumentalists)
If you already own EarMaster, you can upgrade from Kelly's Music & Computers. If you don't have it yet, download a demo!
- Kelly
Posted at 7:44 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Monday, June 13, 2005
Live 5
Ableton, well known for shaking up the industry with their innovations, has announced the upcoming release of Live 5. New features include clip freeze, plug-in delay compensation and other tools usually found in high end DAW systems. They've also beefed up their array of "Remix" tools by adding support for using MP3 files and adding a new complex warp mode that works with mixed down music. They have also added some cool new devices, devices, such as Beat Repeat, Phaser, Flanger, Auto Pan, Saturator, Arpeggiator and the updated Simpler.
Live 5 should start shipping in July. If you purchase it now, you will receive a free upgrade from Abelton. If you purchased Live after May 1st, 2005, you will get a free upgrade from the Ableton's web site.
- Kelly.
Posted at 9:42 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Music XML 1.1
Recordare recently released an update to its MusicXML format. MusicXML was designed as a universal file format to allow notation programs to share scores. While Finale offers support MusicXML, most other programs, such as Sibelius, still require the use of a third party plug-in. Hopefully the MusicXML format will have more success than the NIFF format, which was designed for the same purpose, but never seemed to gain widespread support. If a few more companies, such as Sibelius, supported the MusicXML format, it would offer a great opportunity for users to finally share scores with each other without having to worry about the program used to create it.
- Kelly
Posted at 9:26 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::
Friday, June 03, 2005
Gigastudio 3.1
Gigastudio owners will soon be able to download a free update to Gigastudio 3.1. Some of the new features include the ability to create iMIDI templates, making it easier to use iMIDI rules for adding life to instrument sounds. The Stack Instrument Selection feature allows you to quickly assign keyswitches to swap sounds on a MIDI channel during a performance - a great tool for anyone using Giga live. You can now drag & drop to create GigaPulse presets, and there are new keyboard shortcuts designed to improve your workflow in GigaStudio.
- Kelly
Posted at 1:47 PM by Kelly's Music :: Archived :: TrackBack (0) ::