PGMusic just released Band In A Box 2010.5 for the Mac. Improvements? Yes, several. Here are a few that I think are noteworthy: Styles can now be made that are set to use Half-Time and Double-Time RealTracks. For example, you can make a Jazz Ballad style (tempo 65) that uses a Sax Soloist at tempo [Continue]

Almost 9 months after Apple released OS X 10.5, Digidesign got around to releasing an update to Pro Tools to let people run it “officially” on 10.5. Woohoo. I had to run Pro Tools on 10.5 due to a new Mac Pro purchase. It worked ok on the MacPro, failed miserably on my iMac. Then [Continue]

Native Instruments has released a FREE sound player. The Kore Player looks really cool. And the price is right (free), plus you can add in sound packs for a fairly reasonable price. However….I downloaded, twice now, the Player for Mac OS X. It installs just fine, but it cannot find any of the sounds it [Continue]

MakeMusic finally released SmartMusic 10.2 today. Highlights of the new features: Support of Mac OS X Leopard Microphone Check Wizard ensures proper microphone levels for recording and assessment Easier-to-Use – many aspects of SmartMusic have been simplified and made more intuitive, including the installer, login process, activation, and update [Continue]

I got into recording a while ago, my first interface being an original MOTU 828. That thing works great. However, it is not supported in ProTools, and I kind of want to start using ProTools more. Plus, I want to move it to my home studio to hopefully make it easier to record virtual tracks [Continue]

You know, you think you never will win these contests that you enter online. Well….NA NA NA NA! I seem to have won one. I subscribe to the great SOS magazine which has all kinds of invaluable tips and insights on……tons of stuff like recording, using programs like Logic or Digital Performer or Protools, micing [Continue]

Create Digital Music has an interesting article about using your old Nintendo NES with Apple’s Logic Studio. Not sure exactly why you’d want it, other than maybe to get your geek on and add some Mario sounds to your next album. If you want some more nutty things, check out Musicthing. They have things like [Continue]

Wired magazine has a very interesting interview with Herbie Hancock out. Way too short of an interview. But some interesting insights from the piano master. [Continue]

Today, Apple announced it’s Logic Studio. Not only did they pack a ton of features into an already feature rich product, they dropped the price to $499. Amazing. There are new features such as mainstage, five Apple Jam Packs, more software instruments, and thousands of other sounds. Plus, you get Soundtrack 2, which is an [Continue]

One of my favorite whipping boys is SmartMusic. This program could be so great, and yet, MakeMusic seems not to want to put that little extra polish on it. Case in point, the latest “update” to SmartMusic is a large download, some 95 Megabytes. Took some time to download. Here is what is listed as [Continue]

Ok, so we all know that the latest Macs all run Intel processors. You might have heard of an Apple Beta program called Boot Camp where you can get your Mac to boot up as a *shutter* Windows XP computer. You might also have heard of a program Parallels that lets you mitigate Windows to [Continue]

MakeMusic released Finale 2007 a while ago. August I believe. I’ve been using it since then, and I think I can finally review it properly. There are not a lot great new features in Finale 2007 compared to 2006. The big feature, in fact, really the only feature that is huge, is the linked parts. [Continue]

I have a love/hate relationship with MakeMusic’s Smartmusic. First, the love part. I love that it has a lot of backgrounds for classical etudes, and you can slow them down, tweak the key, etc. You can even record yourself with it, though the quality and the mixing of the resulting recording is not great at [Continue]

About 3 or so years ago, I totally got into the iPod. At first, I didn’t see the point. I do now. Having thousands or tens of thousands of songs available, instantly, is amazing. You can call up an exercise you record in Band in a Box, or perhaps a Cannonball solo, and drag it [Continue]

An interesting “News and Notes” thing was posted on PG Music’s site. They “tested” their software on Intel macs running Windows. They say all the stuff worked fine. Is it me, or is PG Music hinting that they are going to completely drop the Macintosh version of Band in a Box. I believe that is [Continue]