Tag: Apple

Band in a Box 2014 Mac

June 8, 2014 ericdano No Comments

PG Music just released an update to one of the best programs out for Apple using musicians….Band in a Box 2014 for Mac

What is new? Well, they are touting their “GUI has been redesigned” thing. Here is what it looks like: Screen Shot 2014 06 08 at 3 30 07 PM while it’s a little better than it was, it still has a LOT of issues. First, you can’t really get rid of any of the unnecessary buttons. Like say you never ever are going to use the Video Help. Or you never want to do StyleMaker. Or the Jukebox mode. You are stuck with them.

More RealTracks. Even some Phil Woods and Gary Smulyan….though the way Band in a Box “puts together” a Phil Woods solo, it sounds strange. Not very Phil like at all for me.

The other “big” thing is that you can start adding your own loops to chords and stuff. “And, if you add an Acid loop that is on a certain root (e.g. F), Band-in-a-Box will instantly allow you to use that as a complete style, by transposing that loop to the current chord of the song in Band-in-a-Box, so that the loop follows your chord progression.” Which is great news.

Gripes….yes, of COURSE there are gripes about the program.

First, besides the cutter and button problems from above, lets talk about their Yellow and Green boxes. Instead of using the Notification center like a good Mac OS X program, it uses these hack-y little green and yellow boxes. They are really addicted to them. So much so they even have a “FlashMessageLog.txt” feature they added to show you a log of the messages. Come on people, if you did it in Notification Center, you wouldn’t need to do that.

Second, serial numbers. For a long…..long time. Since the beginning……there has NEVER been a serial number to use Band in a Box. Ever. EVER. Even back on the Atari ST days……no serial numbers. Hello 2014……you get a serial number. Not sure if it actually goes anywhere and checks to see if you have used your allocated number of computers (which is generous, 3). But still……serial numbers? That is not going to stop anyone. Even Adobe’s creative cloud stuff is out there for download and fully operational with serial/auth hacks. I guess it is more the “between friends” sharing then? I dunno. Does it check in with something? I guess I will find out, since I technically have 4 macs which I can install this on….so yea….

Third, full screen. They say they have a Full Screen mode, but its not a Mac full screen. Its more a NO TOOLBAR clutter mode.

So, besides the little gripes I have, this is still…..BY FAR……one of the best programs for a musician. Anyone getting this NEEDS to have the FULL thing, with all the RealTracks (or at least the ones you are interested in). It’s yet another refinement of an excellent program. Lets hope next year’s version (2015) comes sporting a 10.10 style redesign.

Reviews

Tuner vs Tuner

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014 ericdano No Comments

I’ve had an iPhone since week 1. In fact, I actually went to the FedEX center to get it since I missed the FedEX guy when they were trying to deliver it. Anyhow, it’s a life changing device as I know most of you know. It also has REPLACED several musical things for me, the foremost being Tuners.

I have had, over the years, owned many…..many tuners. One of the last “box” tuners I bought was a Peterson VS1 (I think that is what it is called). A Virtual Strobe Tuner. Used it for several years until the iOS version came out, which I still love. Haven’t used the VS1 in a long time, even though I have it stand mounted on my teaching stand and even have the power cable (somewhere).

Well, a couple of weeks ago, IK Multimedia came out with what they call the “UltraTuner: The most precise iOS tuner ever!”. They claim it can provide “precision down to .01 (yes, that’s 1/100th) of a cent”. I think the Peterson one is to 1/10th of a cent.

So, which is better? Well, in general use, I still like the Peterson Strobe Tuner. I don’t see it being replaced by the UltraTuner anytime soon for checking pitch for a gig or whatever. It just seems faster and just “works” for me. Now, the UltraTuner DOES have a couple of neat things that I have been using, the coolest thing being the “Studio Mode” where it sorta does an EKG reading of how your Pitch has been over time. Very cool. In fact, it would be really awesome if there was some way to email yourself a graph or plots of how the pitch was, I think that could be very helpful and interesting.

So, generally, I think the Peterson Strobe is still my favorite and Go to tuner, though the UltraTuner does have some things going for it. And yes, I have used ClearTune and some of the other tuners. Still think the Strobe is better.

Reviews

Fixed iTunes on 10.9 and iBooks

December 31, 2013December 31, 2013 ericdano No Comments

So, one of the things I rely on for teaching is iTunes. I have a HUGE library of audio, video, and PDFs. A have a couple hundred playlists that include PDFs of the books. For years, I’ve found this a fast, effective way to teach. Drill down to the playlist folder, say Jazz, then find whatever playalong I want to use, and there it is in a playlist. Then click on that playlist, boom, there are all the tracks, AND the PDF of the book. Double click the PDF, boom…it’s ready to be played.

Simple, easy……except that Apple for some reason decided that iBooks was going to take over ALL the PDF and ePub duties from iTunes. Ok, fine….except that it cleans out ALL the PDFs from your playlists, and then proceeds to move all the ePubs and PDFs into a folder on your hard drive buried under ~/Library.

Stupid.

So, I have been holding off upgrading my Studio Mac (well, Hackintosh) to 10.9 because I didn’t want to lose all my carefully organized lists and PDFs. Luckily I found a couple of Apple Support threads. It actually is simple really, thanks to Kevin Edgecomb.

Before you install 10.9, make sure you BACKUP your iTunes library files. The XML, the .itdb, and the iTunes Library files all in Music->iTunes.

Ok, so, install 10.9, then do this:

Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

And reboot (at least, that is what I had to do). Initially, the iTunes Library that was on the Mac had all the PDFs deleted even though I had not run iBooks. But moving a copy of the library files to replace the ones that got “touched” before I ran the above stuff…..works fine. All my PDFs are there. Playlists good. Everything great.

I have iBooks on my Mac at home, and it is nice, but I have NO IDEA why Apple decided to just move everything to a hidden folder in ~/Library. It would make much more sense to move the PDFs into a FOLDER in Music->iTunes something like, I dunno, “PDFs”? And then something like, lets see…..”ePubs”? Or just a generic “Books” folder? Or maybe even just move everything to a folder in your home directory called “Books”. Lots of ways to do it RATHER than where iBooks wants to put stuff, i.e. “~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks”

Lame!!!!

Articles

A Sharp Look At Spotify, Streaming Music and Musicians

October 14, 2013October 14, 2013 ericdano No Comments

The Hypebot had a link and analysis of an article David Byrne wrote for The Guardian. It is depressing, and really makes me apathetic to the whole “piracy” question. Spotify is obviously NOT paying artists, but rather the “middle man”.

“The amounts these services pay per stream is miniscule…The major record labels usually siphon off most of this income, and then they dribble about 15-20% of what’s left down to their artists. Indie labels are often a lot fairer – sometimes sharing the income 50/50.”

It’s laughable how much these streaming services pay artists. (They DON’T PAY…..One Million Pandora Plays = $16.89)

I think a better model is needed. I think Apple’s new iTunes Radio is a step in the right direction. If you hear something, you can buy it right there. Boom. And way more profit comes from the SALE of music rather than the streaming of it. I imagine that the labels are still raping artists on iTunes Radio, but for people who have put their own music on there, the chance of getting purchases off of people using iTunes Radio seems quite a bit more likely than off of Pandora or Spotify.

Do we really need these middle men anymore??

Articles

Logic X

July 16, 2013July 17, 2013 ericdano No Comments

Apple has finally released Logic Pro X. Rumors of its demise were not true. So what has changed?

First, there is no “upgrade price”. It’s $199 for this version of Logic regardless if you had the previous version or not. Now, even though it’s was just announced this morning, I have already read several blog posts (because everyone on the internet is an expert) complaining about this. I’d refer them to ProTools 11. New, it is $699, and the “upgrade price” is $599. SUCH A DEAL……not. $199 is reasonable for new version that has lots of new features.

Second, it’s fully 64bit. Logic 9 was 64bit, and that was released several years ago (3 or 4 I think?). It also requires the latest Mac OS X (10.8.4) and 4 gigs of ram. I don’t find these big deals at all. In the ProTools world, going to ProTools 11 is a huge deal as it breaks RTAS plugins. So in ProTools 11, ALL YOUR PLUGINS NEED TO BE UPDATED. In Logic X most all plugins have been updated to be 64bit. Logic drops support for 32bit plugins.

Third, Flex Pitch. That seems to be something that is now standard on all DAWs. Pseudo Melodyne like pitch editing. Something Digital Performer has had for years (I think it was first in version 6 or maybe 5….which ran on OS 9). It is a great tool to maybe fix a few little glitches in a recording, or even use it to do harmony parts.

Fourth, iPad Remote. Sadly, I can’t use the iPad remote because I still have an iPad 1 (original iPad) which can’t get iOS 6 or above. But the benefits of having it would be huge. So you can redesign your home studio (or studio), and not really be tethered to where the computer and recording hardware are. How cool is that?

There are also a lot of other interesting things, like a intelligent drummer thing that supposedly can groove to a tune you make. And more synths and guitar pedal/effects. Not really interested too much in those. I guess the mixer might have changed a little, it looks more ProTools like to me now.

In all, if you want to record, and have a Mac, get Logic. Period. I moved away from ProTools a few years ago, and I haven’t missed it at all. $199. Go. Download. Enjoy.

Oh, I found this little command line thing to figure out what plugins are 32bit or 64bit.
Here is the command to see the 64 bit plugins
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle x86_64”
Here is the command to see 32bit ones
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle i386”
And if you want to see REALLY OLD ONES
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle ppc”

All the plugins I have are 64bit. Probably cause Logic started supporting 64bit like 4 years ago.

Articles

Artiphon

June 30, 2013June 30, 2013 ericdano No Comments

We live in an awesome age. We have little 4 inch devices that are more powerful than computers that were made less than 8 years ago. Now, there is this very interesting instrument, an Artiphon.

CNN had an article on it:

Is it a guitar? Is it a piano? Nope, it is a crazy iPhone-powered combination of both. Plus it has a built in bass, violin and drum machine to boot. The Artiphon Instrument 1 looks something like a medieval lute, but with a smart phone jammed into its belly.

In 2008 the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition was established to showcase and recognize the invention of new musical instruments. Commenting on the Artiphon Instrument 1, Gil Weinberg, organizer of the competition and director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, said: “In general, I’m a big believer in using the capabilities of smart phones to power novel hardware. The ‘brain’ of such devices is already in your pocket, so why not use it?

Which got me to thinking….is it possible to take what I think is a severally crippled Akai USB EWI, and use an iPhone as the synth/controller? Hmmm…..

Articles

The Importance of Backups

March 24, 2013March 24, 2013 ericdano No Comments

For several years now, I have been storing my digital assets on a RAID5 system. The first system was a box I build from old PC parts and a raid controller. It held a whopping 1 terabyte in storage. It was loud.

The second system was a ReadyNAS NV. This was a little shoebox size computer that held 4 drives. It worked remarkably well, even when I swapped out the original 250 gig drives with 1 terabyte drives (to make my total storage close to 3 terabytes). Great little unit, but it was slow (650mhz processor).

Last year I upgraded to a Synology DS1512. The first unit I got had a serious firmware issue, and they had to send me a new unit. It had been running flawlessly until about two weeks ago. Then, a drive failed….

No big deal. I had two drives fail on the readynas unit. You simply take up the disk, put in a new one, and it rebuilds itself…..no data lost. The synology unit should be the same. So, I proceeded to go on amazon and order a new drive…..then the improbable happened……a second drive failed.

Now, RAID5 is designed to handle one drive dying, not two. Technically, the drive didn’t completely die, the system map got screwed up somehow. Basically, the unit crashed miserably, and probably was not recoverable (didn’t even boot)

Luckily, over the summer, I got a two disk synology unit, and had been remotely syncing changes from the DS1512 to it. Plus I had also been using the readynas nv as a backup as well. So, I didn’t lose nearly 3 terabytes of songs, movies, books, and recordings.

Now, you probably don’t have a NAS. But you probably have a computer. You need to backup files now. Get a hard drive and use time machine on the Mac or whatever similar program exists for windows. Backup. Seriously consider getting a CrashPlan or similar service account.

You can never have too many backups.

Articles

Going All Digital

January 12, 2013 ericdano No Comments

If you’ve noticed, there have been a lack of new posts lately? “Oh no, he’s losing interest in the site. Where are we going to get our latest Katy Perry sheets?” you might say. Fear not, there are a lot of things in the pipeline. So where have I been? Busy. Actual high paying gigs, working on CDs for my students, and…..finally going paperless.

Since getting an iPad in 2010, well, actually, before that, when I decided in 2007 to get a second monitor attached to my computer in my teaching studio, I have wanted to abandon all my physical books. Actually, probably iTunes ushered in this era, where you could have ALL your teaching materials (Aebersold, other play-alongs) available instantly on your computer. When I first started teaching full time in 1999, I bought a 300 disc CD player to hold all the Aebersold volumes I had, then other play-alongs I had. I had books strewn all over the place. I had printed sheets, which some of the kids called the “Reject pile”, on the floor (songs that I had made on Finale and printed to try, but then for various reasons it wasn’t going to work for them). It was a mess. But iTunes started to change that. Spending a few months ripping my mass collection of CDs into iTunes, it was amazing. All of a sudden I could instantly pull up a Aebersold blues in F, or in C on separate volumes. Gradually the CD player was being used less and less. Now, it is still in my studio (above the DAT recorder I have). It hasn’t been plugged in for well over a year, probably two. I really don’t know.

When I put a second monitor on my teaching computer, partly to use SmartMusic (which started to put sheet music play-alongs in the program), and partly to see the songs/exercises/arrangements I did in Finale, I was stunned by how it changes your teaching. Finding stuff is simple. In the case of having something in Finale, does it need to be in a different key? Click….done. Transposed down an octave? Click…..done. And no more piles of paper.

But, I still had a huge collection of books. Aebersolds, Fishman, Snidero, more flute books that I care to count, clarinet books, oboe books, jazz books. Books books books! Great stuff in the books, but it was and still is a PAIN IN THE ASS to find something. Maybe there was an exercise in flute book X…..now where is flute book X…….oh, I can’t find it…..did I lend it out to someone never to get it back? So, sometime in 2008 I decided to scan some of my books that I use a lot.

Scanning a book though is a pain. Mainly, because they are double sided. It takes a lot of time to scan, even if you break the binding or cut the binding off. I had been using a Brother All-in-one to scan one side, then I’d have to scan the other side, and then go through and number them, then assemble them into a PDF…….it was a lot of work….but I did it for a lot of books I used a lot. It made finding them instant now, and copying a page as simple as a Command-P now. But there are still hundreds of books left…….

Enter my Christmas gift…..a Fujitsu Scansnap 1500M. How do I explain this…..it is like maybe being Christopher Colombus and getting GPS and a modern boat at the same time? No…..maybe getting an iPhone in 1970? That is closer to what it is. This machine was not cheap ($430 or so), but it is worth it. It does well over 20 pages a minute, double sided, high resolution. Puts them into a PDF, OCRs them…..it is amazing. In the week and a half I’ve had it (it came Jan 2), I have blown through 2 boxes of old music magazines, and probably a hundred books (a lot of them are drum books for a drum teacher….who’s paying me to do the scanning). And now I have easily tripled the number of books in my digital collection. I’m using stuff out of books I had totally forgotten about. It’s great.

The ONE downside is that I still have NOT found a good organizer of PDFs. The big issue is that I have all my digital stuff on a NAS (RAID5). I mean, it would be STUPID not to have some sort of digital insurance like that (plus Crashplan). But all the cool PDF like organizers either don’t find the OCRed text in the files on a network share (iDocument) or what to put all the PDFs into a tome (Devonthink Pro). I don’t want to put them into one tome/database file because I still want to have them in iTunes (I have playlists with the PDF and the tracks on ones that have audio tracks). So, that is the only weak link right now. Like if Devonthink would just symbolically link to a PDF and still be able to search the text there…….that would be great. Supposedly iDocument is going to add this.

So, that is what I’ve been up to. No more paper or paper books. I’m digitalizing all of the stuff I have that I use or want to use. Things seem like they are getting less cluttered in my studio as the books disappear (they go into the recycle bin once I am happy with the scan). It’s great. I’d HIGHLY recommend this scanner to everyone. It EATS paper.

Articles

Site Slow for the Next Few Days….Due To Crashplan

November 25, 2012 ericdano No Comments

Sorry guys and gals, but the site might be a little slow for the next few days? Why? Well, Crashplan has a amazing sale this weekend. A whole year of the Family version of it for $17. Well, it started off free supposedly, but then it was going up in price every two hours and when I got word of it Friday, it was at $17. Right now it is about $60 for a year of the family plan (up to 10 computers, unlimited data backup).

If you DON’T backup your computers, you should. Crashplan is PERFECT for this. It’s unobtrusive, and gives you another layer of protection in keeping your stuff safe (I can’t imagine losing all my Finale files……) in addition to your TimeMachine or whatever else you backup to. And even at $60 for a family plan, it is still a steal.

Crashplan works on Mac, Windows and Linux. Since the Jazz-Sax server is a Linux box, I can now finally backup the server files to the cloud. Whew. So, until the initial backup is done (about 2 days according to the program…..since it doesn’t use ALL the bandwidth I have), we might be a little slow for a while. Plus, my MacPro is also sending stuff to the cloud.

News

Music Notation and Music Education Software News | MakeMusic, Inc.

November 12, 2012November 12, 2012 ericdano No Comments

Music Notation and Music Education Software News | MakeMusic, Inc.:

Minneapolis – November 12, 2012 – MakeMusic, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMUS) today announced the upcoming release of an iPad version of SmartMusic, the interactive practice software, in the spring of 2013. The app will be previewed to the public at the New York State School Music Association Winter Conference, November 29 – December 2, 2012, and The Midwest Clinic Annual Conference, December 19 – 22, 2012.

(Via www.makemusic.com)

MakeMusic should have this out in the Spring of 2012, not 2013. And hopefully it should run on ALL iPads (including the original) since Apple’s Garageband still runs on the original iPad (and it runs quite well actually).

Articles

Recording Saxophone in Logic 9

November 10, 2012November 11, 2012 ericdano 4 Comments

Since leaving ProTools, I had to redo my default recording presets in Logic. Here is how I currently have it set up. First, I record everything at 96Khz. Why? Because I can. I think it sounds better too. More open maybe? I dunno.

Here is a picture of my channel setups. The first track is the track I am recording to (input 1). I have the output bussed to Aux 1 on Bus 27 (could be any bus, it doesn’t matter). This Aux will have all the plugins and EQ setting setup on it. So, if I do another track, I don’t have to recreate everything.

This Aux is also mono, keeping it similar to the source material. Also, this Aux is sending some of it’s signal to Aux 2, which is for reverb. You could add reverb on this aux strip, but a this is sort of a trick I learned while mixing a CD. You have both the source and the reverb separate.

Next, lets look at what plugins I have on the Aux strip….

Articles

Band in a Box 2012.5 for Mac

September 14, 2012September 16, 2012 ericdano No Comments

This week has been amazing. First, on Wednesday, we had Apple announce the iPhone 5. On Friday, PG Music unleashed Band in a Box 2012.5 for Mac. I shudder to think what next week will bring (other than actually receiving an iPhone 5 on Friday!).

Like the iPhone 5, Band in a Box 2012.5 is more tweaking of an already great product. I still am surprised that more musicians do not know of this amazing piece of software. Or maybe still dismiss it as this midi tool (which it was back in the 90s) that uses Quicktime to generate cheesy backgrounds. It is not that. These people also probably still believe we didn’t go to the moon.

Band in a Box, if you read this site, I always rave about. For anyone learning jazz, or just music in general, it is an invaluable tool. You simply type in a chord progression, tempo, key (if you want), and then pick a style. There are sooo many styles. There are quite a few midi only tracks that, depending on your setup, can sound very very good. But the program has really shines in it’s use of “RealTracks”. The software pretty much seemlessly takes real performances and will piece them into the song. So, if you wanted your masterpiece in the key of Db in the style of a Pop song with Electric keyboard, fretless bass, drums, and a Smooth sax soloing….it can do this. And it sounds damn good. Every version of the program, like every revision of the iPhone, tweaks and improves upon what they had before.

New things in this version of Band in a Box:

Cuban RealTracks made with Rebeca Mauleón, Mike LeDonne Jazz Waltz Organ (love this one!), and more
Super MidiTracks
new chord types, including the diminished triad (Cdim5 has notes C, Eb, Gb), the “add2” chord (Cadd2 = C, D, E, G) and “madd2” (Finally diminished triads!)

There were some other tweaks to the program to. There is a simplified saving to M4A or AIFF from the File Menu (though I did want this to be a pop up dialog in the beta test so you could easily select say a DropBox folder to save them to rather than the program just dumping it into folder where the source file exists. Last beta still did it that way :-(). The program does load a little faster than the 2012 as well.

There are still some annoyances. I swear every beta test I am involved with, I complain about the “Open Song By Title” thing, which will display the song title, file name, if it has a melody, and the style. Great tool. Except the Windows version will traverse folders in that folder (nested folders), and the Mac version just does the files in the folder. So the 10,000+ Band in a Box files I have would have to be all in ONE folder instead of sort of organized into subfolders.

Another annoyance, or rather, something they need to bring to the fore in the program is the “Woodshed Tempo” thing. It is buried in Preferences 2 in the program. Basically, what it does is that every time you end a loop of a song, say you get done with the 5 choruses of Giant Steps at 160, it will bump up the next loop of the song by a certain number of beats per minute. So you can practice changes to a song, and start it at say 140, and have it bump up every loop by 10 clicks every time. Amazing for practicing. I keep lobbying for them to make a button for this, or at least make it so it’s not buried in the program. It’s a great tool to use…..and few seem to know it’s there.

So, the verdict. Of course it is a BUY. If you are learning music, and specifically, Jazz (or soloing), you need this tool. And you need to splurge and get ALL the real tracks (or AT LEAST the styles you like). The BEST version to get is the Hard Drive version, which PG Music will send you a hard drive that has lots of extra space, and the program and all the styles and real tracks. And it’s portable, so you can take it between home and the studio, or use it on another computer. The program takes something like 65 gigs to install.

Yes, it is expensive to get the whole thing. But like any good tool, it is an investment. And PG Music’s upgrades are very reasonable (usually the upgrades to all the new real tracks and stuff is $129).

Get this program. Or put it on your Christmas list.

Reviews

Ditching Pro Tools For Logic

June 15, 2012 ericdano No Comments

For various reasons, I decided NOT to upgrade my ProTools to the new version. I won a system in 2007 that included a copy of ProTools M-Powered version 7. I upgraded to 8 as well, and mixed a big band album with the gear. I thought about moving to 9, but the upgrade costs were huge. Plus, I had also, in 2007, bought Logic 8 when Steve Jobs issued $200 credits to the first buyers of iPhones (love you Steve!).

Anyhow, when Mac OS X 10.7 Lion came out, the fate of ProTools for me was sealed. Version 8 didn’t run on it. But Logic ran on it. And for $199 I could buy Logic 9 from the App Store. And I did. And I haven’t looked back.

Is there something I miss about ProTools? I think the flow of working with audio is a little better, and the tools are incredibly cool. That is not to say that Logic doesn’t have these tools, but like to put in a Fade in ProTools vs Logic, it seems to be more precise in ProTools. I do miss my McDSP plugins though. I had bought them when they were RTAS, and I do miss them. Especially some of the compressors. Oh well. Oh, and Altiverb 6 sorta works in Logic in 64bit mode but shows up as unsupported. Strange.

I DO however, love the Exporting out of Logic. You don’t have to play the whole thing back. You bounce it, and boom. It is done in mere seconds. Logic also has a wealth of built in plugins.

If you use a Mac, and are sick of ProTools reaming you for upgrades, get Logic.

Articles, Reviews

Finale Songbook

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 ericdano No Comments

Though this author likes the program, I think MakeMusic has missed the mark again. No transposition, no DropBox or any cloud integration. No annotations. No sale (even though it’s free). Maybe version 2 will correct this, but given how fast (or rather, slow) MakeMusic does updates to Finale and its other programs, I think the competition is going to continue to be way ahead of Finale.

If you want a good music reader for iPad, get ForScore

Finale Songbook:

I am happy to announce that Finale has finally released its first mainstream iPad app, Finale Songbook. Finale Songbook is a free app that allows you to read Finale files on your iPad. I love the name of the app, as it hearkens back to the song books of the jazz standards. The app opens to the main library, in which you can view your selections by playlists, title, composer, or file name. The library also includes a search bar, as well as a number of sample files and instructions on how to use the app.

(Via Technology in Music Education)

Articles

How Aebersold Needs To Embrace Technology

March 9, 2012March 9, 2012 ericdano No Comments

A while ago, I wrote a post/rant about Aebersold pushing the Superscope Elevation software. Enough said about that. But I get these mailings from jazz books.com about sales, and they are still pushing these Superscope CD things that are like $999. Insane.

It makes me wonder WHY Jazzbooks/Aebersold has not embraced the digital age yet. The writing has been on the wall for about 2 years now that print media is a dying business. As is the making of CDs. Aebersold is running the risk of becoming like Kodak.

So, how to change this? Here is what I would propose if I was in charge. First, offer digital versions of the catalog. The play-alongs, put them in Amazon and iTunes for $.99. When someone buys the them that way, they also get the lead sheet in C/Eb/Bb/Bass clef. Would I put them out as tomes like they are now? No. What I would do is fully embrace technology and develop an App that would allow purchases of new songs within it. So, if someone ends up buying 100 songs that Aebersold produces, then they will be within the app, easily searchable, indexed, etc. You could just display the Eb versions, or whatever. And allow annotations of the lead sheets (i.e. let people mark up the sheets if they want).

The App would also have a slowdown function, and the ability to loop sections. Heck, some of the FREE slowdown things on the iPhone/iPad do this already. The ability to change the pitch would also be included, as would the ability to record what you are playing and the ability to hear just what you did, or you with the track. And you can mix it when you are playing back. And send it to like Garageband if you wanted. Or get it out of the App. The annotations that you did you could send via email, or print, or make a PDF.

So, the base App would be free and include maybe a couple of freebee tracks to entice people. Then in-App purchases would be $.99 for a new song complete with Eb/Bb/C/Bass lead sheet.

Ok, that takes care of the legacy Play-Alongs, but what about all the books that they publish. I’m not sure how they would do as EPUBs like in the iBook store. They might do better as a Textbook created with iAuthor. I would think that most of these could be make into PDFs fairly easily. Regardless, they need to be digital. PDF would be great, EPUB if possible, or maybe even an App for each book (like Greg Fishman’s stuff). Though, I would think that if they went the App per book route, they could use the engine that the play-alongs use. Then everything would be all together and you don’t end up with 30 apps for everything.

I don’t know if Aebersold is planning this sort of thing, but they need to. All these sales emails has me concerned, and it just makes more sense. With the iPad continuing to be a huge hit……who wants to carry around huge books or Superscope devices when an iPad can all that and more….

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