Tag Archives: ut oh

EWI Wars Over?

One good way of judging how good or bad something is doing is by looking at the press it is receiving. For example, the Microsoft Zune. When it was launched, it garnered a lot of press. Office Depot even had it in their weekly ads and even had in store displays. Now……..nope. Their weekly ad has a SansDisk Fuze player, and iPod accessories.

This week, I received a catalog from American Musical Supply. It usually, towards the back with the keyboards, has the Akai EWI 4000s and the Yamaha WX5 on a page. This issue…..the WX5 wasn’t listed. *Gasp*

Could this be a sign that the EWI wars are over? That Yamaha might can the WX line? I’m not too sure, but when sellers are not advertising it, but rather a competing product……one might get a little worried. Though I think we will see Microsoft kill the Zune line well before Yamaha kills the WX.

MakeMusic CEO Resigns

I came across this today.

Minneapolis – November 24, 2008 – MakeMusic Inc. (Nasdaq: MMUS), a world leader in music notation and education software, today announced that John Paulson has resigned from his positions as co-chief executive officer and director. Mr. Paulson will serve as a consultant for the company for a transitional period. The board of directors would like to thank Mr. Paulson for his service to the company: As the founder of MakeMusic, Mr. Paulson’s commitment, dedication and entrepreneurial spirit were instrumental in helping MakeMusic achieve its status as a leader in its field.

Is this hopefully a good turn for the makers of Finale and SmartMusic? I hope so. Finale has been a mess since Finale 2007. They added Linked Parts, then did nothing. They have been adding fluff to Finale, and focusing on SmartMusic, which is a similar disaster. There is a lot of potential in both products, but there is a disconnect and how they work together (basically……..not really well).

Hopefully 2009 will be the year they get their act together……or someone creates a way for Sibelius to read Finale 2009 and previous version files……without any conversions.