EMEDIAEMedia has released a new version of its Guitar Method 1 instructional CD-ROM ($59.95). Its several new features include an animated fretboard, enhanced soundtracks, and additional lessons. You can now read music in standard notation or guitar tablature, view the fretboard from different angles, and manipulate the program's interface.
Twenty-five new lessons and exercises show you how to read music, and some of the video lessons are given by an onscreen teacher. Other features include an automatic tuner, an audio recorder, a chord dictionary, and a metronome. All of the program's functions are accessible by shortcut keys.
More than 70 songs are represented, including such popular numbers as "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "House of the Rising Sun," "Downtown Train," and "La Bamba." These feature bass, keyboard, and drum accompaniment parts. The program's Animated Fretboard displays a virtual guitar neck that demonstrates how the fingering for chords and notes change as the music plays. (Left-handed players can use the fretboard, too-it's reversible.) The new Fretronome feature combines a metronome with the Animated Fretboard, displaying changing notes and chords at any tempo. Sections of songs can also be looped as needed.
Guitar Method 1 requires at least an 80386 PC running Windows 3.1, 95, or 98; Mac users need a 68020 or better processor and Mac OS 7 or higher. eMedia Corporation; tel. (206) 329-5657; fax (206) 329-0235; e-mail jennya@emedia.org; Web www.emedia.org.
WIZOOWizoo, a German company that has made several product-specific guides as well as sample CDs, has released Audio in Computers ($29.95), a book that takes you on a step-by-step journey through your computer, showing you how it can help you make music. The book is formatted for everyone from beginners to advanced computer recordists.
Introductory chapters explore how a sound wave is converted into a digital file, and later chapters describe advanced techniques such as how to remedy problems caused by incorrect sampling rates. There are general-interest chapters on the advantages and drawbacks of digital technology, random-access recording, data backup, sound cards, modular digital multitracks, portable MiniDisc studios, stand-alone hard disk recorders, samplers, mixing consoles, recording and file formats, and synchronization. Chapters written for advanced users cover topics in greater depth. They include advice on dithering, using various digital audio connection formats and storage formats, overcoming latency issues, and working with word clock and time code. Still other chapters are designed to help you troubleshoot typical problems such as sync errors, incorrect sampling rates, and mixing with files that use different word lengths.
The book includes an extensive glossary and comes with a CD that offers online support. Wizoo; tel. 49-421-701-870; fax 49-421-706-435; e-mail info@wizoo.com; Web www.wizoo.com.
INTERACTIVE MUSICYou can find online guitar and piano lessons at the Net Music School (www.netmusicschool.com) hosted by Interactive Music. You get a single free introductory guitar and piano lesson; after that, $8.95 buys 12 months of unlimited lessons that remain on Interactive Music's server, accessible by password. The lessons are animated and can be viewed by downloading Macromedia's free Flash 4 plug-in.
The beginning guitar lessons teach you the basics of playing-describing the instrument and its accessories, how to hold the guitar, tune it, and read tablature. Later lessons cover chords, fretting, waltz rhythms, and more. You'll also learn to play such hits as "The House of the Rising Sun," "La Bamba," and "Love Me Tender."
The piano lessons show you how to sit, how to hold your arms and hands, how to read from the bass and treble clefs, how to read measures and bar lines, how to change time signatures, and more.
The Net Music School site offers several other features as well, including a guitar-chord database, advice on what to look for when buying a piano, lessons covering standard notation for guitar and piano, and tips and tricks for making practice more beneficial. Visitors can link to www.MusicTeacherFind.com, a music-teacher database run by Interactive Music that you can sort by instrument and city. The database is a free service. Interactive Music, Inc.; tel. (212) 242-2464; fax (212) 242-2805; e-mail comments@imusicinc.com; Web www.netmusicschool.com.
APPLIED ACOUSTICS TASSMANTassman (Win; $395), from Applied Acoustics Systems, is a software synthesizer with modular architecture that physically models analog-synthesizer hardware and acoustic instruments. Using a graphical interface inspired by analog hardware, you can build instruments from onscreen modules and perform real-time processing of audio files. All of the program's functions can be mapped to MIDI controllers.
Tassman's library contains more than 40 modules, including VCOs; LFOs; attack, decay, sustain, and release envelopes; filters; and distortion. There are also modules of acoustic objects-such as plates, beams, strings, membranes, tubes, flute embouchures, and reeds-whose geometric and physical properties can be adjusted. You can patch the modules together to reproduce classic synth and acoustic instrument sounds, or to create new ones. Presets include vintage analog synths by Moog, ARP, and Sequential Circuits, as well as electric pianos, flutes, and percussion instruments.
Tassman performs calculations with 32-bit floating-point resolution at 44.1 kHz, with either stereo audio or WAV file results. Its polyphony is limited only by your computer's performance. The program requires at least a Pentium 266 with 32 MB of RAM running Windows 95 or 98. Applied Acoustics Systems; tel. (514) 871-4963; fax (514) 871-4964; e-mail info@applied-acoustics.com; Web www.applied-acoustics.com.
APHEX THERMIONICS 1100Aphex's new Thermionics division has released the 1100 ($2,495), a dual-channel tube mic preamp with 24-bit, 96 kHz A/D converters. Each channel offers a 20 dB pad, phase reverse, and 48V phantom power. Other features include a test-tone button and the MicLim circuit, which limits the input signal before preamplification to prevent digital clipping. Each channel also has a low-cut filter that provides up to 20 dB of cut, with selectable cutoff points between 30 and 195 Hz.
The Thermionics 1100's solid-state amplifier uses discrete, Class A circuitry. The signal then passes through the company's patented Reflected Plate Amplifier tube circuitry, and another set of these tubes is used at the output stage. This design discourages noise while providing tube coloration.
Input is on balanced XLR and balanced 11/44-inch connectors. Analog output is on balanced 11/44-inch connectors, and you can select between +4 dBu and -10 dBV operating levels. The 1100 features AES/EBU digital output on XLR connectors. You can sync from internal or external word clock using the unit's rear-panel BNC connector. You can select output sample rates of 44.1, 48, or 96 kHz.
Aphex rates the 1100's frequency response at 20 Hz to 22 kHz, dynamic range at 97 to 101 dB (depending on preamp gain setting), and equivalent input noise at -135 dB (at full gain). Aphex Systems, Ltd.; tel. (818) 767-2929; fax (818) 767-2641; e-mail sales@aphexsys.com; Web www.aphexsys.com.
Audio Ease has released a handy application called VST Wrapper ($29.95). The program allows users of MOTU's Digital Performer and AudioDesk/2408 to use VST plug-ins exactly as they would plug-ins in MOTU's proprietary MAS format. VST Wrapper is designed to be invisible, and according to Audio Ease, it uses very little processing power, so there is no degradation in plug-in performance. The application is available only as a download from the company's Web site at www.audioease.com.Doug Wyatt, author of Opcode's Open Music System (OMS), has posted an open letter to Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of the Gibson Guitar Corporation, online at www.sonosphere.com. The letter asks Gibson to release the source code for OMS (a Mac system extension for managing MIDI devices and MIDI interapplications communication) so that developers can update it for use with upcoming Apple operating systems. OMS has been freely available since its creation in 1990 and became the property of Gibson when the company purchased Opcode in 1998. You can sign an e-mail petition about OMS at the Sonosphere site.CreamWare users can now find additional resources for the company's Pulsar and SCOPE systems in the Interactive Service Area at www.creamware.com. This part of the site offers direct purchase of new items such as the STS-4000 software sampler ($198.30), SB-404 monophonic software synth ($129.19), ADS-16i software drum machine ($69.10), and several others... ConnectSound offers online purchase of a wide variety of audio products, as well as an extensive glossary and an audio FAQ page. Use the site's ConnectSound Configurator to assemble a sound-reinforcement system optimized for a particular space. Fill out a questionnaire, and the Configurator provides a complete list of necessary components, from mixers to connectors.