EMEDIA PIANO & KEYBOARD METHOD

EMedia is shipping Piano and Keyboard Method (Mac/Win, $59.95), for beginning players. Most of the program's 316 lessons feature notation and an animated keyboard that displays the correct fingering. Some lessons offer spoken comments and video clips of piano teacher Irma Justicia demonstrating techniques.

Songs include live recordings and MIDI sequences of piano parts and accompaniment. When you play, the software provides visual feedback, showing your errors onscreen. A metronome and audio recorder are also on hand. EMedia; tel. (888) 363-3424; e-mail custserv@emediamusic.com; Web www.emediamusic.com.

BIAS SOUNDSOAP PRO

BIAS has announced SoundSoap Pro (Mac/Win, $599), a suite of audio-restoration tools in a single plug-in. SoundSoap Pro's integrated user interface displays four navigation tabs — Hum & Rumble, Click & Crackle, Broadband, and Noise Gate — arranged in the order you would most often perform such operations. The tabs display their settings simultaneously, so you can monitor parameters globally no matter which tool is selected.

Some broadband noise-reduction tools, including BIAS's entry-level SoundSoap, analyze a sound file and then suppress noise by applying threshold and reduction across the entire spectrum. Other products offer user controls for hundreds of bands, but they can be tedious to operate and produce unwanted artifacts. SoundSoap Pro controls 512 frequency bands with 12 threshold and reduction sliders paired with 12 level meters to reduce broadband noise while minimizing artifacts. A snapshot-style noise profile estimates the ideal settings, which you can adjust manually to fine-tune the results. A real-time spectrogram provides constant monitoring of spectral noise, allowing you to easily identify problems and make appropriate corrections.

SoundSoap Pro supports VST, Audio Units, RTAS, and DirectX plug-in formats. Minimum requirements are a Pentium III/800 MHz and Windows XP for PC users or a G4/500 MHz and Mac OS X 10.2 for Mac users, as well as a compatible host program. BIAS; tel. (800) 775-BIAS or (707) 782-1866; e-mail sales@bias-inc.com; Web www.bias-inc.com.

CAMEL AUDIO CAMELEON 5000

Cameleon 5000 (Mac/Win, $299) is a unique additive synthesizer plug-in from Camel Audio, British developer of the CamelPhat multi-effects plug-in. Cameleon 5000 can analyze the harmonic content of AIFF or WAV files and resynthesize any musical instrument. You can manipulate the resulting sound in real time, warping and enhancing it at will.

Cameleon 5000 can load as many as four sounds simultaneously and morph between them. That means you could fade from a bell to a flute to a bird over the course of a single note. It also means that you can create hybrid instruments by combining the characteristics of different sounds, merging a cello with a harp or a sitar with a flute, for example. Cameleon 5000 features 64 detunable partials, a 128-band formant filter, and onboard effects processing.

Cameleon 5000 runs as a plug-in for Audio Units or VST. It ships with a library of more than 500 presets in numerous instrumental categories. Minimum system requirements on the Mac are a G3/400 MHz, 128 MB of RAM, and Mac OS 9.1 or OS X 10.1. PC users will need at least a Pentium III/600 MHz, 128 MB of RAM, and Windows 98, 2000, ME, or XP. A demo version is available online. Camel Audio; Web www.camelaudio.com.

CYCLING '74 RADIAL

Cycling '74 is shipping version 1.1 of its loop-based composition and performance software, Radial (Mac; boxed, $199; download, $189; upgrade, free). Radial goes beyond manipulating the tempo and pitch of multiple loops, providing a unique user interface designed specifically for playing live. Enhancements to version 1.1 include Mac OS X compatibility, improved sync capabilities, and a convenient file-grouping mechanism. (Radial 1.0 is still available for Mac OS 8 and 9 users.)

In Radial, circular displays represent Loop Channels. Each one has a multimode filter and independent time and pitch scaling. Operating Radial is simple: drop a loop onto one of the channels, tweak its parameters, sculpt it with filters and DSP effects, and control playback in real time. You can manipulate virtually every aspect of the system using MIDI, a control surface, or the Macintosh's keyboard and mouse.

Radial 1.1 offers full VST support and includes 13 Pluggo plug-ins for delay, distortion, reverb, filtering, and other effects. It reads AIFF, WAV, and MP3 files and supports multichannel audio input and output, matrix audio routing, tap tempo, and external synchronization. The installation disc includes nearly 500 MB of loops in a variety of styles, most of them created especially for use with Radial by developers such as Chris Randall, DJ Safety Scissors, Darwin Grosse, Gregory Taylor, and jhno. If you download the software, you can order the loop CD separately ($10). Radial 1.1 requires at least a G3/300 MHz, Mac OS X 10.2, and 128 MB of RAM. A fully functional 30-day demo is available for download. Cycling '74; tel. (415) 974-1818; e-mail info@cycling74.com; Web www.cycling74.com.

OPEN LABS OPENSTUDIO OMX 64

Offering an all-in-one turnkey solution for digital audio recording and synthesis, Open Labs has begun shipping the OpenStudio OMX 64 ($3,095 and up), a Windows-based computer system. The OMX 64 bundles the computer, software, and I/O interfaces in a 4U chassis with a single or dual AMD Opteron 64-bit processor running at 1.4 or 2.0 GHz. The computer has a removable 80 GB hard drive, a CD-RW drive, full-size PCI slots, and an internal uninterruptible power supply. It also comes with a wireless keyboard, mouse, and remote control. The OMX 64's PCI audio card handles 24-bit, 96 kHz audio with 8 analog ins, 8 analog outs, and stereo S/PDIF I/O, as well as word-clock I/O and two XLR inputs with mic preamps. The rear panel also includes two MIDI Outs, one MIDI In, and one MIDI Thru. Six recessed USB ports and a 10/100T Ethernet port are provided. Options include a FireWire PCI card, ADAT Lightpipe I/O, and the Controller One ($850), a 15-inch color LCD touchscreen.

The OMX 64's comprehensive software bundle includes a preconfigured version of Windows XP Professional, Tascam GigaStudio 32, Synapse Orion Pro, IK Multimedia SampleTank LE, Sonic Reality Sonic Synth, and a library of soundware. Open Labs; tel. (512) 444-4666; e-mail info@openlabs.com; Web www.openlabs.com.