Finale SongWriter Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)...in his head! (Well actually he probably had the several hundred dollar professional version of Finale). This is fantastic software, perfect for the beginner or amateur songwriter or arranger. The only drawback for me is the limit of 8 staves, but that would not be a problem for your typical band, only if you want to try orchestral composition and arranging (you would need the professional version). The Human Playback feature is great, it truly sounds realistic, not like MIDI. I cannot recommend this software enough!

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While Finale SongWriter makes it easy to create great sheet music at an affordable price, that's just the beginning. Finale SongWriter allows you to enter notes from a mouse, computer keyboard, or midi keyboard. You can add chord symbols, fretboard diagrams, and multiple verses of lyrics. Finale SongWriter can automatically add two and three voice harmony to your melodies and instantly add a drum part. The music you create sounds great through your computer's speakers thanks to Human Playback and 128 professional sounds. You can import and export MIDI files, create MP3 files, and save your work as a standard Finale file which can also be shared with users of Finale Notepad (a free download). If getting music on the printed page is part of your songwriting project, Finale SongWriter is the perfect collaborator.

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Apple Garageband Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra Review

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(More customer reviews)The day before I ordered this Jam Pack, I had received an M-Audio 88es USB velocity sensitive keyboard from amazon (reviewed separately) Keystation 88es 88 Key USB MIDI Controller and sustain pedal M-Audio SP-2 US65010 Sustain Pedal Piano Style Sustain Pedal for Keyboards
The standard Garage Band 'Grand Piano' sounded just "OK", and there was no harpsichord. Those were my prime reasons for ordering this Jam Pack... and to have fun with the other sounds, of course.
The Steinway Piano in this pack is substantially better than the standard Garage Band piano. Neither is perfect - but this Steinway is great for the price. The difference is more than the soft hammer sound of a Steinway vs a hardened hammer sound of the standard piano. The velocity response and the behavior of sustained notes is much more realistic. The default settings have a fair amount of reverb - to simulate a concert hall. Adjusting that and other sliders can give a sound more appropriate to other settings.
It still does not sound like a real grand piano of course - there are no induced harmonics when the sustain pedal is depressed, for example. But, not bad at all.
The harpsichord is pretty disappointing in comparison. The lower register is amplified way louder than the upper - roughly everything below middle C as I recall. I haven't tried adjusting bass reduction effects etc to make it sound more 'correct'. Also, considerable reverb in the default 'Orchestra Harpsichord' to reflect a large hall. Lower that to get a chamber sound.
The variety of attack modes that are adjustable by keyboard control are pretty nice for instruments such as the strings and brass.
The huge quantity of loops (over 3 GB) will be of less use to me, but can be handy for making some quick transitions or tracks for videos - since Garage Band is basically THE sound editor for iMovie and Final Cut Express now. I had expected that the loops would be performances on real instruments, but many (most?) sound like sampled digital instruments to my ear.
If you want a better piano, a harpsichord and/or symphonic instruments, this pack is a great deal.
PS Not in the product description, so I just noticed: The Jam Pack comes with a selection of 'demo songs' reached from the File > Open Demos menu. (If shared, these reside on disk at Users > Shared > Symphony Orchestra Demo Songs.) Five symphonic themes as an orchestra of MIDI instruments and 8 loop (wave) compositions. Fun to mess with and good for learning purposes.

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With a symphony orchestra in tow, you just may have to spring for bigger quarters. But if you're planning to conduct your own orchestra, you'll want better acoustics anyway. Using Symphony Orchestra and GarageBand (or Logic Express 7, Logic Pro 7, or Soundtrack Pro), there are virtually no limits to the types of sophisticated music you can create. Taking advantage of the prerecorded Apple Loops (more than 2,000 in Symphony Orchestra), you can compose everything from classical music to movie soundtracks. Or you may want to lend some symphonic power to your pop, rock, or hip-hop arrangements.

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iLife '11 Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not sure how to review this: some people could potentially be buying this to upgrade a very old version of iLife. If I review this as a standalone piece of software, it's fantastic and quite a value. For less than $50 you get a world class digital music studio, one of the best photo organizing programs, and a remarkably capable video editing package. (Oh, and passable web editing and DVD authoring programs, but nobody cares much about those, least of all Apple.) Easily five stars.
However, if I judge this as an upgrade from iLife '09, it's extremely weak. Here's what you get of any substance: the ability to better edit audio in iMovie, slightly better full screen modes in iPhoto, really impressive time warping facilities in Garage Band to fix timing, and some very nice guitar and piano lessons which actually show you where you making mistakes. All great features, to be sure. But are these worth $50 if you have '09? Probably not.
The frustrating thing is that the most major feature in this upgrade is just plain silly: they added the ability to make cutesy little fake "trailers" in iMovie. This is apparently their big innovation. You can now replace your boring home movies with one of eight or so two minute jokes that I guarantee you will get old very quickly. Very quickly. They also added a fake news program theme, and a fake sports theme. All very gaudy and over-the-top, even for iMovie standards. And not at all useful beyond just playing with them once.
It's pretty clear that Apple's focus has shifted away from Mac OS X and iLife and on to the greener pastures of iOS: the iPad and iPhone. In fact, from now on we'll likely see features come first to their consumer devices, and then later to their desktop computers. I'm afraid the days of getting truly major updates to iLife every two years is a thing of the past.
So, as an upgrade from '09, I give this one or two stars at best. If you're upgrading from '09, I hope I've saved you some money. Otherwise, this is a great software package, easily five stars, just not much of an improvement from what you could get two years ago. As such, I'll split the difference and give the package three stars.

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iLife '11 helps you do more with photos, movies, and music than you ever thought possible. In iPhoto, you can browse, edit, and share your photos in stunning new full-screen views. Create epic Hollywood-style movie trailers from your home video in iMovie. And GarageBand gives you everything you need to make a great-sounding song—including tools for keeping your song in perfect rhythm and guitar and piano lessons.


The incredible new iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand.

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Music Ace Consumer Version, Hybrid CD-ROM Review

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(More customer reviews)As a general Elementary Music Specialist, I used this program for years with kids as young as kindergarteners up to the Fifth grade. While the younger readers needed some occasional help, most kids who can "listen" and "click" can understand what to do. This is the perfect program to accompany music instruction for any kid. But even if it's all you have, it is amazingly fun, simple, and interesting that even Paula could do it!

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Maestro Max and his choir of singing notes teach the fundamentals of music theory in this award-winning program. Each of Max's 24 lessons ends with a game designed to reinforce new concepts. REQUIREMENTS: Windows XP, Vista, Win 7 *OR* Mac OSX 10.4 and later;P133MHz - 16 MB RAM *OR* PowerPC/ iMac/ G3/ G4, 68040 25MHz - 5 MB RAM;640x480 256-color monitor;5MB free hard disk space;MPC compatible sound card or General MIDI required;CD-ROM drive & mouse. LESSONS: Intro to the Staff;Intro to the Piano Keyboard;Playing with Pitch;ABC's of the Piano Keyboard;More Piano ABC's;ABC's of the Staff;ABC's of the Treble Staff;More Treble Staff ABC's;Keyboard Review;Below the Treble Staff;Above the Treble Staff;Loud & Soft, Same Pitch;ABC's of the Bass Staff;Above the Bass Staff;Below the Bass Staff;Same Pitch, Different Timbres;ABC's of the Grand Staff;Half Steps & Whole Steps;More ABC's of the Grand Staff;Sharps & Flats;Sharps & Flats on the Staff;More Sharps & Flats on the Staff;Key Signature;Introduction to Major Scales.

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Music Maker 17 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just bought this,and I have to admit that it is absolutely terrible. For one,the technical support sucks.
You have to pay just to get help with any of their products. This software isn't like Magix music maker 15 and 16. This one is more geared towards "MIDI" and everything else,but not actual recordings.When you try recording (like guitar for example) the tracks just erase each other,and you have to everything manually. Unlike Magix music maker 15,each time you would record it would record on a new track and it would ask you if you wanted to keep that take or not. This one is just so dumbed down,I hate it.
I hate this software and I completely regret buying it. I cant even record anything. Don't buy this.If your serious about your music,buy something else.This is a joke.

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Music Maker 17 will put you in the composer's shoes and provide you with all the tools you need to create your own songs fromscratch. Plus, being your own artist will allow you to decide whether you want to stick to conventional musical genres, suchas Rap, R'n'B, pop, or classical music or take the plunge and develop your own--no musical training required! With over 1,500sound loops and an extensive number of virtual instruments at hand, Music Maker 17 will help you to complete your masterpiecein an instant.

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PianoHead Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a Win/Win product for teachers and students.With over 30 years experience, and a large studio of successful students, I can attest that Piano Head taps into the quick visual perception both honed in today's youth by video games, and required by successful music readers.Kids are further motivated by the challenge to appear on the Worldwide Scoreboard, which entices them to practice their note and interval recognition to the desired level of automaticity.I have many students who have leaped to a higher level of understanding and enthusiasm for playing the piano, as Piano Head has lifted them beyond the mundane level of "hunt and peck". At a time when national studies show that a large percentage of piano students drop out after two years of lessons because they cannot read music, I cannot recommend this product highly enough!

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This easy-to-use software product teaches fundamental music theory skills in a fun, game-like format. Explore self-paced practice areas for note recognition, scales, intervals and key signatures. A practice-and-play interface helps you learn through repetition, feedback, and increasing levels of difficulty. When you're ready to move on, play the PianoHead Challenge, a game that combines all of these skills in 16 challenging levels. An online scoreboard lists the top scores of players from around the world. PianoHead is not a replacement for a piano teacher or music education books, but it is a powerful supplementary tool for solidifying the foundational skills required to read and perform music.

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Piano Suite Premier 2.6 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This software does pretty much what it claims. It's neither clearly better nor clearly worse than the alternatives. Here are some specific notes which might be helpful to you:
* It's trapped in an un-resizeable DOS window. To get full-screen, you have to alter your monitor settings.
* You can use your QWERTY keyboard to play notes, but you have to reactivate a special window everytime you click elsewhere. Therefor, this feature is useful only for testing the software w/o a MIDI keyboard connected.
* There are about a dozen MIDI songs which you can upload to your MIDI keyboard (if your keyboard allows this). The rest of the songs are integrated into the program -- ie, not copyable.
* Contrary to the advertising, there are no REM songs. There is "Superman", which REM covered but did not write. (Good song though.)
* If you press "next" too early, you do not get credit for having viewed a lesson. This is good for a classroom, but annoying to me.
* I have gotten weird errors from the Music Recorder, but I didn't buy it for that anyway.I bought Piano Suite 1 & 2, which is much cheaper. It contains only 80 songs and lacks the Composer (which also prints sheet music). For me it is a much better value than the Premier edition. It has all the lessons, the games, and the same basic player.

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Learn to play the Piano

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