| I've had ConcertWare (v3.0) for some time, and thought it was
incredibly difficult to use. Then too, I've got this dream of creating
music from almost nothing and having it sound perfect right away!!
Anyhow... I went to MacWorld here in S.F. and got v4.0 and was very
pleasantly suprised! For whatever it's worth, here's my review of
it:
Still comes in 3 pieces- writer, player, and instrument maker. New
arrangment: instrument sounds are stored into a library. Pretty
intuitive to add/delete from library. I did it, then read the book...
Writer has following capabilities: music entry via mouse (ugh...)
MAC keyboard (slightly less ugh...) or MIDI (keyboard). I tried
MAC keyboard and spent 1/2 hr putting in a couple of simple measures,
then went to my friends house (who has a MAC+ and PF80/TX81Z) and
put in 4 measures/2 voices in less than 4 minutes. Now this may
not wow the world, but I learned the value of good keyboard interfaces
right there!! Onward... beaming, note alignment, slurs, dynamics
(I think ppp to ffff (I'm guessing, the manual is at my friends
house!), selectable stem direction, and the best part for me: free
format text - this little feature is nifty! you can control the
distance between the staves and type in "words" using a "gap"
technique, which aligns them autmatically with the notes (hmmm,
haven't tried with anything but voice #1), and you can have as many
lines of text as desired (well... 4-5 seems pretty reasonable to
me). There is a new Mover tool to control visual formatting of the
staff, and text, and the playback in the writer seems far better
than before - in fact sounded like the player quality to me...
Crud. this server is shutting down in 10 minutes for reload, so
I'll try to finish this reply tomorrow....
In essence, I am trying to get going on preservation of ethnic music
which requires entering music in a variety of beats, and mixture
of words (original language and translation), and hopefully even
hearing what it sounds like to preserve the sound(s) - tall order!!
So far, I like what I'm seeing - would like reactions to this and
DMCS v2.0 with other stuff...
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| As I promised in the other note, here's my follow-up on the review
of ConcertWare v4.0 + MIDI -- what I thought of doing is putting
in the 1 page description Great Wave gives you, then adding my
reactions to things at the bottom:
ConcertWare+V4:
ConcertWare+ is a music program with 3 integrated parts. It includes
the music writer, the Instrument maker, and the Music Player.
Music Writer:
Using the music writer yu can enter sheet music or original music
by using the mouse or the MAC keyboard. Voices may be arranged on
up to 8 different staves, with chords of up to 8 notes per voice.
The notation includes optional beaming (horizontal bars connecting
8th, 16th, and 32nd notes), note alignment, slurs, dynamics, repeats,
1st and 2nd endings, selectable stem direction, and free format
text. Scores can be printed with full support for the Imagewriter,
Laserwriter and the Adobe Sonata fonts. Complete scores or individual
parts may be printed. Note spacing and alternative note heads are
also included. Real time entry may be done using the Record Sequence
facility which will allow you to play a voice into the MAC using
the MAC keyboard while other voices play along with you.
(with MIDI):
The Music Writer allows you to record voices as you enter them on
an electronic keyboard. ConcertWare+MIDI includes all MusicWriter
features described for ConcertWare+ and full support for most MIDI
functions. The MIDI include MIDI program (patch) changes, extensive
control staff arrangment, MIDI mapping, MIDI parameters, and MIDI
macros.
InstrumentMaker:
The InstrumentMaker lets you design your own instrument sounds or
modify any which come on the disk. It also includes an Instrument
Library which allows easy viewing of the instruments available.
(with MIDI):
ConcertWare+MIDI uses instruments created with a MIDI synthesizer
or it can play any of the pre-programmed instruments. The
InstrumentMaker also has full capabilities to create instrument
sounds.
Music Player:
The music Player combines music from the Music Writer with instruments
from the Instrument Maker and plays back your full length sleections
through the MAC. It also can be played through a home stereo system
for optimal sound.
(with MIDI):
ConcertWare+MIDI will allow up to 64 note simultaneous playback
and can easily play any ConcertWare+ file through a MIDI compatible
synthesizer. The Music Player also recognizes velocity on MIDI
instruments and program changes for optimal performance in playing
music.
General:
ConcertWare+ requires a 512K or larger MAC (same for MIDI), and
the package comes with a manual (5x7) and disk containing Music
Writer, Music Player, and Instrument Maker. For best performance
(with ConcertWare+MIDI) a MIDI compatible synthesizer is recommended.
====================================================
my notes:
Using Imagewriter is OK, but the dotted notes tend to get hard to
read, since the "dot" gets very close to the "tail" of any 8th or
less duration note. Laserwriter, I assume, is the answer here.
The Sonata fonts you get with package are for screen/Imagewriter
representation only. They are NOT the actual Sonata font from Adobe.
You purchase that under seperate cover (ComputerWare, Palo Alto
- $70 appx). Only required if you are going to print onto Laserwriter.
They are not making any fasle promises here... if they say they
do it, they do it. In fact, I have found G/W tends to err on a
conservative side, and make features too weak... take this with
a big grain of salt, since I am a very novice musician.
It's NOT Professional Composer!! After all, it's aimed at a different
market, and it's only $120 or so!! One thing I'm not too sure about
is that I seem to see G/W doing everyting inside the program for
MIDI where OpCode Systems seems to break things into modules - this
is where I need feedback from more knowledgable people. Is this
an OK thing to do (aside from the programming aspect of a huge
package!), and are there advantages to either??
So far the only way to get the data "out" is to cut into clipboard
and paste (ugh) into MACPaint!!!!!!!! Big lose to me here... sigh.
It does read old format ConcertWare stuff, but I do not know if
it reads DMCS formats, or any other formats... I assume not.
The quantization dialog was a bit queer at first, then I discovered
it simply shows you all the possible values a note might want to
take on in the recording (when you play into it, and have it write
the notes for you). So you select every possible note duration (rests
too) and start playing!! After I figured this out, entering music
was accurate and quick! I have not tried to simply set the SMALLEST
duration necessary, and have it "add it up" to create longer notes,
but will get there pretty soon.
GW has a hotline (if I recal the handbook correctly), and their
staff is small (appx 7 people)... another concern here I have is
at the MACWorld, COncertWare was 1/2 the booth, the rest being kids
games/education products - not music at all!! Hopefully, this is
just to keep business going, not a new thrust for this fine company.
If you want more info on ConcertWare+, call Great Wave at (408)
438-1990, Pacific time, or write to them at:
Great Wave Software
53533 Scotts Valley Drive
Scotts Valley, Ca. 95066
I know ComputerWare, Palo Alto, Ca. has this product at reasonable
prices, and am sure the East Coast/rest of the world has the equivalent
places/stores. Oh yeah... there is color support, but since I only
have a mono screen.... sigh.
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| Version 5 of ConcertWare+MIDI should be available in October, according
to what the developer told me at MacExpo in Boston last week. It adds
ability to read and write standard MIDI files, can draw guitar chord
symbols, has a guideline that text snaps to so it is easier to make it
line up your lyrics. The Multi-cut/multi-paste dialogs are supposed to
be easier to use. It also adds a bunch of notation things so you can
put accent marks, staccato, and such like on your notes. These do not
have any effect on how it plays, just how it looks. (He said he had to
draw the line somewhere. This isn't Finale.)
Oh yeah - the triplet notation is now correct.
The upgrade plan for registered users of version 4 will be something
like $50. It is $189 for new users. He said if you don't get a flyer
by the end of September to give them a call.
On the children's programs: Great Wave is a very small company that
does two things: ConcertWare, and the children stuff. Chad Mitchell
is the programmer, with a music degree I think. His wife's interest is
in children's education. So those two things are their focus, and
always have been, with equal emphasis.
|
| I just got my upgrade notice for ConcertWare+MIDI v5. Retail price is
$189.95. Upgrade for owners of CW+MIDI v4 is $35. For owners of plain
CW (no MIDI) the upgrade is $99. This is a limited-time offer expiring
Oct 15.
Midi features:
Supports Apple MIDI Manager
Instrument library holds MIDI mappings
Imports and exports standard MIDI files
Notation features:
Centering whole rests and better triplet grouping
Dotted rest and tacit measure options
New "ConcertWare" font includes screen and PostScript formats.
(No more need to pay Adobe prices for laser printing!)
Double sharps and flats
Auto transpose allows different key signatures on different staves
for instruments in other keys.
Crescendo and decrescendo
Various new note markings, like "8va"
Printing includes page preview, page numbering, and printing to
both PICT and Paint files.
Any rest or group of rests may be hidden on printout
New time signature option "free time" allows manual bar placement
Music entry and editing features:
Note Mover tool allows pitch and duration changes.
Lyric alignment rulers, measure numbers, access to special music
symbols.
Guitar chords in a customizable palette.
More powerful Undo
Cut/copy/paste/multicut, etc support standard clipboard and
scrapbook. (Hmm, use the system scrapbook to store
your favorite hooks, or if you are Philip Glass, your
favorite arpeggios.)
Long selections of notes can be beamed to a beat
Key split on recording allows two voices to be recorded
simultaneously from one channel
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