miniMusic Provides Mac Synch for Palm Music SoftwareHotSync Conduit exports music to the desktop.
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| Notepad Piano Interface |
miniMusic has made available a conduit utility to export music written with their popular NotePad software onto Mac OS desktop computers. Last year miniMusic revolutionized the industry with NotePad, the first truly portable music notation software for Palm handheld computers. With the new NotePad Conduit, whenever the Palm handheld is synchronized with the desktop computer (using Palm's HotSync technology) any songs that have been modified are automatically updated on the desktop machine. The exported files use the industry standard MIDI file format to assure compatibility with almost any other music software.
Using NotePad, music can be written into the handheld computer on a musical staff, tapped into an on-screen piano, written in Palm, Inc.'s Graffiti power writing software, or drawn graphically. A full suite of editing capabilities are also available including cut, copy, paste, invert, transpose, and scale. By exporting songs to a desktop computer with the new Conduit, users can now continue to develop their music using a huge library of existing desktop music software, providing features that are not yet available in NotePad, like printing. Music created with NotePad can also now be integrated into pre-existing songs, scores, soundtracks, or symphonies.
"This is the piece of the puzzle that has been missing," says Chad Mealey, president of miniMusic. "By making it virtually effortless to move music between the Palm handheld and the desktop computer, our software can now add true portability to anyone's work flow. Composers, musicians, and music students now have the freedom to work anywhere, but still interface with the tools they've been using all along."
The conduit is currently available only for Macintosh compatible computers, like the iMac or PowerMac G4 systems from Apple. Exported songs can be played with Apple's QuickTime, or other music applications that support MIDI. A version is also available for older models of the Macintosh. A conduit for Windows/Intel computers is in development now and should be available within the next couple of months. Future upgrades of the NotePad Conduit will also allow users to import songs from the desktop computer so that they can be played or edited anywhere. Conduits are also planned for other miniMusic applications like the powerful BeatPad sequencer. Both NotePad and the new Conduit can be used with any Palm OS handheld, including the Handspring Visor.
The NotePad Conduit is freely available for all current owners of miniMusic's NotePad application from the miniMusic web-site, and will be bundled in the upcoming version 1.1 of NotePad. The miniMusic NotePad 1.0 application is available now for $29.95 U.S. on the Internet, and will soon be available through other channels, including retail. Free demos of all miniMusic software titles are currently available for download from the miniMusic web-site at www.5thwall.com/minimusic and from other Palm software distributors such as PalmGear H.Q., Handango.com, and Smaller.com. For more information, visit their web site at www.5thwall.com/minimusic. |
