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SessionBand Jazz lets you create like a master
UK Music Apps Ltd produces SessionBand, an iOS-based app that gives you chord-based audio loops. You can use these loops for professional recording or to enhance your music experiments while you learn. A new version, SessionBand -- Jazz Edition, was released on June 15th. The new Jazz Edition features over 16,000 precision-cut chord-based jazz loops recorded by bassist Geoff Gascoyne, pianist Tom Cawley, drummer Ralph Salmins, and woodwinds (saxophone and flute) by Andy Panayi. The four UK-based jazz musicians are associated with top London music schools, including Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity College and Guildhall. You can watch an entertaining video and see these musicians in action in SessionBand's introductory YouTube video. You can create your own copyright-free jazz music with your own jazz quartet by selecting and joining together various chord blocks. The SessionBand Jazz provides ten jazz chord variations for each of 15 popular jazz styles. According to UK Music Apps, you can "listen to the same set of selected chords in any of those styles." Also joining SessionBand, the February-released highly rated app, this week are SessionBand -- Piano Edition and SessionBand -- Acoustic Guitar Edition. The Piano Edition features recordings by Tom Cawley, while the Guitar Edition features recordings by Christian Marsac. These versions are on sale in the iTunes Store for $2.99, while the SessionBand - Jazz Edition sells for $3.99. All of the SessionBand apps feature one-touch recording, automated mixing, metronome and count-in, auto-transpose and Audiobus compatibility. The apps are compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, running iOS 5.1 or later, although the company recommends using the apps with the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S or newer devices. Personally, I rather like their tag line: Everyone's got a song in them. What's yours?
Apogee revamps One and Duet audio interfaces for iOS and Mac, updates Quartet to match
Apogee wants bring pro audio interfaces to the mobile realm. To that end, it's coming to NAMM with a trio of options that cover most Apple-bound musicians and podcasters. Its next-generation One interface (seen after the break) can take simultaneous input from both a built-in condenser mic and one device plugged into either an XLR or quarter-inch jack, passing along the resulting tunes to an iOS device or a Mac's USB port. A similarly reworked Duet adds direct iOS connections to the two-input, four-output Duet (above). Full-fledged bands aren't left out of the equation, either -- the existing, four-input Quartet has received iPad support without changing its formula. Lighting-based iOS gear unfortunately requires an adapter, but we'll take consolation in a new Maestro app for iPads that offers control over connections and session monitoring. Producers hoping for more mobility can pick up the Duet or Quartet in February at their respective $595 and $1,295 prices, although they'll have to wait until March to buy the One at $349.
Quartet Project showcases robotic dance partner
Why bother Dancing with the Stars when you can bust a move with your very own trained robot? Sure, we've seen robots teaching humans and even robotic ballroom partners before, but the Quartet Project seeks to integrate robots into dance by using sensors to create a fairly intelligent and dynamic counterpart. Dubbed an "investigation into the kineasthetics of music," the live stage show melds dance, music, and a load of sensors into a new form of entertainment where the human dancer grooves to the music, only to be followed and "danced with" by a robot that senses its surroundings. Finally assembled after years of collaboration from experts in art, music, biomedicine, computational science, 3D animation, and motion control, the "mechanical and live elements" came together for a series of recent shows in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Unfortunately, we weren't there to witness the next metallic superstar showing its stuff, but we're fairly confident seeing a man-made terpsichorean breakin' a leg was a tad more exciting than listening to the Bacterial Orchestra.[Via MAKE]
