JBL Flip-Review
Company: JBL
Price: $99.95
JBL has been trying to get into the market of portable wireless speakers with several different types of products. These products include ones like the Micro Wireless and the Flip Wireless Speaker. The JBL Flip gets its name from its unique design to either be set horizontally or vertically in a small package while packing enormous, clear sound.
Ivory II Grand Pianos
North American distributors: ILIO
Price: $349 + $49.99 iLok Key from ILIO
Continuing our look at the very best music software, Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), sequencers and samples/Virtual Instruments (VI’s), Synthogy’s Ivory II is found firmly to earn a place at the top of the list.
V-Moda Remix Remote Earphones and Arctic E461-BM Earphones
Companies: V-Moda & Arctic
Websites: V-Moda & Arctic
Price: V-Moda Remix Remote: $79.00 USD / Arctic E461-BM: $31.36 USD
One of the greatest assets to any iOS device is the ability to listen to your favorite music, audiobooks, or your favorite apps. There is nothing more annoying than trying to do so with earphones that simply ruin the experience with their shoddy qualities. Most of us aren’t in the market for expensive earphones that can cost over $200, so what’s out there for those of us who want to find a balance between sound quality and cost? V-Moda and Arctic each have earphones in their lineups that try to reach such a balance. How do they compare?
VSL's Solo Strings
Vienna Symphonic Library Solo Strings Bundle
North American distributors:
ILIOPrice: $660
Virtual Instruments (VIs) allow you to work with lifelike sounds in sequencers and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) like Apple’s Logic and notation packages like Avid’s Sibelius. (Avid has just announced Sibelius 7: watch for a review here shortly.)
VIs are collections of acoustic/sampled and/or electronically synthesized sounds with varying degrees of realism and flexibility of use. Formerly hardware-based, VIs are now available almost entirely as software. They range from the cheap, barely tolerable and tinny to… well, to those produced and sold by Vienna Instruments.
Transcribe! 8.1.0
Price: $50 for single users;
contact Seventh String for pro-rated discounts
Transcribe! claims to be the “world’s leading” tool to help musicians extract music from recordings. It can also be used to transcribe speech and even allow musicians to play along. Does British firm, Seventh String, get credit for trying what’s difficult to do well but really end up as little more than an “also ran”? Or do they have a winner that works in almost every way?
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Sibelius 6
Company: Avid
Price: $599 (Sibelius 6 Educational: $295; upgrade: $169)
Sibelius 6 from Avid
There are standards, industry standards – and gold standards. Sibelius 6 is all three. It’s certainly the most comprehensive, robust, easy to use, well-designed, flexible, and satisfying score-writing/notation package available for the Mac (or indeed any platform) currently available. Sibelius 6 has several major enhancements: it’s hard to believe it’s even better. But it is.
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Ubercaster V 1.1
Company: Pleasant Software for the People
Price: $79.99
ubercaster.com
I’ve been following Pleasant Software for the People’s (no, I’m not making that name up) Ubercaster with great interest for some time. From the very first, the layout for workflow and the potential for what it could accomplish piqued my curiosity and as the betas flowed forth, I was with them every step of the way. Unfortunately each time I was disappointed by what it was actually able to do. I was greeted with crashes and poor quality recording, along with echos from some of the different inputs. Not much of a recommendation right? Well, I’m singing a different tune with the latest version. Before I go on, I’ll get what the program is out of the way.
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