FileMaker Pro 13 – Review

The last FileMaker Pro upgrade appeared about a year and a half ago. Version 12 introduced a broader set of changes then than these made available earlier this month in FileMaker Pro 13. But the 50 or so features which 13 does introduce are impressive, welcome, and very well-implemented.

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Take Control of Upgrading to Mavericks

Although Mavericks (OS 10.9) differs from previous OS upgrades in being free and more readily installed “over” existing systems, users can still benefit from adequate preparation, from planning, from a thorough understanding of Mavericks’ benefits (and possible pitfalls) and from access to a rich set of resources to make the most of it. Experienced Mac author Joe Kissell’s ebook, Take Control of Upgrading to Mavericks, provides all of that – and more.

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OS X Support Essentials, Cover

OS X Support Essentials (Apple Pro Training Series) – Review

As has become standard for titles of this weight and authority (the Apple Pro Training Series is justly widely respected), it’s divided into broad sections – nine in this case. Each has between two and five chapters, or “Lessons”. These vary in length from half a dozen pages (the “About this guide” one at the start) to 50 (two very thorough explorations of networks). Other longer lessons cover application installation, configuration and troubleshooting.

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Mountain Lion Bible, cover

OS X Mountain Lion Bible – Review

It’s encouraging for the Apple community that new books on new Mac operating systems appear regularly, and in quantity, each time a new OS release appears. During Apple’s less successful periods you struggled to find more than a handful of decent explorations in print of arguably the most elegant and robust OS for any desktop computer. Now there are several dozen. Galen Gruman’s “OS X Mountain Lion Bible” is one of the best for 10.8′

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Ivory II from Synthogy

Ivory II Grand Pianos Review

Ivory II is a Virtual Instrument (vi) – a large set of sophisticated high-quality sound samples of the concert piano. It can be used as a standalone application, which has a sophisticated yet easy-to-use single window interface; this was custom built with its own DSP engine and worked extremely well during testing. The piano samples in Ivory II also function as a bespoke plugin soundset for sequencers, DAWs and notation software such as Sibelius 7. The latter was concentrated on during this evaluation.

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Sibelius 7

Sibelius 7 – Review

When Sibelius 7 was released recently, its appearance was sufficiently different from that of Sibelius 6 to have thrown some (long-time) users. Avid was criticized on those listservs and forums which do such a sterling job of supporting Sibelius owners and prospective owners. Since so many creative professionals and enthusiasts have so much invested in a piece of software which they use for extended periods each day and to the ways of which their muscle memories had become fully used, change seemed particularly hard.

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Solo Strings

Vienna Symphonic Library Solo Strings Review

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.)

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Transcribe! – Review

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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MIDI Orchestration Explained, using strings

Groove 3 video, MIDI Orchestration Explained Review

Although an older technology and simple in conception, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) can be complicated to implement and make the most of; and particularly challenging to use in effective music making. But the clear explanations and expert perception of Eli Krantzberg and the Groove 3 team are well up to the task of making MIDI orchestration both plainer and pleasurable for users.

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Groove 3 Video, Logic Score Editor Explained

The first thing you’re likely to be struck by is Doug Zangar’s clear, authoritative yet approachable manner and style in delivering material with which he’s obviously extremely familiar and about which re-assuringly knowledgeable. Not to mention understandably enthusiastic, for Logic’s Score Editor is indeed very powerful.

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Sibelius 6 from Avid

Sibelius 6 – Review

Sibelius is a music notation package. Although its output is music, it’s neither a sequencer nor a synthesizer nor Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). It’s a package that allows music composition as a score following the conventions of “engraving” music – in much the same way as a word processor allows a novel or play to be written as text. But Sibelius’ power extends far beyond that of even the most complex and sophisticated DTP software.

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Olympus LS-7

Olympus LS-7 PCM Pocket Recorder – Review

If you want more functionality, capacity and quality for your on-the-move sound recordings than are offered by the several (excellent) “memo” systems available on your iPhone, yet do not want to stretch to the hi-fi quality of a unit like the Edirol R-09HR, which is almost in a class of its own, Olympus has a number of offerings. The new LS-7 “Pocket” Linear PCM recorder may well fit the bill.It’s compact, was reliable in testing and has a lot of easy-to-use features, offering better-than-average quality.

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LNG cover

Logic Notation Guide – Book Review

The LNG is a comb-bound softcover book with over 200 pages of closely-packed (yet never unreadable) guidance on making the most of Logic’s Score Editor. Strictly-speaking, its substance, examples and concepts apply to the last major version of the software, Logic 8.

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Toast 11 Titanium from Roxio

Toast 11

Roxio’s Toast began as a simple way to burn optical media, CDs then DVDs; it slowly became the preferred way to do so until Apple built more reliable such functionality into its operating systems. Then, for a number of its iterations, Toast somewhat lost its way; it failed to offer features compelling enough that all but the most demanding (and loyal) users to choose it over Apple’s way of doing things and that of a clutch of decent shareware apps which met most people’s needs.

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Resources for Apple Logic 9 Review

The advantage of (on-line and DVD) video tutorials, such as the series (“Logic Pro 9 Essential Training”) at lynda.com (membership required) and Logic 9 Explained (see below) is that you can see what’s supposed to happen as you follow along ‘” in real time if you like, with Logic running. The advantage of a book is that you have hard copy with an index for safe-keeping indefinitely. Each has its merits.

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Interarchy 10 – Review

Interarchy has a venerable history. It was first released in 1993 and can claim to have been the leading FTP client ever since, enabling (as the site of its current developers, Nolobe, says) “hundreds of thousands of Mac users to upload, download and transfer files across the Internet.”

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