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127th AES Convention Coverage (New York, NY Oct. 9-12)
PRESS RELEASE
miniMusic Releases NotePad 1.1 Update
August 17, 2001
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The music software for handheld computers just got better with the release of NotePad 1.1 from miniMusic. For over a year now, NotePad has been available for writing, editing, and playing music on the incredibly portable Palm OS platform of handheld computers. The new upgrade improves on the software in almost every way including new capabilities. Building on an already rich set of features, the new version can now notate much larger chords than ever before (previously limited to four notes at a time), and will now let notes be entered from any attached electronic musical instrument like a keyboard or an electronic wind instrument. This is in addition to all of the existing note entry options like the on-screen piano, interactive musical staff, the Graffiti handwriting recognition, or the "piano roll" grid where anything you draw becomes music! NotePad 1.1 now takes advantage of the Infra-red port built into every Palm Powered computer to let you "beam" songs between different handhelds so that users can share songs and collaborate and teachers and students can exchange work instantly and wirelessly. The existing MIDI output feature has always let you play your music on enhanced sound hardware like the incredibly portable SG20 tone module from Swivel Systems, the Tsunamidi from Singapore Shinei Sangyo Pte. Ltd. or any other electronic musical instruments, but now full support has been added for the new Beat Plus Springboard module from Hagiwara Sys-Com that plugs into the slot on any Handspring Visor creating the most compact platform for miniMusic software yet available! "We've been listening to how people are using our software and we've tried to make it more accessible and more powerful," says Chad Mealey, president and chief software engineer at miniMusic. "The new version runs faster than ever and has great new features, but we've also pushed ourselves to make the software as compact and efficient as possible which is ideal for handheld computers where processing power and memory are limited. NotePad 1.1 is going to make a lot of musicians and Palm users (especially Visor owners) very happy!" The new version continues to support miniMusic's export conduit that lets songs be transferred effortlessly to any desktop computer (both Mac and Windows) and the miniAlarm utility that lets you write your own alarms for use with the Palm Date Book and other alarm software. By exporting music in the industry standard MIDI format, it is easy to use NotePad along with any other music software, or even to put music on the internet. Other new features include: color graphics in the Grid View, improved real-time note entry for the on-screen staff, General MIDI instrument names in the Voice Preferences, improved volume control for playback, and the "Play Section" and "Stop in Place" commands are now available when using MIDI or the Beat Plus. NotePad is just one of three applications currently available from miniMusic. BeatPad is a powerful pattern sequencer allowing the manipulation of musical patterns and loops as they are playing making it a great performance tool. BugBand is an educational game that helps drill the basics of reading musical notation and teaches sight reading for both piano and guitar. Both NotePad and BeatPad are included in miniMusic's Mobile Software Pack which also includes a Palm-to-MIDI interface. Pricing, Availability, and Distribution The NotePad Upgrade will be free for all current owners of NotePad, or it can purchased for $29.95 from the miniMusic website, or as part of the new miniMusic Mobile Software Pack available for $59.95 on-line and from select retail outlets (Mobile Software Pack owners must register on our website or by mail to get the free upgrade). Free demos of all miniMusic software titles are currently available for download from the miniMusic web-site and from other Palm OS software distributors such as PalmGear H.Q., Handango, and Smaller.com. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.minimusic.com/.Recent miniMusic headlines
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