You can adjust the interactive accompaniment to any increment from zero to 100% to follow you like a "real live" accompanist.. The jazz idiom requires zero (jazz accompaniments are all set to zero) which means you follow the rhythm section exclusively while a classical music setting might be about 50% making retards possible. Even fermatas and grand pauses can be accurately followed by SmartMusic Studio. Settings vary at different points in a song and come preset from Coda so that the accompaniment occurs in a musical way, while allowing the user the option to override them.
The SmartMusic Studio (formerly called 'Vivace') is the only system that actually listens and interacts with you as you practice into a microphone so that the software accompaniment can creatively interact with the soloist. The options are also helpful. You can create customized accompaniments to deliver the exact musical interpretation you need. Turn on the solo line to hear your part. Create custom practice loops to master difficult passages. Transpose music to any key which is particularly important in jazz and for vocal music. A full-feature metronome can accent downbeats and plays subdivisions in meters ranging from 4/4 to 7/8 and it clicks with or without the accompaniment. A practice report feature assesses what and how long you have practiced. This could help teachers monitor their students.
This is designed to work with voice, woodwinds and brass instruments. There are even vocal warm-ups with piano so you can focus on singing, not on plunking out notes and chords. A tuner is conveniently displayed on the computer monitor so students can watch the monitor and immediately see the passages that have intonation problems. SmartMusic Studio does not function well with severe intonation problems as it requires that you maintain fairly good intonation. The teacher can program this software to evaluate the accuracy of student's rhythms and pitch, giving the teacher more latitude in the learning environment.
How well does SmartMusic Studio work? It works so well that our school district with over 89,000 students, used it for our annual solo & ensemble festival.
The Belwin Century Band Method beginning band method is available for the SmartMusic Studio which works with any band instrument at the first year level with over 250 fun accompaniments. Single instrument packages are available at $29.95 and a conductor's package includes all band instruments for this method. The SmartMusic Studio catalog offers over 500 additional titles for first and second year players.
The repertoire is extensive and the interaction between soloist and accompanist is very good. The product works exactly as advertised! And best of all, it is priced right for wide-spread consumer and education use.
SmartMusic Studio by Coda Music. Pricing: $9.95 for system software plus $19.95 to $29.95 for individual software per piece and printed music is about $4.95 and up. For $99.95, you receive both an instrumental and vocal microphone, foot pedal and fifteen sample songs. Hardware prerequisites: Power Macintosh (Power PC 180 MHz CPU, system 7.6 or higher, 16 MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, available printer or modem port, and audio speakers). These Power Macintosh models will also work: Power Mac 7600's, 8500's, 9500's which contains a 604 CPU at 120 MHz or higher). PC (Pentium 166 MHz or higher, Windows 95 and 95, 16 MB RAM, CD-ROM drive plus any of the soundcards or chips sets: Creative Labs, SoundBlaster 16, AWE32 or AWE64, Vibra 16 chip set or Daytona soundcard and one available serial port and audio speakers). If your computer doesn't have a full-duplex soundcard, there is an external module that has this capability priced at $995 which is compatible with both Mac and PC platforms. I have found the Audio Canvas UA-100 by Roland works well with notebooks and SmartMusic even if your notebook doesn't have a full-duplex soundcard and gives affordable high quality digital audio capabilities with low background noise. Address: 621 Bury Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 5534l6-1718. Phone: 800-843-2066. Web: <http://www.smartmusic.com>