There has been good development with CODA's Vivace. Previously, an external cartridge reader was required, but now it only needs a full-duplex soundcard, a floppy disk drive and a microphone. The good news is that this product is now substantially cheaper and current users will be able to purchase accompaniments on floppy disk instead of cartridge. This third generation product is called SmartMusic Studio, formerly Viviace Practice Studio. This accompaniment system is an amazing concept in play-along accompaniments for vocal and band instruments.
Its uniqueness lies in its digital ability to creatively interact with the you, the soloist, regardless of your tempo changes. If you accelerate or ritard the tempo, the SmartMusic Accompaniment can adjust in any increment from 0% to 100% to follow you like a "real live" accompanist. And as you hold each note, it pauses and wait for you to proceed again. I particularly like its ability to change tempos and key without altering the original recording --- this helps it stand out in the music industry.
CODA's patented Vivace Intelligent Accompaniment technology no longer requires the accompaniments to be protected by expensive cartridges or the cartridge reader. Instead it uses a floppy disk protected by innovative technology that prevents them from being copied. Now with just the software that comes with this system, students can creatively practice their classical solos or their improvisation skills more effectively than with the traditional analog methods like cassettes and compact discs. It offers a variety of fun instrumentation and accompaniment styles with lifelike accompaniments that let you interpret the music. Also offered are an interactive tuner, solo line reference, metronome, custom practice loops, transposition, a musical dictionary and practice reports to assess what and how long you practiced.
The jazz library for this system is quite extensive with nine volumes of the Jamey Aebersold series including volumes 2 (Nothin' But Blues), 3 (The II-V7-I Progress), 6 (Charlie Parker, All "Bird"), 12 (Duke Ellington), 25 (All-Time Standards), 31 (Bossa Novas), 41 (Body & Soul), 50 (The Magic of Miles Davis), and 54 (Maiden Voyage). The playback sound quality is very good at emulating authentic instruments via wavetable synthesis. In addition, the Alfred MasterTacks series is also available with their fusion, jazz, Latin and dixieland volumes that include classy ensemble arrangements. Because I need to instill a strong sense of time in my students, I often set the software controls so that the accompaniment doesn't follow the soloist, which makes the student follow the perfect metronomic time of the rhythm section on the software.
What makes this even more impressive is that the SmartMusic Studio costs only $99.00 which includes both an instrumental and vocal microphone, foot pedal and fifteen sample songs. In addition, a CD application will be packaged separately for $9.95 to cover shipping and handling. The neat thing about the CD software is that it also contains accompaniments and sheet music for the fourteen songs. The CD software is NOT a demo or trail sampler. Users wishing to use the Intelligent Accompaniment feature or the electronic tuner will still need to purchase a SmartMusic microphone which Coda is marketing separately (Instrumental microphone $29.95, vocal headset and microphone $39.95). It works with both the Mac and PC platforms. Prerequisites for PC platform: Pentium 166 MHZ or higher, Windows 95, 16 RAM, CD-ROM drive, and available serial port audio speakers, any of the following soundcards or chip sets: Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16, AWE32, or AWE64, Vibra 16-chip set, or Daytona soundcard. For slower Windows computers, you can add a SoundBlaster AWE32 or AWE64 to make the following systems compatible: 486DX2 processor or faster, Windows 95, 16 MB RAM, available serial port, available soundcard slot, audio speakers, CD-ROM drive. Be sure to remember to update your soundcard drivers. Mac: Power PC 180 MHZ processor, system 7.5 or higher, 16MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, external microphone and audio speakers. If your computer doesn't have full-duplex soundcard capabilities, there is an external modular unit that has this capability and is priced at $995. See my "Watch Out" column sidebar in this same issue for more information about full-duplex capabilities and applications. This modular accessory requires at least a 486DX processor or 25 MHZ 68030 processor or faster with system 7.0 to work with the software.
The SmartMusic library of music accompaniments is extensive, with over 4,000 accompaniments. Address: 6210 Bury Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55346-1718. Phone: 800-874-2144. Website: http://codamusic.com.