2. Music and Non-Music Software Recommended for Use in College-Level Curriculum Development

Notes: This listing represents a sample of chosen titles on the basis of personal use.We know that each of the titles below has been used in educational and professional settings and each is well regarded by musicians that use them.We have no financial relationship with any of the companies or vendors mentioned here.Check McCormick 's (www.mccormicknet.com), SoundTree (www.soundtree.com), AABACA (www.aabaca.com), or Lentine 's (www.lentine.com) for current pricing on music software.Vendors such as MacWarehouse or MicroWarehouse are reasonable choices for other software titles noted in this presentation.Also be sure to check your own college/university bookstore or your Instructional Technology professionals for special institutional prices. Prices are highly variable (Hybrid indicates that both Mac/Win versions are on a CD-ROM).

COMPUTER-AIDED INSTRUCTION:  Flexible Practice

MiBac Music Lessons I and II MIDI MiBac Software$72 Mac/Win

Excellent basic-level tutorial and drill program for music fundamentals. 

Auralia/Musition 2 MIDI Rising Software $100 (Mac/Win

Newest entry into the aural skills/theory software grouping.

MacGAMUT 2000 MIDI MacGaMUT Music Software$90.00 Mac/Win

Comprehensive aural skills program that covers intervals, scales, chords, and melodic dictation.

Practica Musica 4MIDI Ars Nova $95 Mac/Win

Alternative tuning systems for computer sound offered.  Many drills and multi-levels.  Excellent system for customizing dictation melodies. Good for junior high through college. 

Band-in-a-Box MIDI PG Music$49.95 Mac/Win

Music accompaniment program for improvisation.  Many music styles are available and user can generate custom styles.Provides solos in the style of various artists.

SmartMusic (aka Vivace or Practice Studio) QT/MIDI Coda $99.00 and up Mac/Win

Intelligent Accompaniment program that follows the digtial audio signal of the instrument or voice.

In ConcertMIDICakewalk $34.00Mac/Win

Intelligent accompaniment program that follows MIDI data.

COMPUTER-AIDED INSTRUCTION:  Multimedia

Xplora I Peter GabrielCDRealWorld$59.95 Mac Only

Provides text, QuickTime movies, animation and images of the music of Peter Gabriel.  Examples of multicultural music and instruments. HyperCard-based. 

Beethoven Symphony No. 9 CDLTI/Voyager$35.95Mac Only

Stravinsky Rite of SpringCDLTI/Voyager$35.95Mac Only

Dvorak:  Symphony No. 9CDLTI/Voyager $35.95Mac Only

Schubert Trout QuintetCDLTI/Voyager$35.95Hybrid

Strauss Tone PoemsCDLTI/Voyager$35.95Mac Only

Beethoven & BeyondCDLTI/Voyager$19.95Hybrid

Bach and BeforeCDLTI/Voyager$19.95Mac Only

The Classical Ideal CDLTI/Voyager$19.95Hybrid

Each of the above based on a masterwork or a particular style of music. Contain much information, CD-quality sound, graphics and animation. 

Apple PIE MusicCDLintronics$49.95Hybrid

Wonderful tour of American history in music with photos, historical digital recordings, MIDI performances, lyrics, historical notes, and indexed by period, instrument, dates, and more.

Crazy for Ragtime CD/MIDICambrix$30.00 Hybrid

Another Robert Winter production covering Ragtime music and the era of the early 1920s.

Living JazzCD$20Hybrid

Herbie Hancock takes you on a tour of jazz in America and the historical jazz hotspots in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and other places.

PowerTracks Digital AudioMIDIPG Music$29 Wintel Only

Great bargain basement sequencer that does digital audio sequencing as well

Performer/Digital PerformerMIDIMark of the Unicorn$295Mac Only

Professional-level sequencer. 

Cubase (family of sequencers)MIDISteinberg/Jones$100-300 Mac/Win

Professional-level sequencer. 

MicroLogic/Logic (family of sequencers) MIDI Emagic$100-300 Mac/Win

Professional-level sequencer. 

Cakewalk (family of sequencers) MIDI Cakewalk $100-300 WintelOnly

Nice entry-level version of the full, professional version of Cakewalk

Finale 2001 (family of notation titles) MIDI Coda $90-219 Mac/Win

Combines a powerful printing program with sequencing in real-time. Printing is very elaborate, allowing user much freedom in placing graphics.  Updated often.Major Plug-in support.Considered to be industry standard by some.

SibeliusMIDI Sibelius$219 Mac/Win

Major competitor to Finale.Claims are made that it is easier to learn than Finale but has many of the same options.Support for Internet posting and scanning.

Overture 2MIDI Cakewalk$219 Mac/Win

Designed to offer high-end features with ease of use. 

QuickTime Movie Player Pro.Digital Audio and Video Apple Computer $30. Mac/Win

Allows for basic editing of audio and video formats.Cannot record, but can open, save, and convert files in many audio formats.Can be used to piece together video, still graphics, and sound.

Peak LE/Peak Digital Audio BIAS$50-200 Mac Only

Excellententry-level and professional digital audio editing software.

Sound Forge XP/Sound ForgeDigital AudioSonic Foundry $49-200 Wintel Only 

Excellententry-level and professional digital audio editing software.

Peak and Sound Forge allow for the multi-channel recording of sound for standalone sound files or for use in multimedia production.  They do not require special equipment, just a microphone and sound recording capability.Each software program can extract CD quality sound files from audio CDs for use in instruction; each can save sound files in ReadAudio format for use on the Net.More advanced solutions for digital recording using a computer are available, but are probably not needed for general needs in curriculum development.

Toast (family of products) Adaptec Free-$80Mac Only

EasyCDCreator (family of products)Adaptec Free-$100 Win Only

MPEG3 GRABBING 

Win AMPWinamp Free Win Only

Audio Grabber Audiograbber Free-$25 Win Only

Audio Catalyst Xingtech FreeMac/Win

NON-MUSIC

Word Processing/Presentation/Spreadsheet

Microsoft Office Suite Microsoft$200 Mac/Win

Excellent value and includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook Express.Recent versions might also contain personal organizers.Highly integrated. The most recent version is for Mac (2001) and contains many new features for personal productivity.

Database

Filemaker Pro 5 Filemaker $100 and up Mac/Win

Relational database features and links for interface with web pages.

Email

Eudora Pro 5 QualcommFree-$50 Mac/Win

Mature package that offers many advanced features.

Graphics

GraphicConverter LemkesoftFree-$30Mac Only

Wonderful graphic program that performs a number of conversion options, including batch processing.The batch options are worth the shareware cost.

Photoshop Lite/Photoshop 6 AdobeFree-$500Mac/Win

The industry standard for graphics manipulation and editing.Continues to develop with newer options frequently added.Powerful features for preparation of graphics for web.Based on a bitmapped data structure but newer versions include more vector options.The Lite version often comes bundled with scanners.

Video Editing

iMovie 2 Apple Computer Free-$50 Mac Only

Bundled with some new Macs and also available as a standalone.Very easy to use and recent version has a fair number of options.Allows the transfer of movie clips from FireWire devices such as digital video cameras.Permits mixing of audio files.

Media Cleaner Pro Terran $300 Mac/Win

Excellent for special preparation of video for a number of media.Especially good for compression options.

Premiere 5.1Adobe $200-550 Mac/Win

Full-featured digital video editor that offers extensive video treatment.Also supports import via FireWire.

Web page editors

FrontPage 2000Microsoft $60 Mac/Win

Easy to use webpage editor with modest features.

Dreamweaver 3Macromedia$250 Mac/Win

Becoming the most used web page editor system.Offers excellent management tools and supports integration of Flash and Shockwave files.

Class Management/Web-based

CourseInfoBlackboard Site License Mac/Win

WebCT WebCT Site License Mac/Win

Multimedia Development

HyperStudio 3 Roger Wagner$100 Mac/Win

Simple but effective program for the development of multimedia.Some scripting extensions possible but not an intuitive or extensive.Excellent built-in objects.Easy to mount files for access on the Internet.

Director 8/Shockwave Studio Macromedia $500 and upMac/Win

This package is a professional multimedia development program with powerful scripting and extensibility with the use of Xtras.Files can be shocked  to work interactively on the Internet.

Flash 5 Macromedia $130 Mac/Win

Animation package for the web page development.Uses a Director-like interface.