Korg recently announced that there is a way to double the loop length on the Korg Kaossilator to four measures with a hidden code. Here is the skinny from the Korg Kaossilator website:

KAOSSILATOR “Easter Egg” Lets You Record Four Measure Patterns
KAOSSILATOR does double duty! Yes, those uber-clever designers snuck in a way to record FOUR measure phrases! You can access this capability by holding down the TAP/BPM and LOOP REC/PLAY buttons while turning on your KAOSSILATOR. Once you see “DLY” on the screen, let go. The KAOSSILATOR then allocates its undo memory to recording memory. Once you see program “L.00”, hold those buttons again to enter the length mode, and turn the dial clockwise to select a length of “16” steps instead of the previous maximum of “8”.

Voila! Four measure patterns for twice the enjoyment!

This has some pretty big implications for educators as well all know that four measure phrases are the building blocks of almost all music. If you have a Kaossilator, I urge you to check this out. I tried it mine this morning and it worked perfectly. The only feature that you lose when you try this is the ability to undo the previous loop - a small price to pay if you ask me.

Don’t have a Kaossilator? Don’t worry. SoundTree will be receiving a large shipment of them very soon! Give Eric Davis a call at 1 (800) 963-8733 x6674 and order yours today. The price is $199.99 and we’ll even throw in free shipping!!!

If you are an elementary or middle school music teacher who would like to have their students try to compose with notation software rather than the popular loop-based programs out there, read on. Sibelius has recently announced the new Sibelius 5.0 Student Version, and it just might be the answer that you are looking for if you are in the market for an easy-to-use notation program at a very affordable price. At a starting price of $99 per copy or less, teachers who personally use Sibelius as their notation program of choice can have the powerful features of Sibelius for their students. Here are the features of Sibelius Students from the Sibelius website:

- Input notes via mouse, MIDI or computer keyboard
- Notate, play back, transpose and print music
- Panorama view lets you forget about page layout until you’re ready to print
- Hundreds of built-in ideas to help you get started
- Attach video files to your score
- Up to 12 staves per system
- Input dynamic markings, lyrics and other text
- Insert clef changes in your score
- Publish your music on the Internet
- Opens Sibelius, MusicXML and MIDI files
- Automatic backups and auto-save
- Exports MIDI files, web pages and Sibelius 4 or 5 scores

Sibelius also has a comparison chart to see what the student version can and cannot do.

I have seen the student version running, and I must say it looks and feels just like the real version. For mot music educators at the K-8 level, it is perfect. Leave it to Sibelius to create a student version of their software that was created with the intention to get more students composing. Now that they have given you the tools you have no excuse to not try composing with your students today!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Music technology guru Thomas Rudolph has joined the blogosphere! His new blog is hosted by Berklee Music, and is titled Making the Most of Notation Software. He already has some great posts with tips on how to best utilize both Sibelius and Finale. If you have had the pleasure of taking a class or attending a session with Tom, you know what a masterful teacher he is. His greatest strength is his ability to demystify music technology by speaking in jargon-free, teacher-friendly terms. I am sure that this blog will be an incredible resource for teachers in the years to come - especially those who use notation software.

Welcome to the world of blogging Tom!

Today marks my first day on the job as the new Managing Director of SoundTree.  As you know I am really excited about this new position and look forward to leading a company on the cutting edge of music technology in education.  As a long time customer and clinician of/for SoundTree, I know what music educators need from a technology company and it is my intention to utilize this knowledge to improve and enhance the incredible work that our team has been doing for over a decade.  If you are a SoundTree customer, I’d love to hear from you.  My new email address at SoundTree is jimf@soundtree.com.

At the TI:ME/OMEA National Conference this past February, I was introduced to a new website called eJamming.  I met the CEO of the company, and was intrigued by the concept of jamming with other musicians over the Internet.  My biggest question was - can it work?  Music making, specifically jamming,  is such a rhythm and time-oriented thing.  With variable speed Internet connections, is it possible to jam with a musician in another part of the world without latency issues? Online musical collaboration software solutions must address these issues effectively if they want any chance of succeeding.

As I was reading the Wired.com site yesterday, I came across an article all about eJamming that gave it an enthusiastic review - “Finally, the on-demand, online garage band gets real“.  There was a link in the article to download a free beta version of the software, and I decided to check it out.  After creating a profile about myself, I logged on to the site and joined a jam session.  At first it was extremely eery to be honest.  I heard a guitar player from Chicago noodling around.  Suddenly, another guitar player from North Carolina joined the session and started playing along.  While there is an IM service so that you can speak with the other musicians, you can also talk using a microphone (built-in or otherwise).  As my profile says that I am a tuba player, and I didn’t feel like getting “my axe” out of the basement, I was just a passive participant in the session but I listened for about 20 minutes as these two guitar players played together.  I couldn’t hear any timing issues at all.  Quite frankly, it was really cool.  The interface is easy to use with only a few buttons - Jam Scheduler, Audio Mute, Message, and Musicians List.  Each musician in a jam session has their own track, and you can control the volume of each player - finally being able to turn down that ego-maniacal musician whose amp is never loud enough.

Tonight, I plan on changing my profile to “keyboard player” today so that I can hook up my home studio with Reason and laying down some drum and bass loops so that guitar players and other musicians  can jam along with me.  Look for me - my user name is jtfrankel.  Let’s get jamming.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.