| Home & Office Software September 2002 | |
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A solid and amazingly
fast multitrack recording product, Sonar 2.0 (CakeWalk/Win/$479)
enables you to record, edit, and mix music and audio projects for CDs,
film/video scores, and multimedia programs. And it lets you do all do this
within one colorful, global view. This latest version of Sonar has, among
other highlights, a Cyclone DXi 16-part groove sampler; multi-part drum
editing; enhanced soft synth integration; real-time MIDI FX; and advanced
project management (with simple-to-use file organization tools and
intelligent file naming). Given Sonar 2.0's precision and versatility,
it's little wonder that it is used by musicians, producers, and DJ/remix
artists worldwide. www.cakewalk.com Visual Communicator (Serious Magic/Win/$99.95) has been getting a slew of great press. And I'm happy to report that the software deserves every bit of it. It enables you to make video messages and presentations with the sleek look of a network television broadcast. And you don't have to bother with any video editing! The program has three essential steps: Pick a Style (birthday wish, formal invitation, club news, video press release, etc), Press Record (the video is recorded live while all the graphics and special effects are instantly added), and Save & Share (so that you can share your piece with anyone in the world). Note: There is a $149 version of the software that comes with a plastic green screen for creating easy-but-compelling visuals. Whether for home, school, or work, Visual Communicator is a top-notch product. www.seriousmagic.com Now available for Avid nonlinear editing systems, the sterling Continuum Complete AVX (BorisFX/Win/$1,595) harbors over 80 amazingly versatile filters, all of which use the native AVX interface. The filters range from keying and color to compositing (with animated apply modes and the capability to map video to 3D shapes) and temporal effects (blurring,optical flow, time displacement, etc.). Further, there are powerful advanced effects filters for producing, say, Rain, Snow, Film Grain, Light Zoom, and Vector Displacement. The software also lets you apply effects to Avid titles with uncommon ease. And every filter has presets for a laudable range of quickly-applied, customizable effects. Continuum Complete AVX works with Avid Xpress, Avid Media Composer, and Avid Symphony. www.borisfx.com Serious musicans and multimedia artists will certainly want to take a look at the bundled Max/MSP2 & Jitter (Cycling'74/Mac/$850). For this is an incredibly robust and accessible real-time audio development suite. Max/MSP2 contains nearly 400 objects for audio sampling, synthesis, filtering, editing, and analysis. Whether it's simple recording or intricate granular synthesis, Max/MSP2 allows you to do it with ease and precision. Jitter is an innovative set of over 130 objects that enable Max/MSP2 generate and manipulate audio, text, video, still images, 3D geometry, particle systems, and even spreadsheet data. Thus, you not only will be able to create custom effects and 2D/3D graphics, but do real-time video processing. To more read more the marvelous Max/MSP2 & Jitter bundle, go to: www.cycling74.com Pyro 2003 (Calkwalk/Win/$39) is a genuinely impressive product. Affortable and highly-practical, this digital music management application allows you to do everything from organize you music library and burn top-quality CDs of your favorite tunes to convert LPs and cassettes to CDs (or digital files) and turn your CDs into MP3s (as well as WAV and WMA files--Windows Media Audio is compressed audio files that are half the size of MP3 files). The software also is capable of removing clicks, pops, hiss, and even hums from LPs, cassettes, and MP3s. Pyro 2003 works with practically any Windows-compatible CD-R and CD-RW drive. However, it won't run on Win95 or WinNT. www.calkwalk.com Avid Xpress DV PowerPack (Avid/$2,499) is an outstanding professional video editing suite. Its core program is the laudable Avid Xpress DV 3.5., which now runs on Mac OS X and Windows XP platforms. This new version has, among other things, NaturalMatch technology (which is capable of true color-to-color matching without having to use grayscale values); over 100 infinitely customizable real-time effects and titling; and a three-window view (with previous, current, and next frame, as well as a split-screen mode that lets you manipulate frames side-by-side). Other applications in the PowerPack include DigiDesign AudioSuite with enhanced audio filters; Avid FilmScribe, which edits film captured in variety of formats; Avid DupeDetection, which automatically keeps track of shots you've previously used; and Avid Image Stabilize AVX, a winning plug-in that delivers motion tracking to eliminate unwanted camera movement from any clip. With such a wealth of resources, you would expect the system requirements for the Xpress DV PowerPack to be formidable. But they aren't. Avid rightly recommends 384MB of RAM, though you could get sluggishly by with 256MB. Mac users will need OS X 10.1.4 or later, and any G4 desktop or PowerBook with a 400 MHz. Windows owners require XP Professional and a 750MHz Pentium III or Pentium 4 processor. www.avid.com An outstanding nonlinear video plug-in for 3D compositing and title effects, Boris RED 2.5 (BorisFX/$1,595) delivers an excellent range of options for the creation of integrated effects, which include paint, 3D modeling, title animation, and rotoscoping (i.e., to draw, paint, or overlay images onto frames in a movie). What's new with Boris RED 2.5? Lots. The program now supports both Mac OS X and Windows XP (as well as Mac OS 9.2 and Win NT/2000); it imports and exports files using Microsoft's media format; three new gradient styles provide superb options for textual and graphic elements; and numerous interface enhancements make using software easier than ever. You'll also find powerful new filters (natural filters, Velocity Remap, Particle Systems, etc.) and stand-alone effects creation and rendering. In short, Boris RED 2.5 integrates Boris FX (the highly-acclaimed application for effects creation in non-linear editing) and Boris GRAFFITI (a classic program for 2D/3D title animation). Boris RED 2.5 is a must-purchase for video and multimedia professionals. www.borisfx.com Boris Continuum Complete (Mac&Win/$495) has also been released from BorisFX. This a exceptional package of more than 80 filters for both Adobe After Effects 5.5 and Apple Final Cut Pro. It combines and expands two of the company's higly-popular filter suites--Boris AE and Boris Continuum. The filters include time-base effects, ultra-fast blurs, matte tools, and natural effects (rain, snow, fog, fire, etc.). The package also contains five new filters: Cartooner allows you to turn a video source or still image file into outline animation; Color Paletee provides options for selecting and saving color; PixelChooser lets you choose pixels based on geometric positions or color channel values, or both; Time Displacement displaces pixels in time rather than space; and Z Space III has the ability to intersect 3D place and sphere objects in a single scene. In addition to the filters, Boris Continuum Complete offers advance animation tools and new terrific ways of managing multi-layered compositions. SmartSound Movie Maestro (Sonic Desktop/Mac&Win/$49) is a delightful and easy-to-use product that lets video enthusiasts and ordinary computer users create custom, movie-quality soundtracks. No composing skills or sound editing knowledge are needed. With its three-step user interface, the program enables you locate appropriate royalty-free music selections and edit to the desired length. Real-time video playback allows you to see how the audio and the visuals appear together. If changes are needed, just drag the soundtrack to a new location in the timeline. Movie Maestro will automatically re-edit the piece to fit the new length! The six add-on Movie Music CDs are priced at an affordable $29.95 each. They include such themes as Sports, Family, Blockbuster, and Sentimental. www.smartsound.com Britannica 2003 Utimate Reference Suite DVD (Britannica/Mac&Win/$59.95) is, indeed, a crowing home reference work. It actually contains three complete reference libraries for every age. The updated Encyclopaedia Britannica is perfect for both locating fast facts and in-depth research. It includes the entire 32-volume Britannica, which comes to 75,000 articles. The new Britannica Student Encyclopedia is for students in upper elementary, middle, and high school. There are 15,000 lively and engaging entries. And the Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia is a special reference for students in the early grades. The Ultimate Reference Suite also has two complete dictionaries, an updated World Atlas (with more than 1,300 clickable maps), and a plethora of multimedia (21,000 images, videos, audio clips, and animated maps). www.britannica.com A robust and marvelously-varied suite of seven applications, Stone Studio (Stone Design/Mac OS X/$299) is an ideal solution for Mac-based Web and desktop publishers. The program includes: Create (the company's first-rate drawing, page layout, and Web-page authoring tool): PhotoToWeb (manages digital photos and produces Websites from album images); SliceAndDice (creates navigation bars); TimeEqualsMoney (tracks time spent with clients, and produces reports/invoices automatically); and GIFfun (lets you to create simple-but-quick Web animations). The applications can be used independently or in an integrated manner. You definitely will need some time to become familiar with all the tools. But it will be time well spent. www.stone.com The Mac OS X edition of FastTrack Schedule 8 ($299) has just been released from AEC Software. This classic project management application just keeps on getting better. You are still able to organize and track all your project details and schedules in rich colors and a flexible layout. But the program now has, among other things, a gorgeous Aqua interface; streamlined menus and toolbars; millions of new color choices and combinations (for bar styles, rows, and text); new graphic support (you can now add GIF, Photoshop, and QuickTime images to your schedules); and a Work Breakdown Structure (it lets you convert the hierarchy of your project into tasks with numeric and alphanumeric lables). Further, the software is more responsive and a bit more stable. In a word, this a grand product for both project management professionals and small business owners. Note: FastTrack Schedule 8 for Palm OS ($99) is also on store shelves. www.aecsoft.com Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 7 DVD (Total Training/Mac&Win/$249.99) is a thorough and winningly-engaging video-based training program. Deke McClelland--the prolific author of such titles as "Photoshop for Dummies" and the now classic "Photoshop Bible"--divides the series into three sections--Photoshop Basics, Essential Photoshop, and Photoshop at Its Best. Topics include What Photoshop Can Do, Annotating & Saving, Basic Masking, Advanced Blending, Painting Tools, Entering Type, Color Management, and Printing & Packing. McClelland also delves into version 7's new features, e.g., the File Browser, the Healing Brush, and the innovative Liquefy plug-in. Throughout the program, the host provides insightful tips and valuable "secrets" regarding this stellar graphics application. The more than 26 hours of tutorial content on Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 7 comes on eight handsomely-packaged DVDs. www.totaltraining.com The latest version of Sonic's leading program for personal DVD creation, MyDVD 4 ($79/Win) has a slew of new highlights. A robust video compositing engine enables full-motion video to be used for menu backgrounds and buttons (as in Hollywood productions); users can create slideshows using scanned photos and pictures from digital cameras; the software now automatically stores original JPEG images on DVD, allowing photographers to access and print crisp images of any picture in their slideshow; and MyDVD 4's beautifully enhanced interface is more intuitive and efficient. There are other improvements, as well. But you'll have to check them out for yourself. In word, this stellar upgrade makes it easier than ever to convert home videos and photos into professional-grade DVDs. www.sonic.com FineReader 6.0 Professional (ABBYY/Win/$299.99) has just been released. In addition to offering powerful and accurate Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities, it has a bevy of new features and enhancements. Just to mention a few: The ability to recognize, edit, and save documents in PDF format; a new WYSIWYG editor that retains the look and format of your printed documents (including columns, tables, and pictures); full HTML support; and One Button OCR (place any document on your scanner, click "Scan & Read," and FineReader does the job for you). The program has a superior Spell-Check system, as well as excellent multilingual document recognition (it can work in over 120 languages!). To read more about this fine product, go to: www.abbyyusa.com Perfect for desktop users, workgroups, and small business/home office professionals, Filemaker Pro 6 (Filmaker/Mac&Win/$299) now allows you to manage your data with even greater speed and flexibility. In addition to its classic--and rock-solid--database functions (contacts, assets, and projects), Filemaker Pro 6 offers single-click Web publishing, XML support (Extensible Markup Language lets you gather and share data with a limitless number of applications in a variety of formats), over 20 redesigned templates, improved Themes to apply document styles to your layout, and the ability to capture digital images and video directly from cameras! The interface is still a joy use, and Microsoft Office die-hards will be glad to know that the software can instantly convert Microsoft Excel files into functional solutions that let you to sort, search, and track information with marvelous ease. www.filemaker.com A choice and incredibly-versatile CD/DVD burning suite, RecordNow MAX Platinum (Stomp Inc/Win/$79) not only lets you perform such common tasks as copying CDs/DVDs and creating data and video CDs, but it allows you to produce music CDs (from MP3, WAV, and CD tracks), bootable CDs, and perform both CD labeling and music editing. Yes, other CD/DVD burning programs in this price range are easier to operate and have more automated functions. But they may not, for example, offer unlimited MP3 ripping, the ability to record up to 64 drives simultaneously, and the capability of performing full-fledged back-ups (instead of image only) across the board. Further, RecordNow MAX Platinum requires only 32MB of RAM and 10MB of hard drive space. Stomp has also just released MySoundStudio (Win/$69). This feature-rich package essentially turns your PC into a recording studio. You can--among other things--edit MP3 and WAV files, add robust sound effects (Fade-In/Out, Reverb, Pitch Shift, etc.), remove noise, and customize volume levels. MySoundStudio is a drag-and-drop operation, with a simple-to-use interface. www.stompinc.com A professional video editing program, MediaStudio Pro 6.5 (Ulead/Win/$495) has five thoroughly integrated tools for non-linear editing. They include video capture, audio editing, and video painting (which lets you make spectacular special effects). Two new advances on this latest version of this stellar product are variable bit-rate (VBR) MPEG-2 encoding (such encoding provides sharper picture quality and smaller files sizes) and DVD authoring. Creating DVD--SVCD and VCD--titles is easy. Using a 5-step wizard-style workflow and customizable templates, you can make DVD titles complete with scene menus, navigation buttons, and video introductions. The software also lets you put together a Project Database to store projects for editing or to be used at a later date. MediaStudio Pro 6.5 is highly-recommended for video professionals. www.ulead.com A winning upgrade to this acclaimed visual effects and image processing program, Boris FX 6.1 (Artel Software/Mac&Win/$495) now supports OS X. Fortunately, Boris FX 6.1 retains nearly all of its top-notch features. They include it incredibly realistic Natural Filters (e.g., Rain, Snow, Comets, and Sparks); compositing tools (with apply modes, motion blur, and displacement maps); advanced particle effects (such as Stars and 3D Image Shatter); a tighter and more functional interface; keying filters (for removing a section an image from scene); and state-of-the art color correction and transition effects filters. The software also offers a number of fine audio tools, such as level controls, waveform display, and real-time playback of scrub audio. Boris FX 6.1 supports over a dozen host applications, including Adobe Affects, Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Ulead Media Studio Pro. www.borisfx.com Designed for digital photographers and prepress professionals, PhotoRetouch Pro 1.0.5 (Binuscan/Mac/$749) is a sterling graphics arts program. At once robust, innovative, and thoroughly-accessible, PhotoRetouch Pro is a strong challenger to Photoshop. Its handsome and spacious interface has just a trio of floating palettes: Tool Selection, Tool Option, and Information. Remarkably, though, the software allows you to do everything from modifying contrast and changing hues (in real time!) to detecting faults in an image's structure and preparing scanned images for print. But PhotoRetouch Pro's qualities don't stop there. CDC 4x is an incredible feature that enables you to increase image size by up to 200 percent with minimum loss in resolution. Other functions include Super Crop (which is a God-send for slightly-skewed scans) and the JPEG Removal tool (which eliminates those JPEG "jaggies" that you often see on prints). PhotoRetouch Pro 1.0.5 is compatible with both Mac OS 9 and OS X. Note: Binuscan is offering a $200 instant rebate until the end of June. The company has generously offered to extend the instant rebate until July 12th for our readers! Just mention that you heard about PhotoRetouch Pro in the Charleston Daily News. www.binuscan.com Whether you're a Web novice or Web professional, chances are you will love Webstyle 3 (Xara/Win/$69). This admirable product helps you to create--with uncommon ease--rich and thoroughly-professional Web sites. You can animate banners, form navigation bars with menus and rollover effects, and even do basic photo processing! Webstyle 3 has 200 new professional-designed templates. The full template library consists of a whopping 1,000 designs. The design types include Buttons, Banner Ads, Themed Sets (e.g., SharkTheme, GelTheme, BlueTheme), and Miscellaneous (where you can, for example, mix different graphic types and designs together to create one dynamic overall look). Further, Webstyle 3 enables you to easily change the font, hue, and text of any of your creations. Xara's own handsome Web site is at: www.xara.com Designed for commercial and freelance video producers, Ulead Pick-A-Video Pro 22-25 (Mac&Win/$59.95) and Ulead Pick-A-Sound 5-6 (Mac&Win/$59.95) are versatile and incredibly-useful products for enriching sports and wedding videos. Pick-A-Video Pro has a wealth of high-resolution digital video and sounds, including flying balls, cheering, ancient Roman themes, and sports-related backgrounds. Pick-A-Sound contains six themed volumes of music, ranging from "Romance" and "Holiday Resonance" to "Nature Harmonies" and "Power Productions." The music tracks are pristine stereo, and they include jingles, sound effects, and even full-length compositions! All of the music is royalty-free, and all of the video footage is top-grade. If you're a video producer, you'll definitely want to purchase this software duo. www.ulead.com eMedia Music continues to make the best and best-selling CD-ROM tutorials for guitarists. Their new Intermediate Guitar Method (Mac&Win/$59.95) is a colorful and comprehensive program for guitarists who already know the basics. There are 175 step-by-step lessons which painlessly take you beyond chords and simple melodies. The video-enhanced lessons are engagingly given by noted guitar instructor Kevin Garry, Ph.D. Other highlights? The animated fretboard details fingering from a number of perspectives, and the MIDI tracks let you slow the music down if you have to. Further, the software contains over 50 hit songs, including "Spoonful," "All Along the Watchtower," and "Time in a Bottle." www.emediamusic.com With the amazingly versatile and inexpensive DVD Complete Deluxe (Dazzle/Win/$99.99), you can design and burn Hollywood-style DVDs. The software enables you to go from video to DVD in five easy steps: Choose one of the helpful Wizards, which will guide you through the entire process; add your video; choose from one 20 professionally designed themes; make the final edit and preview the DVD in the Simulator; and then burn--to DVD or CD! DVD Complete Deluxe not only allows you to create DVDs with interactive menus, multiple scenes, and background audio, but it lets you give your home/business/cinematic creations Region Coding and Parental Control. The software also contains an automatic Disc Label Generator and an automatic Jacket Label Generator. Quibbles? DVD Complete Deluxe isn't cross-platform and the installation process is a little slow. You can read more about this marvelous DVD authoring product at: www.dazzle.com
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