Powertracks 4 Features

Transcript

PowerTracks 4 Features • Multi-Wave File Player Imports and plays PG Music's multi-track wave (.WAV) files. These files are found on PowerTracks MultiTrack™ discs, as well as many other PG Music audio programs. • Import/Export Wave Files Imports/Exports standard Windows wave (.WAV) files • Cut, Copy, and Paste Audio Select a portion of an audio track you want to edit, and cut, copy, or paste it! • Track Paste This allows you to paste an entire track into a new track in one easy step. • Audio Effects Apply various DSP effects to audio tracks such as Gain, EQ, Delay, or Reverb. • Duplicate Duplicates an audio or MIDI track in one easy step. • Erase Erases any selected audio or MIDI track. • Merge Combines two audio or MIDI tracks into a single track, freeing up an additional track for recording. • Record, Record From Start Records on the currently selected track. • Audio settings dialog Sets audio settings for your project such as how many tracks you can safely record, recording rates (22kHz or 44.1kHz), Full Duplex operation, sound buffering, etc. • Audio Edit Window Displays waveform of current audio track with selectable zoom and allows areas of the audio wave to be selected by holding down the left mouse button, sliding the mouse to the left or right, and then releasing the mouse button when the desired portion is highlighted. • Auto recovery Recovers data automatically from interrupted sessions. • Auto-open any audio format, export to stereo wave. Import compressed wave files and MP3's, or export your project to a stereo mix suitable for burning to an Audio CD, etc. PowerTracks 5 Features • Windows Long File Name support Full compatibility with Windows 95/98 Long-filenames for loading and saving files. • Stereo Digital Audio (WAV) Recording Use both channels of your stereo soundcard to record 2 mono tracks or 1 stereo track simultaneously. • Stereo VU Meters for Recording and Playback Monitor your levels to avoid clipping while maximizing input levels for best s/n ratio. • Big Notes-Leadsheet Notation Window Use the Leadsheet window to transform your monitor into one large sheet music display system. Allows you to see more of your song at once, or use for viewing from "across the room". • Dynamic "3D" Drum Kit Window Use this "virtual drum room" to view MIDI drum tracks as they would be played by a live drummer. Also useful for creating your own drum tracks in a more intuitive fashion. • Virtual Electronic Guitar-Instrument Tuner Software tuner allows you to tune any instrument or monitor 'pitch' using your computer's built-in soundcard. • MIDI Status Monitor This feature allows you to 'see' all the MIDI data being sent to and from your computer. PowerTracks 6 Features Version 6.0 offers the following exciting new features: • Support for multiple sound cards and multi-line recording cards, allowing you to simultaneously record and play back up to 16 digital audio inputs and outputs --for maximum flexibility and high quality results. • The unique PowerTracks Pro Audio JukeBox feature has been enhanced with new dedicated controls; offering next song, previous song, stop, and start buttons. These features combine to allow for complete custom control of Jukebox sessions. It even has stop between songs and play on command features to control pauses between songs - a "must-have" for live performances. • The expanded 16 Track Mixer Window allows simultaneous precision control of up to 16 Audio, MIDI, or a combination of MIDI and Audio tracks "at a glance". • Enhanced MIDI to Audio Sync adjustments allow accurate recording playback sessions even for inexpensive or older soundcards that may not support full duplex operation. • New Markers View lets you insert your own song position markers, displayed at the top of the Bars Overview Window. This feature enables you to quickly navigate through a project by jumping forward to the next marker or back to the prior marker at the click of a button With the Go to Marker command you can also jump directly to any marker - a huge time saver during editing sessions. • Great New Guitar Fretboard enhancements include the ability to display "guide notes and note names", showing the exact scale-note locations based on the key of a song. The virtual guitar fretboard is also totally resizable, allowing maximum flexibility for viewing at any angle -at any screen size and resolution. • There's a handy new setting called Fill Blank Track Names with Patches. With this option, when a new song is loaded, the program will offer to automatically fill in any unnamed track names with a MIDI patch name. In this case, the patch name is based on the Patch Number found in the "Prg" field of the Tracks window: MIDI (.mid) files are given General MIDI patch names, and .SEQ files are assigned names as found in the custom patch list (e.g., XG, GS, etc.) that has been stored with each track. • Track names have been added to the Bars view. This view now shows you the exact track names in a dedicated column on the left-side of the Bars window. • Track - Save Track to File command saves any individual track that is contained in a project to its own file outside of the project. This feature allows you to quickly and easily "export" any track to another program, or to break up a larger project into a smaller one. • When changing the Key Signature, you can optionally auto-transpose the MIDI data of a song to the new key. • PowerTracks now offers a convenient silent message box option to eliminate those distracting (and often too loud) system “beeps” and program messages that are often accompanied by Windows system sounds. Six Incredible New Audio Effects Plugins! With the addition of 6 new Audio Plugins, this version now boasts 19 professionalquality audio plugins, affording you the ability to create exciting, studio-quality digital audio -without the need for expensive or complicated outboard effects gear. • Pitch-Shift - One of the coolest audio effects available today, this plugin allows you to transpose the pitch of any audio track in your PowerTracks project up or down in semitone increments, or fine tune them in cents -- without changing the original tempo! Now you really can "fix it in the mix" by raising the pitch of that out-of-tune vocal or guitar track to blend perfectly with your other tracks. Or create beautiful harmonies out of a single-note instrument or vocal track by duplicating tracks while simultaneously changing the pitch up or down in semi-tones to the desired harmony notes. • De-Ess - Recording vocals with microphones can often yield recordings with unwanted "whistling" or "esssss" sounds in the recording. The de-esser plugin can be useful for helping to eliminate this excessive sibilance as can often be heard on the 's' sounds in unprocessed vocal singing and spoken recordings. • AutoWah - An increasingly popular effect, this envelope-controlled low pass filter can add a unique "synthetic" sound to audio tracks, and some downright strange sounds to other instruments. • Exciter - Long considered the "magic black box" used in professional recording studios, this plugin offers the same extra "high-harmonics" effect which results in a brightened up track or song. This powerful and highly specialized plugin results can often bring dramatic results to your mix. • Enhancer - The Enhancer Plugin is another specialized plugin that can provide an extra boost to any digital audio track. A Bass Octave adjustment is coupled with a program-controlled high frequency boost, restoring formerly lifeless tracks back to life with enhanced detail and punch. Often used in conjunction with the Exciter, this plugin is often used just before or during a final mixdown. • Hum Filter - Eliminate or reduce any unwanted Low AC hum (or buzz) often caused by lights or poorly insulated electrical connections from your audio tracks with minimal affect to the sonic characteristics of the recorded track by using this new plugin -another great "fix it in the mix" plugin for those otherwise-perfect takes. PowerTracks 7 Features • DirectX Audio Plugins now supported! DirectX represents the standard of choice for Windows Audio technology, and now you can use any DirectX audio plugin with PowerTracks Pro Audio. Choose from hundreds of low cost (or free) DirectX Audio plugins available for download on the internet, or use your existing DirectX Audio effects library on PowerTracks' audio tracks. • Save to an Audio-CD! Use the built-in CD-R burning "Miniburn" software to write wave files to an Audio CD --playable on any Compact Disc Audio equipment. This means you can go from a new project in PowerTracks to a completed Audio CD without ever leaving the PowerTracks environment --all on your CD-burner equipped PC! • Save to the Internet! Use the "WAV to WMA Conversion" feature to turn your project into one of the newest Internet "streaming formats". By using the builtin Microsoft W  indows Media Audio compression technology, you can turn a PowerTracks rendered WAV file into a streaming internet audio file in just a few moments. Then, simply upload the file and add a hyperlink to your Website to share your latest productions over the internet. • New Print Preview Window. This new window allows you to preview your notation for size and layout before you send it to your printer. You can even save each page to a graphics file (e.g., BMP, JPG, etc.) so you can post your notation to the Internet on your Website, send it to a friend as an email attachment, etc. Use this feature in combination with the new Sizeable Fonts print option (which allows you to print with any size font that you want) and you'll have complete control over your notation printouts. • In addition to the multiple sound card support we added previously, PowerTracks Pro Audio now offers support for 48K sample rates. This allows for easier integration to Pro-Quality Soundcards, ADAT, DAT, and Minidisc equipment --for maximum flexibility and high quality results. • Pitch to MIDI Conversion - Got a vocal part you want be played on your synthesizer? Need a notation printout of that digital audio melody? Version 7.0 can perform a "pitch- to-MIDI" conversion so you can do just that. This feature works best on audio tracks with single-note melodies such as vocals, wind instruments, etc. After the selected audio track is successfully analyzed and converted the MIDI notes will be placed on the next available empty MIDI track in your project. Check out the Audio Editing improvements: 1. Improved resolution so you can zoom in to the actual sample level for more precise audio editing. The highlighted edit area will automatically "snap" to the nearest 'tick' to show you precisely what will actually get edited. 2. Most recently chosen audio zoom level is now saved as a configuration setting. Zoom level is also saved for up to three currently opened audio windows after you exit and restart PowerTracks. 3. You can now change the sampling rate of a song, even if it currently contains audio tracks. PowerTracks will offer to convert the sampling rate for you. Check out the Notation Editing improvements: 1. Highlighting of selected area in Notation Window. You can click and drag the mouse to highlight a section in the Notation Window. Then, you can Cut or Copy the selected area. The 'selected area' can be vertical as well as horizontal, meaning that you can select a certain range of notes vertically in addition to the horizontal From/Thru range. 2. You can click on existing notes on the notation window (editable mode) and drag them chromatically. This is useful for adjusting the pitch of a note without having to go into a separate dialog box. There's also new Big Lyrics Window features: 1. Lyrics window can now optionally display chord symbols. 2. A new setting in the "File Preferences" dialog allows for the automatic opening of a Big Lyrics window for a track which has the most lyrics in any given file. Great new Mixer Enhancements include: 1. The "All" volume control now functions as an overall volume. In the past this control simply moved all the volume sliders. Now it functions as a "master volume", allowing you to change levels while preserving any level adjustments made to individual tracks. 2. When you move the mouse cursor over a mixer channel strip, the "track name" will be shown in the Mixer Window's blue Title Bar. This lets you see the exact name of track without having to search for the track or bars window. Other Enhancements and Improvements include: • File Utilities submenu with "Change Directory" command lets you set your project's working directory so that all LOAD and SAVE commands will default to the directory you specify. • Solo Button now solos all the selected (highlighted) tracks. This is handy for hearing how different tracks combine with each other without having to MUTE and UNMUTE tracks individually. • Loop Button on Notation and Leadsheet windows will automatically play and loop the music in the window. This is useful for rehearsing or learning sections of a song. • Endless Loop command now has four choices: Chosen Range Below (lets you enter start/end measures) Entire Song, Current Song Section (based on markers), and Highlighted Area (based on From/Thru range). 1. "Chosen Range Below" lets you specify the From Bar and Thru Bar. 2. "Entire Song" loops the whole song. 3. "Current Song Section" loops from the most recent Marker to the next Marker or end of song. 4. "Highlighted Area" loops the highlighted From/Thru range. • $OPTIONS.SEQ is a default file that PowerTracks loads upon startup. Now you can "Autosend Sysex Banks" that are contained in this $OPTIONS.SEQ file. This is useful for recalling certain settings that are normally stored in .SEQ files upon startup. PowerTracks 8 Features PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 is here, with an all-new 32-bit engine and over 30 cool new features! There’s a new Chord Wizard that interprets the correct chord symbols for any song, real time DirectX effects chains, a new Jazz notation font, and much more – including lots of your wish list requests like 100 levels of Undo, 24-bit/96kHz audio support, and tabbed Preference dialogs! It's like having a 48 track recording studio on your computer! • New 32-bit Version! PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 has been totally rebuilt as a full 32-bit engine for seamless operation in Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP/NT. • Amazing New Chord Wizard! Load in any MIDI file, PowerTracks MIDI sequence file, or even a work-in progress, and the amazing new Chord Wizard will intelligently figure out the chords and display them on the notation window, and the new chords window. Chord symbols are an essential component of playing by ear, so most musicians who play by ear should find this new feature indispensable! The new chords window displays the chords in a selectable font and size, and is fully editable. It also has part markers (compatible with Band-in-a-Box) so that you can easily mark sections of your sequence. • Real Time DirectX Effects! PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 supports real time DirectX effects for live playback and monitoring, and even includes loads of great effects for free! PowerTracks also has real time DirectX plug-in groups, in which up to four chained plug-ins can be used at once. Effects groups can be saved and loaded along with their settings, making it easy to use the same settings with multiple projects. The post-production DirectX window also supports chains of up to four plug-ins. Free DirectX Plug-ins! PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 comes with these real time DirectX plug-ins from PG Music Inc.: • PG Dynamics Simultaneous Compressor and Expander/Gate functions, with finetuning available for attack, decay, threshold ratio and auto-gain control. • PG Echo-Chorus Customizable Echo and Chorus effects with control over reverb, feedback, modulation and wet/dry mix. • PG Flanger Distinctive delay effect with full user control including “Invert Delay” setting. • PG Five Band EQ Five-band active equalizer with +/- 18 dB range and enable option for each band. • PG Ten Band EQ All the features of the five-band EQ with narrower frequency ranges. • PG Reverb With Pre-delay, Delay, Brightness, Density, Mix and Output controls. • PG Peak Limit Look ahead peak limiting and DC blocking, to protect your sound files from clipping. • PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 is also compatible with third-party DirectX plug-ins. New Mixer Window! The PowerTracks mixer window features new sliders and controls. Aux1 and Aux2 effects busses have been added with up to 4 effects per bus, and a Master effects output bus is available for each Audio Output Port. Support for up to 4 effects per bus. Track Effects Inserts allow up to four effects to be inserted directly into a track's signal path, so each individual track can have its own effects. Updated Audio Features! • “New look” LED VU meters with clipping indicator and peak-hold with gradual peak fallback. • 24-bit/96khz audio file format is supported. • Recordable audio track mixer moves for Volume, Pan, Aux1, and Aux2. • Automated mixes for audio tracks using MIDI controller events in the event list. • User determined order for the Audio Output ports in the Audio Drivers dialog. • 1-track stereo audio. Each audio track in PowerTracks Pro Audio 8 can play either stereo or mono. • Audio I/O Latency Delay keeps audio playback/recording in sync with software MIDI synthesizers. • Audio I/O Thread gives three different choices for audio playback and recording priority. • Paste audio tracks into the current song from the scrap buffer with the Load Scrap command. • 32-bit floating point processing in the audio signal path. Updated MIDI Features! • Track data is automatically re-channeled to the MIDI channels in the Tracks view with the new “Automatically Re-channel track data when saving to a .MID” option. • User determined order for the MIDI Output ports in the Midi Driver Setup dialog. • New “Use Existing Channel” checkbox in the Other Staff Options dialog will intelligently determine the channel number of inserted notes. • Clicking on a lyric or a chord in the Big Lyrics window plays the song from that location. Enhanced Notation Features! • New Jazz notation font gives a “handwritten” look to notes, symbols, chords and titles. • Multiple track Leadsheet window notation display. • PowerTracks Pro Audio can now print multiple tracks of notation. • Scrub Mode in the Notation window will play the notes in the notation as you drag the mouse horizontally over the window. Great for learning difficult parts or for examining recorded tracks for glitches or wrong notes. • Slanted beams in the notation window, which indicates whether the general direction of a phrase is upward or downward in pitch. • New Section Text events let you place a text event at any location on the staff window. • New special Beat Resolution settings in Notation Window Beat Resolution dialog, which let you display a 5-beat group of notes as either 2+3 or 3+2. • Auto-detect mode displays 5-beat groups as either 2+3 or 3+2 depending on the time of the 3rd note in the group. And Much More … ! • Multiple levels of Edit | Undo, user-selectable from 1 to 100. • Lyrics window automatically switches to Chord mode when lyrics are not present. • [Find] button in the Custom File Selection dialog to search for a file within the current folder. Useful when a folder has many files and you need to find a specific file quickly. • Favorite Folders button in the Custom File Selection dialog to quickly change the current folder by selecting from a list of “favorite” folders. • New Preferences dialog with “tabbed pages” gives easy access to user preferences. • “Big Piano” piano settings option for sizeable onscreen piano keyboard display. • Main toolbar displays the number of megabytes and the percentage of disk space free on the hard drive. PowerTracks 9 Features Unfortunately, I didn’t have the features list for version 9 of PowerTracks. PowerTracks 10 Features Overview We've added more than thirty major new features in PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 including ASIO support, a fully featured Piano Roll window, Time Stretch and Pitch Change for audio tracks, half and quarter speed audio playback, Drag ‘n’ Drop audio editing, 3 new DirectX Plug-ins (PG Vinyl Tool, PG RTA, PG Vocal Remover) and much more! The new ASIO support in PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 can achieve latency as low as 5 milliseconds and will echo MIDI Thru notes to DXi softsynths in real time. The addition of the Piano Roll window allows you to precisely edit every MIDI track. Time Stretch and Pitch Change features give you even greater flexibility for audio tracks, and that’s not all. The new DirectX plug-ins included with PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 can easily convert your old vinyl collection to CD or MP3, find the proper equalization settings for your project, and suppress vocal tracks in your favorite recordings. Other new features like Shift+click support, drag and drop editing, block select, and advanced paste features make PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 even more powerful than before. With all these great new features PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 is sure to become your favorite workspace. • New ASIO Support PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 now supports ASIO audio drivers. When using an ASIO driver, PowerTracks can achieve latency as low as 5 milliseconds and will echo MIDI Thru notes to DXi softsynths in real time. Now you can hear yourself playing in real time, even when you are using a DXi softsynth such as the Roland VSC DXi. This means you will no longer have to switch to a hardware synth or your sound card’s chip-based synth to play along in real time with your composition. NOTE: This feature requires that you have an ASIO driver installed for your sound card, and not all sound cards come with them. On the internet, you may be able to find freeware drivers available for Creative Labs sound cards. • New Piano Roll Window PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 now has a fully-featured Piano Roll window - similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Now you can edit all of your tracks in the same window! The Piano Roll window enables precise graphic editing of note timing and duration for every MIDI track. By simply selecting and dragging with your mouse you can also graphically edit Note Velocity, Controllers, Program Changes, Channel Aftertouch, and Pitch Bend for any MIDI note. Audio track Volume and Pan automation can now also be graphically edited. • Audio Time Stretch and Pitch Shift With PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 you can now change the speed and pitch of audio. This new feature allows you to permanently change the duration and pitch of individual audio tracks, or change the speed and pitch of the entire PowerTracks Pro Audio mix. If an audio track has been inadvertently recorded too flat or too sharp, you can easily modify the pitch without affecting the track's duration. If the duration of an audio track is incorrect PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 can now change the tempo of an audio track without affecting the pitch. Tempo can be adjusted from 1/4 speed to 4X speed. Pitch can be adjusted +/- one octave, in one cent increments (a cent is 1/100 of a semitone). These features are also useful for learning your favorite up-tempo song. Load the file and play it back at half speed. If the song is in the key of F but you would rather learn it in Eb, transpose it down 2 semitones and continue playing at half-speed. As you master the song, you can gradually increase the tempo until you can play along at full speed. • Drag and Drop Editing PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 now supports Drag and Drop editing in the Tracks and Audio Edit Windows. You can now select a highlighted region by holding down the Ctrl key with the left mouse button pressed, and drag the region to a new location in the song. After releasing the mouse button, you have four options: 1) Move to new location and overwrite, 2) Move to new location and merge, 3) Copy to new location and overwrite, and 4) Copy to new location and merge. • Block - Select Recent From/Thru Range This addition to PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 allows you to select from a list of recently highlighted From/Thru regions. Your selection will become the currently highlighted From/Thru range. This is especially useful if you've accidentally unselected the current From/Thru range, or if you wish to re-select a range you selected earlier in the session. • Shift+click Support for the Tracks, Audio Edit, and Notation Windows This makes it easy to tweak the beginning or end of the highlighted area. If you Shift+click before the start of the From/Thru range, or after the end of the From/Thru range, the highlighted area will be extended. If you Shift+click within the From/Thru range, the range will be reduced, and the location you clicked on will become either From or Thru depending on which boundary was closer to where you Shift+clicked the mouse. Holding the Shift key and the left mouse button allows you to adjust the boundary of the range to that selected by moving the mouse. • Advance Now After Paste Option The Paste dialog now includes the “Advance Now after paste” option. This option advances the current time to the end of the pasted area, a useful feature for when you plan to create a new track or song section from multiple Pastes. • Auto-Convert Individual MIDI Track to .WAV file Invoke this new command by right-clicking on the track overview section of the Tracks Window and easily convert any MIDI Track to a .WAV file. PowerTracks will automatically render using a DXi synth. • Auto-Convert Individual MIDI track to Audio Track Now it is easy to convert any MIDI Track to an Audio Track. PowerTracks will automatically render using a DXi synth. This new command is accessible by rightclicking on the track overview section of the Tracks window. • Combine 2 Mono Audio Tracks to a Single Stereo Track This new feature in PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 allows you to combine any two mono audio tracks into a stereo track. A blank track is used as the destination track for the new stereo track. • Split Stereo Track into 2 Mono Tracks Now you can split a stereo track into two individual mono tracks. This is useful in special situations when you decide you need to use completely different effects on each of the two channels. • Time Signature Changes Support Time signature changes that occur during the song (1/4 through 4/4) will now be displayed on notation or printout. Note: This feature works in non-editable mode with engraver spacing enabled. • Print the Currently Displayed Page The Print Page button in the print preview dialog will print the currently displayed page directly to the printer, and print it with the same high quality resolution as if the page were part of a full printout. • MIDI Guitar Cleanup Dialog You can use this dialog to clean up existing MIDI tracks after you have recorded them on a MIDI guitar controller. The De-Glitch routine will automatically remove glitch notes (based on the Velocity and Duration (in milliseconds) settings). The Adjust Latency routine will automatically move the location of notes earlier to compensate for MIDI guitar latency. You can specify the adjustments for each string in milliseconds if the default settings aren't an exact match for your guitar's response times. • MIDI Pitch Bends MIDI Pitch Bends are now represented in real time in the Guitar Fretboard Window. The pitch bends, shown as horizontal blue lines, will move horizontally along the string in real time illustrating the extent of the pitch bend. • Send ALL Recent MIDI Controllers When the Send Most Recent Patch/Wheel/Controller option is enabled in the MIDI Out Options dialog, PowerTracks Pro Audio will now send ALL the most recent controllers (not just volume). • Track Number or MIDI Channel Number Indicator Now the Big Piano Window has a new setting to draw a number within the notes as they are being played. These numbers can indicate either the track number or the MIDI channel number of the note. • Toggle Part Marker Type for a Measure During Playback The Chords Window now allows you to toggle the part marker type for a measure during playback. In addition, you can also toggle a part marker for the current measure by pressing the “M” key on your keyboard when the chords window is currently active. • Opening and Saving Files The File Open and File Save As dialogs now individually recall the folder from the last time either dialog was used. This new setting can be enabled or disabled in the File Tab of the Options - Preferences dialog. • Save Song as Default Template This will save the song as $OPTIONS.SEQ so that the song will be loaded automatically whenever starting a new song with the File | New command. • Fine Tune the MIDI Output Master Tuning dialog lets you fine tune the MIDI Output, allowing you to adjust the MIDI output to match the tuning of an acoustic instrument or other device. This setting is saved between PowerTracks Pro Audio sessions. • Audio Track Levels PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 now includes a db scale on the left side of the Audio Edit Window. This gives you a better method of monitoring the level of any individual audio track. • Tempo Adjust Hot-keys Now you can use the square bracket [ ] hot-keys to change the tempo by 5 bpm. • Audio Harmonies Pitch Styles Now, when you generate audio harmonies to your recorded vocal tracks, you can select Pitch Styles, which adds vibrato and scooping effects to the vocal harmonies. Choose from many vibrato/pitch presets, including “Ballad,” “Broadway,” “Pop Diva” and more! When you launch the TC-Helicon Audio Harmony dialog, you can see that there is a new drop down combo list at the bottom of each voice. You can choose a type of “pitch effect” (combination of vibrato and scooping) called a Pitch Style to be applied to each harmony voice. In the example screenshot, we have chosen “Natural Vibrato,” “Ballad,” “Broadway,” and “Crooner” – different vibrato types for each harmony voice. The Pitch Styles are especially useful for harmonies generated from MIDI tracks, because these lack any vibrato. Now by applying these pitch effects, you can get a natural sounding vibrato for these harmonies. • Permanent Metronome Settings Option There is a new setting in the Options | Metronome dialog, “Keep these settings permanent (ignore settings stored in .SEQ files).” This option will cause PowerTracks Pro Audio to remember the current metronome settings and ignore any settings stored in .SEQ files. • Percentage Tempos The menu command Action | Play at Speed brings up a submenu that gives you a choice of playing the song at 25% speed (one forth the regular speed), 50% regular speed, 75% regular speed, and 100%, which is regular speed. • Safe-boot-up option New Safe-boot-up option gives the user the chance to boot-up PowerTracks Pro Audio with clean configuration and .INI files if a crash occurred during the most recent session. • Flyby Hints Preference New setting in General Preferences lets you enable or disable flyby hints. • Better Sample Rate Conversion If you change sample rates when importing or exporting an audio track, the conversion now has much better audio quality. New DirectX Plug-ins PG Vinyl Tool DirectX Plug-in Still have some of your old favorites kicking around on LP or even a 45 single? PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 can now remove clicks and pops from your old vinyl record collection with the new PG Vinyl Tool plug-in. If you no longer have a phono preamp, just attach your turntable to your mixer console and the PG Vinyl Tool plugin can provide RIAA equalization for better tone. PG Vinyl Tool can also reduce broadband noise, and remove clicks on digital audio tracks. Though PG Vinyl Tool was not designed as a distortion remover, in some cases the plug-in can reduce the clipping distortion on digital audio tracks which were recorded too loud. PG RTA DirectX Plug-in To help find proper equalization settings, the new PG RTA (Real Time Analyzer) plug-in displays a third-octave frequency graph of a single track or the entire mix. The PG RTA plug-in can assist audio equalization, measure the frequency response of audio equipment, and be used as a voice and music learning aid and much more. PG Vocal Remover Plug-in The new PG Vocal Remover Plug-in can reduce the level of lead vocals on many recordings. With PowerTracks Pro Audio 10 you can even fine-tune the vocal removal frequency range, and optionally reduce the level of residual vocal reverb. PowerTracks 11 Features 30 New Features! PowerTracks Pro® Audio 11 is full of the features found in top studio programs, and Version 11 adds many more of its own – including many user wish list requests! Here are some highlights of the new features in PowerTracks Pro Audio 11. • • • • • • • • • • • • • VST plug-in and VSTi softsynth support. New Mixer window with individual track meters. 8 Auxiliary Busses – up to 16 effects per track. ASIO Input monitoring for “wet” or “dry” recording. File templates – presets and custom user templates for MIDI and audio. CPU usage indicator with color usage scale. One-click automatic soloing for bass and drums. More notation symbols plus enhanced layout options. Unison and Choir effects for TC-Helicon Harmonies. Direct CD audio import from CD-ROM drive. Windows Media audio import, including audio from video files. Note properties pop-up display. Loop button for quick access and control. … and much more! • The all-new Mixer window has VU meters on each track, Mute buttons for each track, and a scrollable track strip. • With a total of 8 Aux busses, you can use up to 4 on one track – for 16 DirectX or VST plug-ins on a single track – and you can create subgroups of audio ports for submixes. • ASIO input monitoring lets you monitor either the “wet” or “dry” effects signal while recording. • The full-featured notation now includes more chart symbols and expression markings, with selectable line thickness for bar lines, ties, and slurs PLUS a pop-up note properties display. And PowerTracks Pro Audio will print multiple copies of your sheet music at the press of a button. • In addition, PowerTracks Pro Audio offers unique features seldom found on comparable programs at any price! • There’s a Guitar window with alternate tuning presets, such as Drop D, DADGAD, Open G, etc. for the fretboard and tablature as well as 4 to 6 string custom tunings. The TC-Helicon audio harmonies have new Unison and Choir modes for up to 16 voices on a track. The amazing Chord Wizard will interpret chords from MIDI files and write them directly to the notation, you don’t have to work them out for yourself! Here’s the full PowerTracks Pro Audio 11 New Features List… 1) VST Support! Now, in addition to DX/DXi support, PowerTracks Pro Audio 11 supports VST effect plug-ins as well as VSTi softsynths. PowerTracks will now let you use the many freeware and commercial plug-ins that are only available in VST format. 2) Improved Mixer Window! Mixing your project will be a more enjoyable experience. New mixer contains VU meters for each track, “new look” sliders and knobs, individual track mute buttons, and scrollable track strips. 3) More Aux Busses! PowerTracks now has 8 auxiliary busses, with the ability to use up to 4 at a time per track. Having more aux busses means that you can add more real time audio effects to your song efficiently. You could have up to 16 Aux effects per track since each track can use up to 4 aux busses with up to 4 effects plugins per bus. 4) ASIO Input Monitoring! Now, when using ASIO audio drivers, you can hear the audio input while recording and you can apply audio effects to the monitored signal, with the option to record the signal as wet or dry. For example, when recording vocals, you can hear your voice with reverb during recording with the option to record wet or dry. 5) Powerful New Audio Subgroups! Apply real time effects to a specific group of tracks, or adjust the volume of all the tracks in the group as a whole. When this feature is enabled, unused Audio Output ports are treated as subgroups and the final signal is mixed to Audio Output Port 1. For example, if only one Audio Output Port is enabled in the Audio Driver dialog (which is a very common setup) then the other 15 output ports can function as “submix ports.” This is useful, if, for example, you want to process all the guitar tracks as a group through a specific effect, or if you want to be able to lower or raise the volume of all the guitar tracks as a group. 6) Save File Templates! File Templates make it easier for you to begin a new project by selecting from a list of available templates (instead of from a completely blank slate). The templates can contain preferred track layouts, preferred song settings, and, since templates are stored in .SEQ format, they can even contain MIDI or audio backing tracks. You can create your own custom templates simply by using the File | Save As Template command. 7) Stereo Effects Inserts For Mono Audio Tracks! This new setting in the Audio Options dialog allows mono audio tracks to use the real time effects track inserts in stereo mode for better sounding mixes. 8) CPU Usage Indicator! An indicator on the main toolbar shows the percentage of CPU usage for PowerTracks Pro Audio as well as total CPU usage for all programs. In addition, the indicator displays in 3 different colors depending on usage: green (total usage below 70%), yellow (total usage above 70%), or red (total usage above 90%). 9) Reset Real Time Effects! The Reset Real Time Effects command will remove any real time effects from your project so you can begin remixing your project from scratch. 10) Auto-Solo Bass and Drums! Pressing the Solo button while the Ctrl key is held will solo just the bass and drums. PowerTracks will automatically find the bass and drum tracks and solo them. 11) New Notation Symbols! The Notation window now supports many new symbols including section letters [A, B, etc.], slurs, legato, accents, staccatos, crescendos and more! 12) New Notation Settings! The notation now has selectable line thickness settings for Bar Lines, Ties, and Slurs. 13) Import Audio Directly from a CD! The File | Wave Files | Import and File | Open commands now work for CD audio. Importing audio from an ordinary audio CD is easily done by loading one of the .CDA files that appear in your CD-ROM drive's root folder when an audio CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive. 14) Import WMA Files and Import Audio From WMV Files! File | Wave, Files | Import, and File | Open commands now let you import WMA and WMV files. 15) New Font Height Adjustment! This new setting in the Notation Window allows for adjustment of the vertical position of individual chords symbols. This is useful when chord symbols overlap other aspects of the notation. 16) Direct Entry Of Volume And Pan Settings! In the Tracks window, right-clicking on the Volume or Pan controls will let you edit the setting by typing in a number. This makes it easier to precisely adjust the Volume and Pan settings. 17) New Pop-Up Note Properties Display! In Editable Notation mode, if you move the mouse cursor over a note and stop, a hint window will pop up showing the note's properties (note name, MIDI channel, velocity, start time, and duration). This lets you quickly see a note's properties without having to bring up the edit dialog by rightclicking on the note. 18) Print Multiple Copies! A new “number of copies” setting in the Print Options dialog lets you easily print out multiple copies of notation. 19) Insert Blank Bars Command! The new Edit | Insert Blank Bars command makes it easy to insert blank bars into the song, with an option to intelligently adjust MIDI notes that are close to the boundary of the section you are inserting (useful if inserting bars in the middle of a song). 20) Delete Bars and Preserve Settings! Edit | Delete Bars makes it easier to delete bars from a song with an option to preserve the most recent Patch/Wheel/Controller settings and an option to intelligently adjust MIDI notes that are close to the boundary of the section being deleted 21) MIDI Reference For Audio Tracks! The on-screen piano now responds to mouse clicks even if the current track is an audio track. This is useful if you want to hear a note played as a reference without having to change the current track to a MIDI track. (In previous versions, no note would sound if the track was audio.) 22) Mono Audio Option! Use the Mono checkbox in the Audio Output section of the mixer to hear how a mix sounds in mono. This is useful because sometimes a stereo mix will have problems such as flanging or canceling when the same mix is played back in mono. This checkbox lets you listen for problems in mono right away. 23) New Alt+Click Hot Keys For Tracks And Bars! If the Alt key is held when leftmouse clicking on the overview section of the Tracks window or in the Bars window the time will be changed without affecting the currently highlighted region. This lets you quickly adjust the current time without having to worry about accidentally changing the highlighted region. 24) Alternate Guitar Tunings! New alternate tuning presets, such as Drop D, DADGAD, Open G, etc. are supported for the Guitar window and Notation Tablature. These presets make it easy to display alternate tunings without having to manually adjust the string settings. 25) Custom Guitar Tuning! The Custom Tuning setting for the Guitar window lets you specify the number of strings (4 through 6) and the tuning of each string. Note: This custom setting does not support Banjo. 26) Easy Drum Pattern Selection! In the Drum Grid window (as well as Edit | Fill Track with Drum Pattern command), all of the available patterns are listed in a dropdown combo, so you can select a drum pattern much quicker than before. 27) Loop Button On Toolbar! The new Loop button gives easy access to Endless Looping without going into the Options menu. Press it to launch the Loop Settings dialog, or press it with Ctrl held to enable/disable endless looping immediately (without going into the Loop Settings dialog). 28) New Select Whole Command! A new Select Whole command in the Tracks Window makes it easier to select the whole track for editing. 29) New Selectable Buffer Sizes! This new setting in the Audio Settings dialog lets you adjust the buffer size used by PowerTracks Pro Audio when editing and saving a song. This may result in an increase in speed on systems that are suited to using larger buffers. 30) New “1-Peg” Notation Hot Key! There is a 1-peg hot key in the Notation window to move current time forward or backward by 1 peg (normally a 16th note). Alt+left arrow moves the current time backward by 1 peg. Alt+right arrow moves it forward by 1 peg. This makes it easier if you are using the on-screen piano for entering notes into the Notation window. Version 12 Here’s the full PowerTracks Pro Audio 12 New Features List… 1) Audio Chord Wizard 2.0 - automatically detect chords and bar lines from audio file or existing PT song. This is an enhanced version of the Audio Chord Wizard, with new features and better chord recognition. 2) RealDrums - generate realistic drum tracks. 3) The ability to ReMix/ ReArrange existing .mp3 files. 4) Precise “Floating point” tempos ( e.g. 120.514 BPM). 5) Copy/Paste Song Lyrics to lead sheet. 6) MIDI Normalize. 7) Split MIDI drum notes to tracks. 8) Auto- SEQ backup. 9) Automatic Audio Cross Fades. 10) Double bar lines supported for Lead Sheet and staff printout 11) New setting to determine how often bar numbers are displayed for Lead Sheet and Printout. 12) When entering lyrics, convenient new buttons to enter line breaks or paragraph breaks when entering lyrics. 13) Ability to select a different notation font for the bar numbers as well as adjust the font size percentage. 14) Audio edit window - ALT+click works like it does for the overview section of the tracks window. In other words, Alt+click will ONLY move the time marker, which ensures you don't accidentally alter the current selected area. 15) Right-click MENU added to Audio Edit window, like in the Tracks window. 16) On the top of time line of audio edit window, small vertical lines are displayed 8th and 16th note boundaries. This makes it easier to align audio to correct timing issues. 17) Support for MIDI TranzPort wireless control surface. 18) Latency adjustment dialog for fine tuning latency settings for MIDI (non-DXi) soft synths 19) Show track names vertically in the mixer track strips. 20) ASIO Driver warning for ASIO4All if driver is “not connected” 21) Option to for auto rewind to work for playback rather than just recording 22) Edit - Length of MIDI Music command lets you adjust the length by floating point percentages, such as 110.5%. 23) Option for the min/max start time offset in the Randomize command to be specified in milliseconds rather than ticks, which works very well with higher song PPQ resolutions. PowerTracks Pro Audio 12 Overview Here is a quick introduction to the features and their use. • Audio Chord Wizard The Audio Chord Wizard button on the toolbar launches the Audio Chord Wizard. This is an extremely powerful feature that automatically finds chord symbols by analyzing the audio content of a song. The song can be one that you created yourself, or a song from a CD, or a song in a digital file format such as MP3. It also can automatically determine bar lines for a song as well as a Tempo Map. This button will pop-up a dialog that gives you two choices: “Open Audio File” or “Use Existing Song.” If you choose the Use Existing Song option, then PowerTracks will launch ACW using whatever song is currently loaded into PowerTracks. You will also be asked a question about whether or not to preserve the existing bar lines. If you choose to preserve existing bar lines, then ACW will only attempt to automatically detect chord symbols rather than bar lines and tempo information. The File | Open Audio w/Chords (WAV/WMA/MP3/CDA)... File menu command will open an existing audio file into PowerTracks, and then immediately launch the Audio Chord Wizard. • RealDrums We've added real audio drums to PowerTracks! This allows you to instantly create audio drums tracks with real recordings of top studio Jazz/Rock/Country drummers. These are not "samples," but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars, playing along in perfect sync with the other tracks. For example, choose a “brushes” style, and you will now hear lush Jazz brushes, or choose “RockGrunge” for a heavier sound. The results are dramatically better than MIDI. They sound like a real drummer, because they are recordings of a real drummer. We include many RealDrums styles with PowerTracks, and 5 RealDrums sets are available. The RealDrums button on the toolbar launches the RealDrums dialog. o First 2 Bars in song are Lead In Generate a lead in for the first 2 bars of the song (this assumes you’re generating real drums from the beginning of song). o Generate ending for last 2 bars Last 2 bars of RealDrums being generated are an ending. o Real Drums Folder Path This is the path for real drums. Normally the path is C:\bb\drums. When running PowerTracks 12 for the 1st time, PowerTracks will select this path by default if it exists. If your RealDrums styles have been installed in a different folder, then you will need to press the Select... button to the right of the path to choose a new folder. o RealDrums Style This pops up a menu that lets you select a style of real drums to use. o Audio Output Track The track onto which the real drums will go o Generate Drums for Select whole song to generate drums for the entire existing song, otherwise choose Range of Bars to generate RealDrums over a range of bars. o OK - Generate RealDrums Audio! Press this button and PowerTracks will generate the drums. • TranzPort® Support Wireless Remote Control support for PowerTracks Pro Audio 12! The Frontier Design TranzPort is a wireless remote control hardware unit (Electronic Musician Editors’ Choice 2006) that now allows you to control Band-in-a-Box through walls from 30 feet away! The backlit LCD provides a two-line readout, and buttons and a wheel allow control of many PowerTracks Pro Audio features. Select songs and play/stop/pause/loop. Select/mute/solo tracks and volume/tempo changes are all supported. And best of all, when the song is playing, the chords of the song are displayed in time on the backlit LCD screen. You can, for example, put the TranzPort unit on your piano at home (or your music stand on a gig) and load/play/control and view chords for songs, all while far away from your computer – all wirelessly up to 30 feet – even through walls! Selectable transpose lets the TranzPort show chords in a non-concert key (e.g. Eb Alto) while the computer shows concert - great for jam sessions! Or display the scrolling lyrics of the song on the TranzPort for a wireless Karaoke session! The TranzPort also works “right-out-of-the-box” with other popular music software, including Pro Tools®, Sonar™, Logic®, Cubase®, Digital Performer®and others. Note: The TranzPort is sold separately. To use TranzPort first make sure the Frontier USB wireless receiver is plugged into a USB port of your computer. You should see a TranzPort icon on the Windows task bar. PowerTracks should then automatically connect to TranzPort when you start-up PowerTracks. To verify that the TranzPort is installed, you can visit the MIDI drivers dialog and see if TranzPort shows up as a MIDI In and MIDI Out driver. Do NOT select the TranzPort in the MIDI drivers dialog. • Audio Menu There is a new Audio menu on the main menu bar. This replaces the File | Wave Files submenu, which now will just launch the new Audio menu. • Song Lyrics (or other block of text) can be appended to Lead Sheet and printout Easily copy and paste lyrics from other applications, to be appended to your lead sheet for display and printout, with selectable font. Pressing the Memo button on the Lead Sheet window will launch the Lead Sheet Memo Dialog. In this dialog you can type in a memo, such as extra lyrics, etc. The memo will show up after the last line of notation in Lead Sheet or notation printout. The Choose Font... button lets you choose which font is used to display the memo. • Double bar lines supported for Lead Sheet and staff printout PowerTracks’ notation will automatically display double bar lines when a new part marker is reached. (Note: the part markers are entered in the Chords Window.) PowerTracks will display a double-fat bar line at the beginning of the 1st part marker, except when the “First Bar Is Lead In” checkbox is enabled in the Print Options dialog. In that case the double-fat bar line will be displayed at the beginning of bar 2. PowerTracks will also display a double-fat bar line at the end of the printout. Doublebar lines of normal thickness will be displayed at part-marker section changes in the middle of a printout. • Latency Adjustment The new Soft Synth Latency Adjust dialog lets you adjust for fine tuning latency settings for MIDI (non-DXi, and non-VSTi) soft synths. Pressing the Latency Adjust button in MIDI Driver Setup, or the Soft Synth Latency Adjust in Options – Preferences - Audio. This works by playing a song called LatencyAdjust.SEQ (which comes with PowerTracks) which contains a MIDI note and audio note. Pressing the Start button starts the playback; you can then tweak the Soft Synth Latency MS setting until you hear the MIDI and audio tracks are in sync. Note: If the notes sound in sync but you later play a song and the MIDI and audio still sound like they are out of sync, then likely you overshot the correct MS setting by 500ms. If this happens, we recommend starting the adjustment again at a value of zero and increasing it until you hear the MIDI and audio notes in sync. • Split MIDI Drums The Edit | Split MIDI drums command will split a MIDI drum track to individual separate tracks. This command acts upon the current track. If the “Auto-Fill Tracks for each MIDI note used setting” is enabled, then PowerTracks Pro Audio will automatically move each MIDI note over to a new blank track. If the “Custom” setting is enabled, you can specify which midi notes go to which track. • Higher precision time display for Audio Edit Window On the top of time line of the Audio Edit window, small vertical lines are displayed at the 8th and 16th note boundaries. This makes it easier to align audio to correct timing issues. • ALT+click command in Audio Edit window Alt+click is now supported the same way as for the overview section of the Tracks window. In other words, Alt+click will ONLY move the time marker, which ensures you don't accidentally alter the current selected area. Note: Snap To still snaps notes to quarter note boundaries. • Right-Click Menu added to Audio Edit window There is now a right-click contextual menu in the Audio Edit window, similar to the right-click menu in the Tracks window. • Line and Paragraph Breaks for Lyrics The Line and Para buttons appear when Lyrics mode is selected in the Notation window. These two convenient new buttons let you to enter line breaks (/) or paragraph breaks (\) when entering lyrics. • Bar # Font setting in the Notation Options dialog This lets you choose either the Notation Font, or a different font of your choice. The percentage setting lets you adjust the percentage relative to the default size. • Show Bar Number Options A new setting in the Lead Sheet and staff printout lets you choose how often bar numbers are displayed. The two new choices are “Show Bar Nums Every Line” and “Show Bar Nums Every Part Marker” (Previous versions of PowerTracks only let you choose whether or not to display bar numbers) • Auto Rewind Options When enabled, PowerTracks Pro Audio will automatically rewind to the location that playback or recording was started. In previous versions of PowerTracks, Auto Rewind was for recording only. Now the choices are “Recording Only,” “Playback Only,” “Both Recording and Playback,” or “Disabled.” • Backup setting in Options | Preferences | Files When the “Create Backups when overwriting SEQ files” setting is enabled, PowerTracks Pro Audio will always create a backup file (BKS file) when a .SEQ file is overwritten. For songs saved into the same hard drive that PT is installed, the backups are placed into PTBACKUP subfolder of the PowerTracks folder. For songs that are saved to a different hard drive, the backups are placed in a PTBACKUP folder which is off of the root (e.g. D:\PTBACKUP). The max backups per song setting determines the maximum number of backups to be kept for each song. If this limit is reached, then PowerTracks will delete the oldest backup of the song you are overwriting and create a newer backup. The max backups per hard drive setting is the maximum total backups allowed per hard drive. If this limit is reached, then PowerTracks will delete the oldest backup file. There is also on option for moving the older backups into the Recycle Bin instead of deleting them when either of the two limits are reached. • Track Names Show In Mixer Track names shown vertically in the mixer track strips. The Mixer track strips conveniently show the track name vertically to the left of the volume sliders. This is the track name that is assigned in the Tracks window, go to that window to add or change track strip names. • Normalize checkbox for Edit | Change Velocities When this is checked, the MIDI note velocities of the track being editing will be boosted by the difference between the highest velocity found in the track and 127. Each MIDI track is affected independently. • Floating Point Percentages The Edit | Length of MIDI Music command now supports floating point percentages. This means that you can specify a length percentage as a floating point number, such as 110.57% • Precise “Floating-point” tempos like 120.514 beats per minute PowerTracks now supports floating-point tempos, such as 120.514 BPM. This makes it easier to sync MIDI tracks to prerecorded audio tracks if the audio tracks weren’t recorded exactly at an integer tempo. This also is what lets PT play a song in sync to an existing audio track after the Audio Chord Wizard has worked its magic. • Crossfade for Audio Paste When using the Edit | Paste command there is a new “Crossfade when pasting audio” checkbox for the Paste dialogs. This helps reduce or eliminate annoying clicks at the boundaries of the paste. • MS (millisecond) Randomize Option There is a new MS option in the Edit | Randomize command. When MS is selected instead of Ticks, the min/max start time offset in the Randomize command is specified in milliseconds rather than ticks. The new MS offset will be rounded to the closest tick at the actual song PPQ which works excellent with higher song PPQ resolutions. NOTE: If the Ticks setting is enabled, the ticks are actually based on a PPQ of 120 regardless of the current PPQ. This is always how it worked. • ASIO Driver Warning There is an ASIO Driver warning for ASIO4All if driver is “not connected”. Sometimes the ASIO4All driver will not be connected to an audio driver and output will be silent. This is usually due to a soft synth already using the audio driver. If PowerTracks detects that ASIO4ALL isn’t connected, it will warn you about this, so you are aware of why the audio is silent.