Wednesday, November 7, 2012

EarMaster releases new ear training software

EarMaster ApS announces the release of the highly anticipated new version of its ear training software EarMaster Pro. Building upon the legacy of successful previous versions, the radically overhauled EarMaster Pro 6 has been designed for all musicians and singers at any level. It includes over 2000 new lessons available through 2 complete courses:  a standard course (all styles) and a Jazz course (with swing rhythms and jazz chords).

The activities included in EarMaster Pro 6 enable trained but also untrained musicians to practice their abilities to identify by ear, transcribe, sight-read and play back intervals, chords, scales, rhythms and melodies. Most of the new features and improvements of EarMaster Pro 6 are user requests that the company received from various users from around the world, from musical studies freshmen to high-profile touring musicians, to leading music schools such as Berklee College of Music where the program is in free access. 

EarMaster Pro 6 has also been vastly reworked under the hood, packing a new sound playback engine using SoundFonts, lower latency for rhythm clapping, and a new real-time pitch detection algorithm provided by Mu Technologies. All enhancements of this new version have been incorporated with one major aim: to boost productivity and efficiency.

Here are some of the major new features of EarMaster Pro 6:

-          New activity: Melodic Sight-Singing
-          New activity: Melody Imitation
-          Over 2000 new lessons
-          New streamlined interface
-          New notation engine featuring 2 types of notation: standard and jazz (Real Book style)
-          New vocal range setting that adapts the lessons to the user's vocal range
-          Addition of a Solfege keyboard in addition to the existing on-screen interfaces (staff, piano, guitar, banjo, violin, cello, mandolin, multiple-choice buttons, etc.).
-          Database of melodies and lead sheets for sight-singing and melody imitation [preview of next free update]
-          New pitch detection algorithm provided by Mu Technologies
-          New sound playback engine with possibility to load SoundFonts (.sf2)
-          Revised questioning engine that adapts to the user's score
-          New fingerboard interface with 2 options: Rosewood and Maple
-          And hundreds of other improvements

Pricing and availability
EarMaster Pro 6 will ship from 7th of November for US$59.95. Current users of EarMaster Pro 5 are offered the possibility to upgrade to the new version 6 for half the price of a straight full version. A grace periodis also offered to users who bought a EarMaster Pro 5 license after August 1, 2012, entitling them to get the new upgrade free of charge.

EarMaster Pro 6 licenses are Windows and Mac compatible (Win 8/7/Vista/XP and Mac OS 10.5+ Intel). Upon release, 6 languages will be included: English (US and UK), French, German, Spanish, Italian and Danish. More translations are on their way, and the developer is aiming to eventually make EarMaster available in at least the same 25 languages as were available with version 5. A free 7-day trial version of the program can be found on the developer’s website atwww.earmaster.com. It is fully functional and showcases all the activities, lessons and features of the new version of EarMaster Pro.

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