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Artificial intelligence isn't just for science fiction anymore. Software that will compose and arrange your music score for you is now within your reach. Abaltat Muse is the world's first video driven soundtrack composer. It uses proprietary software that will calculate how the music will correspond with your edit.
How it Works
Once you've completed your rough cut or final of your video, you could spend hours going through your music library or composing your own score. To create a music bed in minutes all you need to do is simply export your edit out as a QuickTime movie and import it into Abaltat Muse. There you will find an interface that's easy to figure out and use.
The interface has a (1) Picture Window that allows you to view your imported QuickTime movie. (2) Timeline Control gives you the ability to work with keyframes that can control all aspects of your arrangement. Within minutes of working with the program I had an additional instrument start playing at a designated keyframe. Plus, with an additional keyframe I had that instrument pan from the left stereo output to the right.
Your other window is a (3) Color Timeline that looks at the color levels of your movie which helps create melody and bass line structure. This timeline is in sync with the timeline control so you can get a feel for how the colors line up with your video.
Completed music can be exported as an .AIFF, .WAV, MIDI or as a QuickTime movie. This final track easily imports back into your editing software to complete your project, or it could be used to give your composer a notion of what you want the score to sound like.
If the client doesn't like your band selection you can change the band and keep all of your keyframe information if desired. I really thought this was a powerful feature that made it easy to change my band selection in seconds.
To see the project I created in minutes go to the Lone Peak Productions, click here. Check out how the music works with the last clip. I put in a different ending clip to see if the score would end the same, which happened to match the sunset visuals perfectly. The new clip's ending was different so the splendid ending wasn't a fluke.
The Goods
Aside from the amazing interface you get tons of music to work with. Abaltat Muse 2.0 comes with seven virtual bands, plus a variety of presets. These bands have been supplied by two of the leaders in the audio sample business, which are Native Instruments and Garritan Libraries.
Even with 2GB worth of sounds this product felt like the music library wasn't big enough. Luckily this program is open source and allows anyone to create their own virtual bands. I would not be shocked if there are a lot more genres available for purchase in the near future.
Conclusion
Abaltat Muse 2.0 is so intuitive you don't need to be a musician to use the program, all you need is a project to compose music for. If you are a musician there is advanced functionality that will allow you to take it to the next level. I was very excited to compose a score in minutes that had instruments panning from left to right, plus starting when I wanted them to. All that with never having used this program before. I feel the concept behind this product is outstanding.
Still not sure if Abaltat Muse is for you? Don't worry, they have you covered. Abaltat has provided two ways to delve into Abaltat Muse for free. There is a free 30 day trial that gives you access to two of the seven bands with full functionality. Or you can give the Free version a try. It's just like the full version except you only have one option for exporting your finished composition. It also only gives you one band (Retro Tech) to play with, but you can use the Free version permanently. So find out for yourself if Abaltat Muse is the ultimate solution.
About Stephen Smith
Stephen graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in Multimedia Communications Technology. "I picked the degree because it had the longest name," says Stephen. Since then, he's gone on to produce internationally distributed DVDs, some in 21 different languages. As a producer and lead editor at Lone Peak Productions, he has won over a dozen awards using Final Cut. Stephen got fed up with boring training books he could never get through, and decided to make this DVD to save others from the same fate.
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