Welcome to the September edition of the Binary Interface newsletter, providing news and updates on what's new in our corner of the world of music technology. We always welcome any comments, suggestions or contributions. In this issue Ray Partridge from 'Music Technology Matters' continues the theme of USB interfaces, and we present a brief overview of the Sibelius Educational Suite.

MusicPad Pro

The MusicPad Pro is a revolutionary new way to store all your print music repertoire in a convenient portable digital format. Its bright 12.1" backlit colour LCD screen displays your music a page at a time, with the ability to turn pages by touching the bottom corner of the screen or using an optional foot pedal. You can add your own annotations to the score in a range of colours, add 'teleport' marks which, when touched, jump to a position in the score you specify. (eg for repeats, dal segno, CODA etc).

You can scan paper scores, import music from music and graphics programs or download music from the internet. Connects to your PC or Mac via USB for fast download, and it can store up to 5000 pages of music with its 32Mb flash memory and 64Mb RAM.
Optional accessories include foot pedal, carry case, and stand.

The Sibelius Educational Suite

Many people are still unaware that the Sibelius Educational Suite of programs now covers most theoretical and practical aspects of music education, not just notation. Here's a brief run through the products making up the suite, to give you some idea of the scope and depth of material now encompassed.

• Sibelius Notes - this is a set of tutorials and exercises to be used in conjunction with Sibelius which lets students get up to speed in using the Sibelius notation program while learning valuable information about music scoring and composition.



• Compass - The composition student's companion, this multi-threaded guide leads students through several composition and arranging projects and links the fields of sequencing and scoring using practical tasks which can be used in many creative ways by music teachers as springboards for further exploration.



• Instruments - A compendium of knowledge of band and orchestral instruments and their techniques cleverly linked through multiple strands to allow teachers to set tasks for students' individual research. It contains hundreds of musical examples of playing techniques of all the instruments on both CD-ROM and audio CD, all indexed to allow teachers to easily access any examples they require for classroom use.



• Auralia - The ultimate ear-training tool containing questions at multiple levels across 26 topic areas covering the whole gamut of requirements for developing students' critical musical hearing skills.



• Musition - The theory companion to Auralia, drilling all areas of visual musical representation and nomenclature. Both programs have a solid database back-end which faithfully records students' progress and can give valuable feedback to highlight areas which may need extra effort in order to achieve mastery.



• Starclass - This gem is a boon for primary music and non-music teachers in providing resources and great ideas to ignite younger children's spark of enthusiasm for and appreciation of music. Its' colourful illustrations and simple yet effective musical role-playing game ideas can act as a catalyst for a teacher's own creative lesson planning.

• Performance assessment - this feature has been added from Smartmusic Studio, where a student can be 'assessed' on a performance recorded into the computer against a displayed piece of music.
• Improved Human Playback to express your music in your preferred style, even if it has been entered manually. Special support for Garritan Personal Orchestra sample library and you can select reverb by room type
• Expanded setup wizard allows you to select from predefined ensembles and add or subtract instruments
• Better view and navigation controls include Fit to Width, and zoom your score view via keystrokes.
• Whether you're a student or a superstar, Finale will exceed your expectations

Finale is the professional's choice for music notation and publishing. Best of all, the new Finale 2005 is now available to students, teachers and institutions in Australia at an amazingly low price of $299. School and Universities can now buy 5-packs for only $999! Check the link to our web site for more details on this great offer:
click here

Keys Competition
Binary Designs are proud to be a sponsor of the annual Keys Piano and Vocal Competition based on Australian works. This all-day national final event also includes 4 informative workshops by Markos Zografos, Jeanell Carrigan, Sonny Chua, and Matthew Hindson

When: Sunday 17th October
Where: Brisbane Convention Centre, Southbank - upper level
Website: www.amcoz.com.au/keys