Recording - June 2010 - 41

early bugfixing days, yet: One came when—as best as we can ascertain—a CD was already in my MacBook’s drive when I launched the program, and it required a reinstall. We have since learned from Superscope that this could have been a CDspecific case of the internet database from where the CD data is being retrieved sending back data that causes Elevation to crash. A fix is in the works—sounds like a random event unlikely to reproduce itself. The other came when I assigned a USB mic to both audio inputs—more about that in a moment. The programmers of Elevation have made a number of unconventional choices that may leave you slightly puzzled if you’ve used lots of mainstram audio software. Nothing non-functional, just idiosyncrasies that may leave you scratching your head, so do read that manual even in cases where you think it shouldn’t really be necessary. If you’re new to audio software and have no preconceptions of how things might work, you may not notice these puzzles.

on one channel, over the accompaniment, and have the student record his/hers on the other channel, so we could then A/B and compare on the fly? The program doesn’t let you adjust the recording volume—you do that from an audio interface. What about USB mics (with no volume knob) that you connect directly? I used two different USB mics (a Blue Snowflake and an Audio-Technica AT2020USB), each connected straight to my MacBook; the program

Recording Conclusions Say you have just downloaded and installed Elevation, whether it’s the demo or If some of the above sounds less than the “real” version, and you’ve hooked up a intuitive—well, yes, it is, but you’ll soon get mic and you want to try speakused to doing things in the 5 ing or singing, solo, to get a feel order the program imposes. for the recording feature. You And, as we have just found out, click on the record symbol in the the recording capabilities are control strip (bottom right of the really restricted to the needs of main screen, Fig. 1), and the the music student, although the Record pop-up opens (Fig. 5). lack of a left-right channel selecSelect one of the two inputs for tion stands in the way of what your mic. If you select an Input could be some useful teaching from the upper of the two fields, applications. the upper meter strip becomes What’s more important is the active. But don’t think this is the instant gratification you get from left channel, because it’s not. adapting or even mangling a Nor is the signal that shows up piece of music to make it work for on the lower meter strip (Input 2) your practising needs. Can’t hit the right channel. It only looks that way... recognized them without fail, and I adjusted that high note? Bring the key down. Too fast What the screen doesn’t tell you is this: their levels, by trial and error, from the System for your current state of learning progress? The signal of either input will automatically Preferences “Sound” panel. Slow it down. Can’t hear yourself enough? be assigned to both left and right even The Record pop-up (Fig. 5, left side) lists as Use eq or the voice attenuator on the backing though the on-screen meter shows the sig- the accompaniment whichever track is cur- track. All this is temporary if it needs to be— nal only in one strip. Those two strips are rently selected in the Library screen (typically adjust it all again tomorrow or next week, as not showing left or right, they show Inputs 1 the last one you had played). To its right you your needs and progress demand. and 2. see a button that says “ON”. You hesitate to This program should please music teachYou cannot record a mono signal into click ON when you want to record without ers and music students alike. Maybe not all only the left or the right channel. Before I accompaniment. Turns out that, to record solo, of them entirely—in the past, after reviewing found that out (in Footnote 1 on page 26 you have to click the ON button and its status digital recorders suitable for music lessons, of the manual), I assumed I had to assign becomes OFF, meaning it will not play (Fig. 5, I’ve heard complaints from music teachers my mono mic to both inputs to have it right side). The blue button next to the wording who wrote and told me that I should have become dual mono, and I crashed the pro- “24-bit Recording” (Fig. 5, right side) does not pointed out the lack of a beloved feature of gram... You know the deeper meaning of mean that it is active, that you’re recording at theirs from the old analog days: hitting the the word “assume”, right? 24-bit; for that to happen you have to click it record button anytime during playback and For an educational program I find dropping into the track. Sorry—you can’t System Requirements this odd—even in the old days of do this with Elevation, either. But you can Music-Minus-One and such, a big part • Windows XP SP2 or higher / Mac OS X 10.3.9 do a whole lot of useful things you could of the benefit was to be able to mute or higher (Intel processors only) never do in the old days, so... one side of a stereo recording to hear • 20 MB available hard disk space for program Price: $149 or not to hear one’s performance or the (plus space for your recorded songs) accompaniment. If I were the music • Sound card or interface (ASIO compatible inter- More from: Superscope Technologies, www.superscopetechnologies.com. teacher using Elevation, would I not face or ASIO4all driver recommended) want to put my “correct” performance
RECORDING JUNE 2010

and a check-mark appears. Shouldn’t it be greyed out when inactive? If you do want to record with an accompaniment, first select (highlight) that track in the Library window, then click the Record button to open the Record pop-up. You can shift a “Monitor Balance” slider to balance yourself against the accompaniment. Use the red Record button inside the popup (Fig. 5), not the one in the main control strip below (Fig. 1), to start recording. After you stop recording, click the “Play” arrow next to the Save button to audition what you just did. Enter a file name before or after you record. What you recorded— whether solo or with an accompaniment— becomes part of the Library if you save it. You can use it as an accompaniment for further takes, so you could “multi-stack” a file, but still without a choice as to panning (leftright assignment). Other parameters, such as the buffer size to determine acceptable latency on audio throughput, are set up from a Preferences panel (not shown here).

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Recording - June 2010

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