SmartSound: Music Creation and Editing by Robert Moore For music editors, composers and other creators, there's a program that is very interesting and definitely fun. It's called SmartSound, and I'm surprised how many people haven't heard about it. I found out about SmartSound a while ago, when I received a demo CD-ROM through the mail. I believe this free demo is still available if you call and ask for it. The CD-ROM contains the fully functioning system, but without key features like the ability to save or export your music. Call SmartSound and pay their fee, however, and they'll give you a system key over the phone to release the missing features. Even though the target markets for the product are multimedia, commercial, industrial and web users, I think it has great potential for the production of temp soundtracks for feature film and television projects. I also think it can be used to produce music for the week-to-week grind and impossible schedules of episodic TV. SmartSound offers a fast and intuitive way to create soundtracks of any style music and any length, with or without a QuickTime picture reference. Two separate features, Maestro and Smart Blocks (with its editor and graphical, drag-and-drop interface), make producing or editing music quick and easy. On the CD-ROM there is even a small production music library that covers many different music styles and is exceptionally well recorded. Other production music companies are now making their libraries available for SmartSound, as well. The CD-ROM includes a few samples from these libraries, all of which sound very good. The Macintosh version is more powerful than that for the PC; it lets you record directly into SmartSound to create your own Smart Blocks, whereas the PC version does not. For the PC you need to use another application to record music blocks. You can, however, import music into both versions. The Mac version also allows users to export the music as Sound Designer II and QuickTime files; the PC doesn't. SmartSound exports song files as 44.1k to 11k, 16-bit or 8-bit, in stereo or mono. The minimum CPU requirement on a Mac is an 020 processor. (What to do with your old Mac? Set up a SmartSound station!) For PCs, a 386 CPU or higher with Windows 95/98 or NT and an 8- or 16-bit sound card is all you need. With the production music libraries that are available for SmartSound, just about any musical feeling can be conveyed, with very high quality, in a matter of minutes.   SmartSound can be contacted at (800) 454-1900, or on the web   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 2 - March/April 1999 Guild Home | Newsletter Home The Motion Picture Editors Guild - IATSE Local 700 (800) 705-8700 West Coast Office 7715 Sunset Blvd. Suite 200 Hollywood, CA  90046 Voice: (323) 876-4770 Fax: (323) 876-0861 East Coast Office 165 W. 46th Street, Suite 900 New York, NY 10036 Voice: (212) 302-0700 Fax: (212) 302-1091 Copyright © 1996-2001 The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, All Rights Reserved