Muse 2.0 follows its predecessor, Muse 1.0 and adds some new features.
For folks who are unfamiliar with Muse, to flesh out what I said earlier, it is essentially a program that allows editors to compose royalty-free soundtracks that are timed and lined up to their video projects, with functionality that is somewhat similar to more well known packages like SmartSound’s SonicFire Pro 5 and Adobe Soundbooth CS4. (Although, Muse 2.0 gives you more creativity and streamlined performance, in my opinion.)
Muse 2.0 adds seven stylized virtual “bands”—which are designed to perform like real world bands, each of which has a certain “sound” it specializes in and a variety of preset arrangements that can be customized. These bands specialize in a range of soundtrack styles, from classical to hip-hop to dance to modern 21st century composition. (Since the software is open source, new bands can be added both by Abaltat and by other users.)
Additionally, unlike SonicFire Pro or Soundbooth, Muse 2.0 will allow you to export out separate layers of audio as MIDI tracks for ultra-high quality use in Pro Tools, Nuendo, Apple Logic Studio, and even Garage Band. (In addition to MIDI tracks, the software is capable of exporting tracks out as Mac-standard .AIFF and Windows-standard .WAV.)
Other highlights and features for Muse 2.0 are:
- User Friendly Audio Editing Capabilities - Users can arrange soundtracks using familiar video editing concepts and controls such as keyframes and key commands common to many nonlinear editing packages, like FCP, Premiere Pro, and Avid Media Composer.
- Seamless Integration with Popular Video Applications – Abaltat Express 2.0 works with the world’s leading editing applications including: Apple Final Cut Pro (and Final Cut Express), Avid Media Composer (and the rest of the Avid line), Adobe Premiere Pro CS3/CS4, and Media 100.
There are two elements to performance: how well does it run and how well does it expedite the creative process.
For the first, technically, Muse 2.0 processes your material very quickly and responds well, so long as you’re on a system with a decent amount of RAM. The software was very stable with almost no crashes, which always means things have been done well on the back end.
For the second, well, I have many good things to say about Muse 2.0 and only one real complaint. The good: Nice looking, user friendly software is always a plus. Muse 2.0 has color recognition software integrated into it so you can tell it to look for specific color saturation settings and then assign a melody to that color. How cool is that? Using key frames you can pinpoint exact places within the timeline where you want another instrument to carry the melody or change to another related melody. Not only is that helpful, but it will allow you more precision and flexibility which will help you keep your tracks sounding fresh and unique.
Muse 2.0 has several different pre-arranged compositions that you can adjust with different drum packages and instruments, as well as different moods/feels all with adjustable tempos. You can control how complex or how simple the composition is. Everything is perfectly timed with the clip and really makes putting music to your piece very simple indeed. The thing that I found most amazing (well, a close second to the color recognition) was the ability to export your work in Muse 2.0 as a midi file and then import it into a standalone audio program. From here, musically savvy people will find it easy to adjust and customize the arrangement, add new tracks, adapt the existing ones, use instruments that aren’t part of Muse 2.0, etc. The possibilities are endless.
The only downside that I could find as I was working with this software was that it is not made to handle longer pieces of film. Commercial length spots (thirty seconds to one minute) are the optimum length/size for Muse 2.0. So if you're working on a short or feature length film, then you'll have to wait until there is a version that will process films of a longer length. You can also use it to score trailers for your short or feature length films. (Which is a great application if you’re not doing commercials or other corporate work. Plus it can be a great way to inspire a score for your film if you don’t already have one. Hmmm…I hadn’t thought of that before I started writing this review. I’ll have to play some more!)
