EarMaster Pro 5

Start becoming a better musician
Developer Interview Below…

Normally: $59.99

ZOT Price: $35.99

The answer is almost always ear training.

EarMaster is the leading ear training application, topping in Apple Download’s top 10 most downloaded apps two weeks in a row upon its release, and used by amateur musicians, professional artists and music schools worldwide!

Developed together with 29 music teachers, it will beat your aural skills into shape with 651 progressive lessons divided into 12 exercise areas. It also includes a set of Jazz lessons with swing rhythms and jazz harmony.

Learn to identify, play back and transcribe chords, melodies, rhythms, intervals, scales by ear.

Who is it for? – EarMaster has been optimized to meet the needs of ALL musicians, beginners and professionals as well as college music students. The lessons are progressive, and a customized training mode will let you practice according to your very own needs.

How does it work? – EarMaster plays a chord, a scale, a melody or an interval, and you must find out which one it was (Major? minor? Diminished? Etc.). You can answer questions by clicking on multiple-choice buttons, by entering tones on the on-screen interfaces (staff, piano, guitar, bass, cello, violin, banjo, etc.), or even by singing, clapping or playing your answers. It doesn’t get more interactive than that!

Why should I use it? – Having a good ear for music is the best ally of any musician! Your musical ear is working like a muscle: the more you train it, the better it will get. Use EarMaster 5 to 15 minutes every day and you will quickly wonder why you didn’t start earlier. It will help you play in a band with more confidence, play tunes by ear from the songs you like , connect sound with music theory, and maximize your musicianship.

“I’ve been playing music for 35+ years and pitch recognition was something I struggled with. After using EarMaster for less than a month, I made more progress in this period of time than the preceding 35+ years.”

Jim C., amateur musician, Houston, TX.

Main Features:

• 651 progressive lessons for music ear training
• Customized training mode
• On-screen dynamic interfaces: Staff, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Violin, Banjo, Cello, etc.
• Voice and instrument input with microphone
• MIDI Controller (keyboard, drumpad, etc.) input
• “Intelligent” help function
• Detailed statistics interface
• FREE online support and updates (bug fixes, etc.)
• 24 languages included (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, and more)

System Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer (Intel or PPC processor – Universal Binary).

30MB hard disk space

For More info: EarMaster 5 product page – Ear training made easy

Interview with the developer (Hans L. Jakobsen):

What’s the most unique, useful feature of your product?

All of them! More seriously, there are quite a lot of ear training applications out there, but what makes EarMaster stand out is that it is so easy to use, interactive (voice, instrument and MIDI input) and eye-pleasing, and that our user community is very active. Not to mention that it is one of the very few that run on Mac!

Why did you create this app? or What need were you trying to satisfy?

I created EarMaster back in the days when I was preparing myself for an audition to enter a music conservatory. I asked a friend of mine to play chords on the piano that I could try to identify, as it was one of the admission exams. After the first session, I started wondering: “why waste my friend’s time with such a robotic task, when a computer could handle it 24/7?”. The original idea of EarMaster was born, and evolved into the software that we know today.

What is most interesting to you about developing SW for the Mac platform.

It is not a secret that many musicians use Mac. Even though EarMaster was first released for Windows, our goals are universal: We want all musicians to use it because we think it is the one program that all musician ought to use daily. This is why we released a Mac version.

What features should a prospective buyer look into during a trial of your product?

With the newer Mac and their internal microphone, it is very easy to use the audio recognition feature of EarMaster. Simply toggle the “Microphone” icon on (bottom right of the screen), go through the microphone tuning wizard, and off you go! You can sing and clap back melodies, rhythms, chords, scales etc. to the computer. No additional hardware needed. It’s really fun to use!

What are some interesting experiences you’ve had creating new versions of your software when OS is upgraded?

EarMaster came to Mac OS during the Leopard era, and worked perfectly with Snow Leopard as it was, so I couldn’t really say yet.

What’s your favorite Mac app out there from another developer? Why?

Garage Band is fantastic. It makes music creation so easy and fast. Hats off!

What features would you like to add to your product that at this time seem improbable/impossible?

All the features we could wish to see in EarMaster are already on the roadmap of EarMaster 6, which is currently under development and should be out at the end of 2011 at the earliest. It will be an upgrade to remember! Otherwise, touch screen compatibility would be great if Mac OS goes in that direction at some point.

What would you like a user to ask you?

Why didn’t you tell me about EarMaster before?

What should I ask that I’m forgetting?

How good are you at ear training yourself, btw?

What are the answers to some common questions people have about your app before they buy?

1) People usually “feel” the first results after a couple of weeks of training.

2) Owners of version 5 will be able to upgrade to version 6 at a low price when it is available (approximately by the end of 2011).

3) You can use sample players or other 3rd party sound engines with EarMaster if you want to and aren’t afraid of a bit of tweaking. See the FAQ on the EarMaster website for more details.

Jaksta for Mac

Download Video and Audio from 100,000+ web sites.

Normally: $49.95

ZOT Price: $24.95

“Jaksta is a breeze to use… 9 out of 10″ – MacTech, February, 2011

Jaksta Makes it Easy to Save Perfect Recordings at Turbo Speed

Jaksta for Mac is easy to use: just open Jaksta, then play the video, music or audio you’d like to capture. You will find that your media is recorded up to ten times faster than playback speed, since Jaksta is grabbing files directly from the web site where they are hosted. This downloading technique means that the quality of the recorded files are perfect copies of the original.

Try a free demo and see for yourself why Jaksta is the best way to record streaming video and audio.

Supports all Common Stream Formats and Protocols:
FLV, HTTP, RTMP, ICECAST, WMV, ASF, MP3, MP4, SWF

Converts to all popular device formats:

“Every recommendation we gave you about streaming content and capturing it in the past – throw all those away and go take a look at Jaksta” - Data Doctors Radio Show – October 2011

System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.5 or later.

Click to Developer’s Site for more info.