Accessible Software for the Blind Musician

From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 19:36:03 -0400

The Fred's Head Companion
Monday, October 01, 2007

By Michael McCarty

CakeTalking for SONAR

Since its introduction at a packed presentation during the 2000 CSUN conference
in Los Angeles, CakeTalking has changed the lives of blind musicians from
students who can now independently prepare and print their music theory
assignments, to working professionals who produce entire album projects for
clients who pay them a competitive hourly rate for their audio production
services.

During that ground-breaking CSUN presentation, CakeTalking's creator, David
Pinto, invited four of his blind students to show how they use Cakewalk's
MIDI/Audio program with CakeTalking. In one short hour an enthusiastic audience
witnessed the following:

A six-year-old girl recorded and orchestrated the Spinning Song for piano,
french horns, flutes and percussion.

A college undergraduate recorded a melody and displayed it in staff notation.

An eighteen-year-old composed a theme for a news program including a fade for
the announcer.

A fourteen-year-old recorded the piano, guitar and bass parts for her own song
and then recorded herself singing the lead vocal and three harmony parts.
SONAR 6 is Cakewalk's most advanced MIDI/Audio program, and is used by
professionals around the world. CakeTalking is an extensive set of scripts for
the JAWS for Windows screen reader that makes SONAR 6 accessible. In the past,
blind users had been creating sound recordings with Cakewalk's MIDI/Audio
programs. However, reliable access and sensible instruction has been lacking,
until now! CakeTalking gets you up and running and creating right away!

The key commands are intuitive and easy to learn.

Extensive online help and a separate 300 page tutorial direct you in recording,
editing and even printing out your music. Online help is always just a key
stroke away.

Customers are already using CakeTalking with SONAR 6 and JAWS to create
everything from song demos to professional radio jingles and CDs for recording
artists.

SibeliusSpeaking

SibeliusSpeaking delivers the power and flexibility of the excellent notation
program, Sibelius, to the blind user. SibeliusSpeaking combines a set of
sophisticated scripts for the JAWS for Windows screen reader with tutorial
documents and superb online help.

Blind composers or arrangers can now independently transfer their creative
musical ideas directly from their mind's ear to the printed page!

SibeliusSpeaking frees the blind composer to create music for all kinds of
traditional or not-so-traditional ensembles, from string quartets, to jazz
bands, symphony orchestras or (why not?) dueling tubas! You can print your
music for any sighted person to read in the medium they recognize:
conventional, staff notation.

With SibeliusSpeaking, you can learn to use Sibelius, one of the world's
premiere notation tools. Enter notes from your PC's keyboard or with any MIDI
(piano-style) musical keyboard attached to your PC's soundcard. Listen back to
your composition and independently revise it until you're ready to print it up
for your sighted teacher, colleague or student to read.

Click this link to learn about these programs from YesAccessible:
http://www.yesaccessible.com.

Posted by Michael McCarty at 2:37 PM

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Accessible Software for the Blind Musician

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