I’m A minor (get it) when it comes to any sense of the word music composer. But with Abaltat Muse the freaking software does it for you. I like this software… a lot. It is perfect for corporate industrials, commercials, short web videos. I’m holding judgment about how it works with dramatic pieces and films. I will be testing it on a couple of short film projects in the near future. They have a 30 day free trial. If you are even half way interested in this you should download and try it out.
All my reviews are subject to change after I write the initial review. The more I use a product and unlock the features I’ll return to this post and update it.
Overview
Abaltat Muse is made for video editors. It gives you a great jump start in getting the music that you need for your video. 
You drag any kind of video clip, SD, HD, 1080i, 720p, .mp4, .mov and drop it on the Abaltat Muse icon on your Dock and it immediately begins to analyze the movie file.
After analyzing the file It compiles the colors from the video and sorts them into individual tracks on a separate timeline. Those separate colors are the key to the composition of the music.
Now press the Compose button in the main timeline.
A new menu appears with the settings for your new score.
There are so many possible ways to compose your audio track to make it sound the way you want. But you have to experiment with the software and understand what each selection will do for you. For instance. The drop down menu gives you the power to select the band anything from ensemble one to percussion one. The band selection gives you different instruments for each band selected. Once the band is selected and you click the OK button you can change the instruments with keyframes in the timeline… I’ll get to that later.
Go ahead and select the Beats Per Minute (BPM) the greater BPM will give you a faster beat and the less will give a slow beat. You can also tell the software which colors to pay attention to. Look at the color timeline and select the colors that are most prevalent. Hit OK and watch the software work. All the instruments being summoned and sorted into the new score for your video.
Now hit the play button and listen to your new score for your video. It might be overwhelming at first but that is because Melody 1 & Melody 2 are turned on under the Tracks on the main timeline. Go ahead and click off Melody 1 while it is playing. Click it back on and click off Melody 2. This is a great tool because you can preview the audio in real time. Once the software composes the score you can now go back and fool around with the settings and listen to the changes.
Usability
It is fairly simple to compose music for your video track. It is a bit more difficult to make good music. When you download the software you have a couple of video samples you can test out. The great thing about these samples are the colors in the video. There is a BMW commercial. The car is an intense red with a white background and a splash of other high contrast colors. If you are using this program to compose a short film I suggest you use it from scene to scene rather than the whole project at once.
All editors are familiar with keyframes and this software allows you to add keyframes to change the instruments, volume, pan, transpose and tonality. It gives you the option to rearrange anything you can think of.
If you feel that the instruments are lacking the sound you require but you like the feel of the score and you want to use different instruments you can export the composed music as a .midi file and import it into Garageband. Once open in Garageband you can change any of the instrument tracks to any Garageband instrument. I love that option, I’m not a fan of the instruments in Abaltat Muse they sound too much like computer music. If the instruments sounded more like Garageband this would be huge, but with the functionality of importing the file in Garageband and using the instruments that you want they are at least allowing the user to make it to their liking.
Features
• Designed for video editors
• Create broadcast quality music compositions quicker than real-time
• No music royalty payments
• Rich variety of Abaltat Bands gives a wide choice of musical genre
• Complimentary and seamless integration with Apple, Avid, Adobe and Media 100 edit applications
• Full MIDI export functionality to import directly into Digidesign Pro Tools or
Apple’s Logic applications
Geek Specs
Mac OSX
10.4.7 (PPC) 10.4.8 (Intel)
512mb RAM (2 GB recommended)
Download file size is 3.2GB
Version 1.0 of Abaltat Muse™ runs on Mac OSX. A Windows version will be released in 2008.
The video is imported as a quicktime file and the finished compositions can be exported as .AIFF or .WAV files or as MIDI files. The Abaltat Muse playout works with Mac’s own soundcard or with the standard editing third party cards such as Blackmagic.
Price
$495. Not a big fan of the price. I have to work too much in order to get the sound that I want. When you are the editor, composer, motion graphic designer and DVD author this is one more step in the process that will take you longer. If you are a quick learner and have a great ear and understand music then Abaltat Muse is a steal compared to sound libraries. With Abaltat Muse you can make more soundtracks and customize it for each project. That alone is great, no more searching through Hip Hop Sounds Vol 1-10, or Made in America Patriotic Tunes Vol 1-107. If you can use this application and make it work then it pays for itself. There is a 30 day trial which I encourage you to try out it is a trip and you will fall for it.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Rob // Jul 3, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for the review. I’ll have to try this out.
Have you tried SonicFire from Smart Sound? We use it in addition to other libraries.
It has professionally composed tracks that are really many components divided in a way that lets the SonicFire software compose a piece of any length. Unlike fixed libraries, which often requires that you fade the end out, it puts a nice beginning and an end on the piece. It also allows you to change the instrument mix with key frames (which they call mood mapping, IIRC).
It comes with a dozen or so tracks to begin with. You can buy more CD-ROMs with more tracks or you can preview and buy tracks through their on-line interface directly inside SonicFire. All in all, not a bad method.
Peace,
Rob:-]
2 Sebastian English // Jul 4, 2008 at 12:05 pm
As a composer myself, I have mixed feelings about a product like this.
It would be very tempting to complain about being “Put out of a job” but I think that would be stupid. There is no way, no matter how good the algorithms get, that this will in any way suceed in replacing a human.
However, I have worked with many directors who see the music as “An afterthought” and I have always thought that a lot of the time it would be better if such projects didn’t have music at all.
I think a program like this could encourage this same idea - to see music as an afterthought rather than something that can transform a sequence into something else.
If used for sketches and starting points, that’s an entirely different matter.
Like I said, my feelings are mixed.
3 Andy Coon // Jul 4, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Rob,
I’ve only used Soundtrack Pro 2 and a couple of sound libraries. I prefer Soundtrack as I can create loops and create fun tracks.
SonicFire sounds great. I wouldn’t mind trying that out sometime. Thanks for mentioning that.
4 Andy Coon // Jul 4, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more Sebastian.
There are two kinds of artists that make me a better filmmaker.
1) A Top Notched Graphic Designer
2) A well versed music composer
Funny thing is I know plenty of talented graphic designers but have not blended a collaborative relationship. I’d love to begin a professional relationship with a music composer. But I know that is a $$ problem. The budget for the work I get independently has no wiggle room for a graphic designer or a composer. I haven’t hit that next tier where the clients want a professional score.
This software won’t ever replace a human composer especially if you want some kind of emotion with the music. That is one thing the software can’t do… for now.
5 Justin // Jul 4, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Abaltat Muse was not designed to put musicians out of business! Actually the opposite. The whole point of having a midi export was that it could be used to create temp tracks that composers could could then use (as midi)…….sort of off line music for video editors.
6 Sebastian English // Jul 4, 2008 at 4:02 pm
“…especially if you want some kind of emotion with the music. That is one thing the software can’t do… for now.”
I think part of it is that the best software will be able to do is give you something that is complimentary the visuals. I think the best music is where it actually counterpoints the visuals and then suddenly you’ve got a very interesting relationship going on.
An example of this would be if you had someone being tortured to a really upbeat, cheerful soundtrack (Pulp Fiction anyone, or is it resevoir dogs?)
Apologies for the shameless plug, but if you’re in short supply of sound artists/composers drop me an email and see what I’m up to at that point. Most of the stuff I’ve done is for theatre/dance, rather than film, so it’d be a little strange having to make a recorded score (normally I work with live musicians), but there’s always time to start.
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