MicrosoftWatch.com reports:
Microsoft is still pushing full-steam-ahead with a music-making program, code-named "Monaco," according to Microsoft partners who requested anonymity. Monaco would be very similar to Apple's GarageBand application, but would be optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface.
The article doesn’t explain how Areo would benefit music; I’m guessing musicians will actually get better performance by turning off the glassy animations. But speculating about “VistaBand” features (both serious and humorous) would be fun. Here are a few ideas I came up with....
- Will the music clips look like Clippy?
- Will VistaBand export to multichannel WMA files, driving surround sound into mainstream music production?
- Will it embrace podcasting, or does that term have too many Apple overtones?
- Maybe there will be another hardware tie-in, like ringtone creation for an upcoming Microsoft phone, or the ability to create music visualizer discs for the Xbox. (Unlikely, but fun to imagine.)
- Will it resurrect the interactive music technology from the underappreciated DirectMusic?
- Will every command (sorry, Ctrl) be one step beyond where you expect it to be?
The VistaBand rollout. Heh.
I was impressed with the dedication of the Windows audio team at the recent Vista Audio Summit. Almost all were musicians themselves, and seemed to really want Windows to become the best audio platform. It will be fascinating to see where this first step leads.
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Comments (15)
Read More Entries by David Battino.
hey microsoft should have every right" to copy. They allways copied there idea's from micro,and could to.
apple rules and Bill knows that thats why he retired keep doing what you do Steve Jobbs GO! APPLE!
@pyroboy69: Who knows? But Steinberg announced a cross-platform GarageBand “tribute” program called Sequel at Music Messe this year. See our report.
wen is it coming out?
it looks too much like garageband i think its fake. its fun to think about though =)
Yeah, Gates is a moron too. He copied the IPod (seen the infamous ZUNE?) in a moment when the IPod is not only a best selling product, but is a gadget so important it has made its way into popular culture, believing he would be able to compete. What an idiot, what a marketing dork. Wired news has an interesting article on the Zune, another Microsoft copy gone terribly bad.
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2006/07/71435
But folks, it is NO SURPRISE that MicroSoft copies from others, its their corporate policy. Not even the DOS system Windows is on was made by Microsoft, it was made by Seattle Computer Products, in 1980 or so, called QDos. Gates, not surprisingly, bought it from them because IBM had alredy chosen Microsoft for the developer of their OS'. Gates had NOTHING of his own. Consider this: Excel and Power Point were licenced from other developers, he bought those programs from others. Gates is an oportunistic, nothing else. Seeing that Apple is the true innovator, he goes behind Apple's Steve Jobs CEO like a shadow picking up his crumbs. Microsoft copied ther AQUA interface and started distributing aqua-like elements into those horrible MSN Messenger smileys. What a shame. Now, Gates has done it again. In the best display of his true nature: Copied AGAIN Aqua into his last disgrace of a product, MS Vista, and even copied Apple's Widgets (named gadgets, in Vista, sound familiar?) from the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system, as many other things. Guys, the Aqua interface was launched around 1999-2000 in the first release of the MacOS X OS 10.0 - MacOS X Tiger 10.4 was released some three years ago, so who is copying who?
Read HISTORY people, Apple came long before Gates resorted to copy everything as not to lag behind.
How exactly did apple "Copy microsoft in the way begginning"?
You have to remember that Apple copied Microsoft in the way begginning. Microsoft is just improving it so us people who can actually afford it without complaining can use it
For the latest GarageBand tribute, see Steinberg Sequel.
All the people from microsoft have done is copied things from other computer networks such as apple. And now there copying garage band, cant they think of anything by themselves.
@Erik: I haven't heard anything further on Monaco, but with the number of musicians at Microsoft, I'm confident they'll have a music creation app eventually.
do you know when they are going to release this, or how far they are?
@Max: The image above is a joke I made to illustrate the point. I made it by pasting a GarageBand screenshot on top of a Windows publicity photo. You may notice that the "guitars" are actually super-sized icons from GarageBand.
True, Vista does look a lot like OS X. Imitation aside, I'm happy usability is advancing.
Rubbish!!! How can is possible to copy exactly in every part all the Garageband music system from Apple??? Mr Gates has touch the ground ...! Not only the interface copyed, I saw that copyed the Aqua style too!!!!! Not is possible... Incredebly!!!!!! Puah!