Black Diamond Sound Systems

LearnAudio, was designed to teach young persons some interesting, useful, and important facts about sound, hearing, and music. The program consists of a number of "lessons" that contain text, graphics, sound, and interactive links with the Internet. The program teaches you how to compose music, and also comes with a standalone midi sequencer with which you can compose and play your own music, using any one of 128 different musical instruments. For each lesson there is a built-in "quiz" which one can take in order to determine whether one has understood the most salient facts that have been presented. The program is a lot of fun to use, and in writing it, the author actually learned a lot of useful information in the process, even though he had over 30 years experience teaching medical students and physics students about sound and hearing, and had composed several symphonies himself. The program makes extensive use of several standard computer software plugins (ActiveX controls), including a Web Browser, QuickTime, and YouTube control. The latter provides the ability to interact with a selection of interesting, informative, and well-authored YouTube presentations on the Internet in real time. A number of Internet links are provided with each lesson to steer the student to related in-depth information. The program also has a Glossary, which defines and / or explains terms used that may be new or unfamiliar to the student. All in all, the program provides students with a unique and fun leaning experience.

With Mixum, you can mix down any number and combination of audio tracks, midi tracks, CD tracks, and video tracks in a wide range of formats. This allows you to make production-quality mixes for producing CDs and for CD mastering. Contains numerous DSP effects, a built-in CD Ripper, movie player, 10-channel equalizer, and much more.

An MP3 and WAVE Recorder / Player, Midi Player, CD Player and Mixer all in one. MusicMasterPro supports a variety of different "skins", used to create an interesting user interface. It also supports different "visualizations" (graphic images that are dynamically modulatedby the spectral and intensity components of the music as it is being played), that also enhance the user interface. It contains some sophisticated DSP (digital signal processing) effects that operate in real time during recording or playback, allowing you to add special effects (including preverb, reverb, flange, echo, digital filtering, and 3D sound) to music.

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MusicMaster is an amazingly versatile program that combines a Mixer, a 10-channel Equalizer, a multi-disk CD player, and a Player / Recorder module that plays all known types of audio files, and records and saves audio files in many different formats, including the popular mp3 format. It is much easier to use than either Media Player or WinAmp. It has recently been completly re-written, to include the very latest in professional quality audio technology. It consists of four separate modules. The Toolbar Module enables you to custom-configure the display, which simulates that of a standard rack-style set of stereo components. The Mixer / Equalizer Module makes it possible to set volume levels on all of the recording and playback devices on your computer, and to set the equalization over the full audio range. The CD Player Module lets you program a CD-ROM player to play selected tracks on any CD drive in your computer. It "remembers" each CD you play, so that when you put in a CD to play, you can select a previously stored set of favorite tracks to play. It also lets you Rip CD tracks from any CD drive on your computer to any hard disk drive on your computer. The Player / Recorder Module lets you record and play practically every type of audio file including MP3 files, download MP3 files from the Internet, as well as edit ID3 Tags. It also has a very handy means to set up, save, and retrieve Playlists.

KaraokeMidi is a really versatile Midi and Kar Karaoke Player-Recorder that lets you sing along with and record your favorite songs. It is packed with a host of advanced features. You'll LOVE it! With it you can select the desired midi output device (i.e., the synthesizer driver), change the tempo and key, change any of the instruments (you can make your own string quartet!), change the relative volume of each instrument, and easily sing the lyrics in time with the music. You can record your voice, using your computer's microphone, and save and play back the recorded file. With an external keyboard connnected to your computer's soundcard, you can record your own Midi sequences. And, it's FUN!

NormalizeMP3 is a handy program that enables you to make a collection of MP3 files that all have the same relative volume. This process is called "normalizing", and is very useful, especially when you have a collection of MP3 files that were all recorded with varying volumes, requiring you to jump up when each track loads in your CD player and adjust the volume.The program is very simple to use. You simply select a group of MP3 files stored on your hard disk (either by using the standard "Open File" dialog, or by drag-dropping them onto the programs listbox), select the output directory where you would like the normalized files to be saved, and then click the "OK" button, and all the selected files will be processed automatically

A very handy program for tuning your guitar or other musical instrument. It works like a CHAMP! Guitar Tuner uses your computer's microphone to listen to what you are playing, and then automatically determines the "true" note closest to the one that you are playing (based on the standard 12-tone scale). It then determines how far the pitch of the note you are playing is away from the exact pitch of the "true" note, and displays this value on the various indicators as a "percent error". A zero percent error means thatyou are exactly in tune with the closest note. A one percent error represents one "cent", i.e, 1/100th of a semitone (sharp or flat). Guitar Tuner uses a very accurate means of determining the pitch of the sounds that it hears, based on Fourier Spectrum Analysis. It displays the actual frequency spectrum of the sound graphically.

AudioTest enables you to test your hearing at home or in the work place. It tests your hearing in much the same way that a professional audiologist would. The results of are presented in a standard audiogram format, and they can be saved and printed out; thus, you can determine any changes in your hearing over time, and can take them to a hearing professionalif you so choose. It is a very useful screening tool for monitoring your hearing, and will allow you to determine if you have a hearing loss that can be treated, and that will also alert you so that you can take steps to prevent further hearing loss. The program is very inexpensive and easy to use. It is currently being used by the New York State Elementary School System as a screening hearing test for both pre-schoolers and elementary school students. The kids evidently get a big kick out of testing their own hearing, and it takes a big work load off of the school nurses.

OceanNavigator is a great program for navigating across oceans (and anywhere else, for that matter). Use it to compute way-points, great circle routes, distances, positions, and other useful parameters, as the folks at Black Diamond Sound Systems did aboard the 40 foot yacht Marishanna in several Pacific Cup races from San Francisco to Hawaii. The program simplifies the process of calculating a number of quantities that are of special interest to the typical mariner when he or she is at sea. These include such questions as "Where am I?", "Which way should I steer to get to where I want to go?", "How far away is my destination?", "How can I generate Way Points with a minimum of bother?", "How far away is that rock?", and "Will that approaching vessel collide with me?" You can also calculate your position with a minimum number of sextant sights.

The Waveform Composer is a very handy tool for mixing a number of different waveforms (or tracks) into a single composition. The waveforms can all be played simultaneously. You can mix up to 16 tracks at a time, and the waveforms can be in any format (16 bits, stereo, 22 kHz, or whatever). You can also specify what format the final composition will be in. It can: