M-Audio Appeals to the Masses with Session

By Geoff Duncan Updated June 5, 2006

Hoping to appeal to the same demographic enthralled with Apple’s entry-level (but Mac-only) music production applications GarageBand, Avid Technology today announced that its M-Audio business unit will being shipping a new consumer-level, entry level music production application called Session with its Fast Track USB audio interface, and will soon bundle the program with other M-Audio consumer products.

Sessions will enable budding musicians, students, and music enthusiasts to get their feet wet in the world of digital music production, easily using their PCs to create loop-based music (built from layers of pre-recorded tracks and sounds) along with recording traditional musical instruments directly to their computer hard drives, all with a simple, user-friendly interface.

“Apple’s GarageBand has done a wonderful job of bringing consumer music-creation to the Mac market,” said Tony McCall, vice president of M-Audio’s consumer group. “As a result, there’s a huge contingent of users who are hungry for a PC-friendly solution, and M-Audio’s Session software is exactly what those users have been waiting for. We designed Session from the ground up so that music enthusiasts would have an easy way to create their own music on a computer

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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Audio / Video

Sony’s latest party speaker brings a light show to your next karaoke session

Sony SRS-XV800 being wheeled away with lights on.

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Like the similar JBL Partybox 710, the SRS-XV800 has its own wheels and carry handle so you don't need to lug around its total weight when there's a flat surface to roll on. It also has a customizable, music-synced light show that can be tweaked further through the Sony Fiestable app. Finally, no party speaker would be complete without a bit of water resistance for when things get crazy (IPX4) and dual audio input jacks for a karaoke mic and a guitar.