pitches

Interval teacher

Music Theory Basics - Interval Training Complete has a focused set of tools for learning musical intervals. By offering a few basic options and some great tests, this program will appeal to anyone learning or relearning music theory.

The program's interface is surprisingly simple and intuitive, considering the complex material it covers. The layout consists of large buttons and onscreen directions that shouldn't require a trip to the Help file, which is fortunate, because there's no Help file to consult. Music Theory Basics opens with a simple menu asking how you want to learn. You can choose … Read more

Batter up!

Though it's not licensed by Major League Baseball, Baseball Superstars manages to be a fun, arcade type of baseball game--even without the big-name players. With cartoon-like graphics, you can play a single game, a 32-game season, or a Home run derby. There is a mission-based mode, and a My League mode, in which you can level-up a pitcher or a batter over the course of a season. There are 10 teams to choose from each with varying strengths and weaknesses. Both batting and pitching takes some practice (especially with the wide variety of pitches available), but the game is … Read more

Vator.tv gets a centralized, Twitter-like news feed

Vator.tv, the "YouTube for start-ups" has a new feature going live on Tuesday morning that lets companies post short updates to their Vator.tv-hosted information pages. Similar to Twitter, the messages are limited to just a few hundred characters and other Vator users are simply able to follow a company to keep tabs on what it's doing.

Companies with access can post new updates anytime they'd like, and interact directly with users who can reply in the threaded commented section below each item. Vator has borrowed a page from Facebook in letting users get notified … Read more

Audio demonstration of pitch-correction software

Having spent some time in recording studios, I was aware that automatic pitch-correction software exists and is used by nearly every singer to smooth out the occasional off note. (Neko Case claims she doesn't use it, but she's the rare exception.) But I don't sing, so haven't spent a lot of time with it myself.

So I was fascinated to hear New Yorker music editor Sasha Frere-Jones, who wrote about pitch-correction this week, give an audio demonstration of Antares' AutoTune software in the magazine's Out Loud podcast. He sings a version of Kelly Clarkson's … Read more

No perfect pitch? Blame your genes

Update: I added where the study was published.

Perfect pitch, the ability to identify the absolute pitch of musical notes, looks to be the product of a small number of genes, according to a new University of California study.

Many traits, such as high blood pressure or height, have genetic links but span a broad spectrum with relatively few people having extreme measurements. But with perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch, a person either has it or doesn't, according to UC researchers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"This striking, bimodal distribution resolves the question of whether absolute … Read more

There once was a start-up from Frisco...

The last SFBeta party featured CEOs pitching their company concepts in Haiku. Note to other party organizers: Quiet, contemplative Haiku is not the best format for a crowd of young, frat-boyish entrepreneurs...who've been drinking.

So at the most recent SFBeta party, organizer Christian Perry (from Zaptix) changed the poetry form to limerick. Much better! Bawdy rhymes tend to cut through barroom chatter more sharply than soft leaves underfoot.

YouSendIt Sending big files was a chore Burn CDs, then FedEx? No more! No more FTP mess Or clogged in-box stress With YouSendIt, your business will soar!

YouSendIt is a … Read more

More Stirr startups: Lift tickets, Flash games, price fights, and a search engine

Once a month (or so), I get up in front of a room of drinking entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and moderate a Bay Area Stirr event. There are a lot of these social/working mixers these days. I'm also going to try to wrangle the SFBeta mixer tomorrow night. Those pitches will be in limerick. Should be fun.

But the Stirr events are really excellent. Great energy in the room. Lots of deals happening. Nice location. And good startups:

Frucall. Nasser Manesh showed us his new price comparison service for mobile phone users, which he calls "the shopping … Read more

The official start-ups of Web 2.0

There are several new companies and products being unveiled at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week. I'll be reporting on as many of them as I can.

Only 13 companies were selected to participate in the "Launchpad" sessions on Tuesday. Chosen from more than 200 applicants (I'm trying to get ahold of that list), these are supposed to be the most promising of the current crop of Web 2.0 start-ups. I'm not sure they are hands-down the best the Web has to offer, but they are all very interesting. The … Read more