Koan Generative Music Software Supports DirectX 5

SSEYO® Ltd., creator of Koan® software for generative music and sound environments, today revved its range of Koan authoring tools and Koan players with a new Koan Music Engine that, in 32 bit form, has integral DirectX 5 support. The SSEYO "WAV Map" technology allows multiple advanced WAV-file based instruments to be used as the basis of Koan sound environments. This important development for the fast-growing international Koan community means that Koan piece authors can now use their own WAV samples to deliver, on any Windows 95 PC with DirectX 5 installed, Koan music with consistent playback quality irrespective of the Soundcard on the target machine.

When allied to the power of the SSEYO Interactive Koan Music Control (IKMC), which supports the asynchronous background downloading of any files required by a playing Koan piece, any webpage can use completely unique and custom sound palettes (e.g. WAV files) to provide the ultimate fast-download sound environment. Said Tim Cole, Managing Director and Co-founder of SSEYO, "The traditional approach to providing Internet sound or music content is either to download a small section of pre-recorded content and then loop it again and again, or to listen to continuously streamed, non-interactive, bandwidth intensive pre-recorded content. For highly style-based music another alternative is to use Microsoft's new Interactive Music Control. Koan's unique, yet complementary generative approach is highly focused on creating non-style based and potentially massively interactive sound environments, where, to use a culinary analogy, more of the sound environment can be real-time 'baked to order'."

Koan is an inherently 'low bandwidth' solution as it adopts a component approach to the creation of sound environments. The components or building blocks include a small Koan piece (typically 1kb to 20kb) and either the hardwired General MIDI sounds on the PC soundcard or downloaded custom WAV samples or SoundFonts; in either case, the Koan engine does the generative composition at the target machine meaning that streamed audio or endlessly looping MIDI music are not necessary. Indeed with the IKMC, via a webpage and a little VBScript or JavaScript, 200+ Koan parameters can be changed in real-time allowing the creation of incredible interactive sound environments. Just like home cooking, Koan is highly interactive, fresh and personal.

SSEYO's new "WAV Map" technology brings the following advantages:

• Koan pieces can incorporate instruments based around small or large WAV files, meaning one small WAV file could be used to generate an entire generative instrument. Koan automatically scales the frequency of the sample to play it back using the full power of the SSEYO Koan Music Engine (SKME).
• Interactive generative music publishing with consistent playback on any PC soundcard is now possible using a Koan authoring tool, DirectX 5, WAV files and the freely available IKMC Silver pack.
• MIDI, WAV and SoundFont based sounds can be mixed and matched in the same piece.
• By using WAV files you can circumvent any MIDI Line limits and side-step any SoundFont sample memory limits (the number of WAV file-based instruments are limited by the physical memory capacity and raw performance of your PC).
• Support for "recycled" WAV breakbeats where a number of WAV files are strung together in a sequence (which can also be generative).
• WAV samples can be assigned to different parts of a Koan voice's audio spectrum ("splitting the keyboard").
• Auto-chording and Koan ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) features work with WAV file-based instruments.
• Playback sessions can be recorded direct to WAV file even when playing using WAV-based instruments (when using the appropriate Direct Sound 5 drivers).

Other capabilities added include:

• Koan authoring tools now use the same "easy-use" patch entry system, making WAV and SoundFont usage much easier.
• Support for Koan's "Listening Voice" hyper-instrument capabilities. In all full Koan products and most, but not all Koan X versions, if a Koan piece or template has been appropriately set-up using SSEYO Koan Pro to use Koan's "Listening Voice" hyper-instrument capabilities, then that piece or template in conjunction with a MIDI controller may allow a wide range of effects, including keyboard-splitting, auto-chording, voice following and more.
• Most Koan products now support MIDI play-along (all 32-bit and 16-bit products except for non-timeout "free" products : e.g. Koan Web Silver, IKMC Silver, and some special "bundle" editions of Koan X Silver). Users can use a MIDI keyboard (or other MIDI controller) to play-along with the currently playing Koan piece, and the music will harmonize with and adjust itself to what is being played.

The "V2.1" release, includes new releases of:

SSEYO Koan Music Engine (SKME) : 2.10 (was 2.01)

SSEYO Koan Pro : 2.10 (was 2.01)

SSEYO Koan Web : 2.10 (was 2.01)

SSEYO Koan X : 1.10 (was 1.01)

SSEYO Interactive Koan Music Control (IKMC) : 4.10 (was 4.06)

SSEYO Koan Album Editor : 2.10 (was 1.40)

Multimedia System recommendations:

P90 PC or higher, 16Mb RAM, Windows 95 / NT 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 or higher or Netscape Navigator 3 or higher, Microsoft DirectX 5 (for WAV file playback), MIDI soundcard (AWE64 recommended for SoundFont usage) or MIDI software synth, speakers.

Notes to Editors

SSEYO is now a world leader in generative music software for sound environments, through its successful and award winning Koan software product range and the SSEYO Koan Music Engine (SKME), developed over the last 7 years.

Koan products are well suited to the Imagination Age, and a key SSEYO goal is to deliver enabling and inclusive tools that enable users to make their own music or sound environments, be they young or old, musically gifted or not.

SSEYO Koan technology is being adopted by a range of well-known artists, including Brian Eno and Jamuud of Loop Guru, and SSEYO is working with closely with the technologies of companies like Microsoft, Creative Labs and Yamaha. In addition to being a music/sound-enabling system, Koan is also ideal for the WWW as it is low bandwidth, massively interactive, MIDI based, contemporary sounding and ever-changing. Its hyper-instrument capabilities are soon to result in easy-to-use and fun music making appliances.

The experiental, non-looping and personal nature of music and sound the SKME generates is ideally suited to WWW sites, 3D WWW virtual worlds, gaming and situations where fresh, massively interactive music or sound content is required.

SSEYO Koan product range:

IKMC download link:

http://www.sseyo.com/browser.html

The IKMC Walkthrough showcase:

http://www.sseyo.com/ka4/walkthru/ka4mt.htm

SSEYO's online store:

http://www.sseyo.com/sseyo_in.html

SSEYO, Koan and the SSEYO logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SSEYO Ltd in the UK and/or other countries. Other products mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are the sole property of their respective manufacturers.

Specifications subject to change.