SuperMegaUltraGroovy, the software developers behind FuzzMeasure, have released an intriguing update to their award-winning Capo product for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Capo now allows musicians to isolate instruments or vocals in a stereo recording so they can more easily hear parts of the songs they wish to learn. In addition, Capo can remove individual parts, allowing users to play or sing alongside the original recording, say its makers.
“Over the past few years I have researched and prototyped audio isolation tools for Capo, and I’m excited to finally share this new feature with my users,” says Chris Liscio, SuperMegaUltraGroovy’s president and the developer of Capo. “I named the engine Neptune, which is a very nerdy play on the word ‘isolate’." The wordplay is worthy of the most cryptic crossword solver: Neptune, being the eighth planet from the sun is sometimes called Sol VIII — making I-Sol-Eight.
The inner workings of the Neptune isolation engine are even more sophisticated, being able to determine the spread of energy across the stereo field. This energy distribution is visualized using a unique display that helps users locate desired sounds, and allows them to limit that isolation to a desired pan and frequency range.
“Capo’s isolation controls allow you to do everything from eliminating the vocals to isolating a hidden rhythm guitar part that isn't easily heard in a rich mix,” says Liscio. “Especially in older recordings—where stereo mixes were less sophisticated than they are today—you can extract legendary performances to study, now clearer than ever.”
Capo can also reverse the isolation effect and mute specific vocals or instruments in a song. This allows users to create play-along backing tracks to practice a solo with the original band recording, or create something entirely new by using the Mac version's ability to export slowed, transposed, and now isolated audio files.
In addition to Capo's new isolation feature, Capo allows users to slow down music without altering its pitch (unlike a slowed down vinyl record), or transpose music to other keys. Capo also detects chords in music automatically, and offers simple-to-use tabbing functionality on the Mac with support for Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Banjo, and Mandolin in various tunings.
Capo 3.4 is available for $29.99 on the Mac App Store, with a free trial available at http://capoapp.com/mac. Capo touch 2.3 for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store for $9.99.
