Rondo 2009r1 Released

FracturedSoftware has announced the immediate availability of Rondo 2009r1, an update to its award winning MIDI Player for OS X. This latest version of Rondo has improvements in several areas. The built in file library now has printable playlists, multiple font sizes, and methods to find duplicate and lost files. Importing into the Library has been improved, with the ability to flag and reject duplicates or to re-link lost files while preserving its database info.

MIDI export has also been enhanced by enabling non General MIDI events to be stripped from the exported file. This can improve playback in many MIDI players, including Rondo.

Rondo is unique among MIDI players as it has been specifically designed to help non-score reading musicians follow a piece of music as it plays. Rondo can make learning to play a piece of music much easier by showing which notes should be played on a virtual keyboard as the music is playing. While there are several applications that do this, Rondo goes a step further by placing the virtual keyboard over a vertically scrolling grid of the notes to be played.


"By placing the keyboard over the continously scrolling note grid it is possible to see which notes are about to sound and move your hand to the correct position to play them. " said Peter Zegelin, Rondo's developer. "With Rondo a MIDI score can be slowed right down, instruments can be switched off or solo'd, and selected sections of the score can be endlessly repeated."

Rondo also includes a special visual filter mode, where an instruments' notes are visually isolated but the instrument part is not sounded. This lets a learner play their own instrument along with the rest of the score, using the MIDI file for accompaniment.

"Judging by the comments we have received, users who just enjoy listening to MIDI files also find Rondo's simple and uncluttered interface a delight to use. " said Mr. Zegelin. "The built in library lets you store all your favorite MIDI files and organize them into playlists, much the same as with iTunes. You can organize your files by composer, music style, or any way you like."

Rondo can play through the Macintoshes internal synth, an external sound module or a MIDI keyboard connected to a computer.


"Some of our users use Rondo to drive a modern player piano that accepts MIDI, such as the Yamaha Disklavier. That would sound fantastic. " said Mr. Zegelin.

Pricing and Availability:
Rondo 2009r1 is priced at $25 (USD) for a single user license. Rondo is a free download that will play in demo mode until a registration license is purchased. Demo mode disables random features each session but allows you to try out all of Rondo's advanced features over several sessions. There is no time limit on the software.


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