Music Cover and Surface Remix Project
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The Surface team doesn't just want to make your tablet better, they want to break new ground. In addition to the Touch and Type Cover keyboards, they have released the Music Cover, a cover specially created for creating and mixing music.
The cover has three volume sliders, playback controls and 16 programmable buttons. In addition, it is sensitive to pressure: it will detect the force with which you press keys so that the sound has more or less volume.
We do not have information on prices or availability for the public. We only know that it will start shipping on October 22 to some musicians, and it will be compatible with Surface 2, Surface Pro and Surface 2 Pro (Surface RT is left out).
Surface Remix Project, mixing music on Surface
Of course, Music Cover will have a program behind it to take advantage of it: Surface Remix Project. With it we can create music using basic blocks: drums, bass, keyboard, voice and more, along with some predefined templates.
We can also add sounds and songs from our collection, with automatic recommendations of what may sound best. It'll even automatically sync the beat and scale of the songs so everything sounds flat (at least not by much). Musically, I'm not too convinced to go around changing the tone like this, automatically, but interesting things can come out.
Finally, we can export our creations in MP3, WAV or WMA format, so we don't get locked into Surface Remix Project.
Of course, Music Cover will not be the revolution of the Surface or something that will convince the majority of users, but it is an interesting movement. Specialized keyboards for certain tasks can give the Surface a boost in businesses or for users with very specific needs.
And, who knows, it might be the first step for convertible keyboards. He commented on it during the follow-up on Twitter: It's wild speculation, but some kind of projected keyboard or keyboard that changes the layout depending on the scenario would be a great idea.
More information | Surface Remix Project
