miniMusic™ Introduces BeatPad Software for the Palm Computing® Platform

February 14, 2000 -- At Winter NAMM miniMusic™ introduced its new BeatPad software for the Palm Computing® Platform and an upgrade of miniMusic NotePad application at the NAMM 2000 International Music Market being held at the LA Convention Center. Swivel Systems™ will also appear at the miniMusic booth to show prototypes of a new MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) tone module that clips onto the Palm™ handheld computers putting hundreds of musical instruments in your pocket. These products make handheld computers a valuable tool for composers, musicians, and music students.

BeatPad is the new pattern based sequencer from miniMusic. It provides a simple interface for creating musical patterns of various instruments or drum kits, layering these patterns, and performing them on any standard MIDI hardware. Using the Palm Computing platform's large touch sensitive screen, it is easy to see every aspect of a pattern at once and manipulate it with the stylus. The upgrade of the NotePad application -- which lets you compose, edit and playback songs with standard music notation -- improves its performance on some of the newer Palm™ devices, and adds a few new features like additional time signatures. Both BeatPad and the existing NotePad software work perfectly with the new tone module from Swivel Systems, giving users the option to take even more of their electronic studio with them, wherever they go.

With the new software and the Swivel Systems hardware, miniMusic can now offer users a portable music system.

NotePad provides portable notation for those who know, or need help learning how to read and write music; music can be entered a number of ways: drawn onto music staff, played on an on-screen piano keyboard, or written in using Palm Computing's Graffiti™ handwriting recognition technology. On the other hand, BeatPad uses a simple graphic interface to mold and sculpt patterns and build up interesting textures and rhythms. You can even make changes to the music as it plays.

Most users will want to use both applications for different projects, or move back and forth between the two creating music in new ways. Helping singers learn songs, composers write songs, and performers play songs, miniMusic allows for an immediate musical experience anywhere.

Pricing, Availability, Distribution, and Support

The first demo version of miniMusic's new BeatPad will begin distribuition on February 10th, 2000. The miniMusic NotePad 1.1 upgrade becomes available for $29.95 U.S. on the same day. Swivel Systems will begin distributing the tone module this Summer. At this time the software will only be available on the internet, but will soon be available through other channels, including retail. Free demos are available now for download from the miniMusic web site and from other internet software distributors such as PalmGear, Smaller.com and Handango.

About miniMusic

miniMusic is a division of The 5th Wall(TM), a publishing company co-founded in 1991 by Chad Mealey, the designer of the miniMusic software. Now operating in San Francisco, miniMusic's goal is to provide portable music tools for composition, education, performance, and entertainment so that musical ideas can be explored anywhere and anytime, giving individuals the freedom of musical expression on their own terms. Chad Mealey studied music composition at San Francisco State University and Mesa College in San Diego. His computer background includes work at the Salk Institute, The Laurence Livermore National Laboratory, and Biosphere 2 in Arizona.

About Swivel Systems

Swivel Systems was founded in 1999 by Simon Gatrall, the developer of the new MIDI tone module. Based in San Francisco, Swivel Systems develops electronic music products which combine the power of vintage analog user interfaces with modern digital technology. Prior to founding Swivel Systems, Simon Gatrall worked as a product engineering consultant for clients such as Creative Labs, Interval Research, Kensington, Motorola, SGI, and Toshiba.

For more information please visit the miniMusic website at www.5thwall.com/minimusic.