Surface Book – the ultimate laptop for musicians

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We created Surface Book because we wanted to enable Creators to be more productive. Surface Book brings everything Creators love about Surface Pro 3 to an even more powerful, even more versatile design that was built for creativity from the ground up.

We get excited when we see Creators fall in love with Surface Book as they see it transform from a laptop to a canvas for art and design, a studio for photography and film, and an instrument for music making.

Thavius Beck is a musician, teacher, longtime Surface Fan (since Surface Pro 2), and a huge source of inspiration for us. We invited Thavius to explore the creative possibilities for music making with Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. Watch as the unique, expressive capabilities of Bitwig Studio 1.3 and Surface Book allow Thavius to create and perform in entirely new ways.


We’re even more excited to see the creative industry leaders Musicians care about invest in new and innovative software experiences designed for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 that enable new creative possibilities for music making on a laptop.

Today, we’re excited to acknowledge the announcement of our partnership with three music industry leaders who have designed new music making experiences for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4.

Check out what’s new from our partners at Bitwig, StaffPad, and Avid.

Bitwig



Bitwig Studio is dynamic software for creating and performing music on stage and in the studio. Today, we’re proud to acknowledge the announcement of Bitwig Studio 1.3, the latest version of Bitwig with a new display profile designed for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. Making music with Bitwig on your Surface feels like using an instrument from the future. Check out what’s new:

Touch Controls – The things you would expect to work better on Surface do work better. Bitwig is optimized for the high resolution PixelSense screen on Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 which means the software not only works incredibly well, your music looks beautiful. A variety of scaling levels let you choose how you want Bitwig to look and feel on your Surface. And Bitwig now works with multi-touch which means you can fly across your arrangements with a quick swipe, pinch and zoom as you edit clips, and launch multiple clips and move knobs and faders at the same time.

Touch Keyboard – Make music with your fingers using the new Touch Keyboard. The Touch Keyboard enables two dimensions of expressive control: drag your fingers left and right across the screen to change the pitch of notes and up and down to increase or decrease the intensity of effects.

Radial Menu – The Radial Menu puts a hub of powerful editing controls at your fingertips. Press and hold anywhere on the screen to open up the Radial Menu. Then, Launch the Browser and Create, Select, and Edit Clips and Tracks with your fingers.

Pressure – Surface Pen adds Pressure as a third dimension of expressivity. Push deeper into the screen with Surface Pen while using the Touch Keyboard to transform your music with added effects.

You’ve never made music on a laptop like this before. Purchase Bitwig Studio 1.3 or download a trial on your Surface today.

StaffPad



This year, our partners at StaffPad revolutionized music notation for Musicians, Students, and Teachers alike with the launch of their first app. The world was left in awe by the magical experience of writing music with StaffPad on Surface and its parallels to writing music with pen on paper.

Today, we’re proud to acknowledge the announcement of a new StaffPad fully updated and designed for Surface and Windows 10.

A beautiful new home screen reacts to the weather and time of day. Faster score loading, partial bar selection, swing playback, handwritten dynamic symbols recognition, sketch layer colors for Surface Pen, and an exciting new voice activated smart assistant make the new StaffPad an even better experience for writing music on Surface Book and Surface Pro 4.

Purchase StaffPad from the Windows Store today and receive the newest version as a free update when it becomes available later this month.

Avid

Avid Sibelius is the world’s best-selling music composition and notation software trusted by musicians, composers, arrangers, publishers, educators, and students all around the world.

This year, we acknowledged the launch of the new Sibelius, designed for Surface. New Touch Controls make getting around quick and easy and a new Annotate mode lets you write and draw all over the score with Surface Pen.

In partnership with Avid, we invited members of the University of Southern California to explore the possibilities of Sibelius and Surface for creating, teaching, and learning. Check out this video to learn more about their experience.

Purchase the new Sibelius or download a trial on your Surface today.



It’s inspiring for us to see what Musicians are creating with Surface and we’re even more inspired by the new creative possibilities Bitwig, StaffPad, and Avid will enable for Musicians on Surface that we haven’t even discovered yet.

I can’t wait to see what you create with Bitwig, StaffPad, and Avid on your Surface. Share your creations with me @stpitts.

Stuart Pitts – Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Surface

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