Draft:Mastering Music Online

Datasonics
Company typePrivate
IndustryMusic, education
FoundedMay 19, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-05-19)
FoundersLionel Murray
Headquarters
Key people
Lionel Murray (CEO), Michael Parker (CTO)
OwnerDatasonics
Websitedatasonics.com.au

Mastering Music Online is a full online music education suite developed by Datasonics that provides 400+ lessons aligned to the K-12 curriculum covering performing, composing, publishing and musicianship. This suite also includes an online recording studio for composing, film scoring and publishing your own work including sync to Youtube videos. All of the performing, composing and publishing lessons use this online recording studio to complete them and the musicianship lessons cover ear training and music theory with narrated text catering for poor readers and partially sighted users. This education suite runs in the browser with nothing to install and the online recording studio can record from a MIDI keyboard in real-time running in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. It uses single sign on from Google or Microsoft with all work stored in the cloud on your Google/One Drive.

History

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It all started in 1988 when Datasol Pty Ltd (t/a Datasonics) [1] received an Australian Government grant to create innovative music software that would allow users to compose and notate their music in real-time from a MIDI keyboard. This dream was realized in 1992 when Music Master™ was released as a DOS application and later re-developed under Microsoft Windows. Because of the slow speed of computers, it was coupled with a hardware box that was either 1 MIDI in/out or 2 MIDI In/4 MIDI Out for professional musicians working in a studio environment.

Music Master™ was quickly adopted by teachers because of the unique tight coupling of the MIDI events to the notation symbols for fast and accurate song composition. This provided a good experience to students leading to only one version of the song to both play and print. However, these teachers faced several challenges, including limited time for lesson preparation, the need to meet individual student needs, and a requirement for user-friendly tools that aligned to the curriculum.

Browser-based music lessons based on the music curriculum were developed with music teacher involvement that linked directly to Music Master™ and this was released as Mastering Music™ in the early 2000s. This provided a good framework for increased musical knowledge coupled with the freedom to generate creative ideas when Music Master™ was used in stand-alone mode for student compositions.

As technology advanced, laptops replaced computer labs and installed music software became a nightmare for music teachers and IT staff as not all music software is compatible with all platforms and Chromebooks in schools do not allow easy installation of software. Datasonics realised this and started re-developing Mastering Music™ to totally work in the browser so that it could work on all devices with nothing to install. This resulted in Mastering Music Online being released in mid 2020 during the COVID pandemic that provided a good tool for schools needing to find online solutions for all subjects.

Mastering Music Online

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Mastering Music Online
Developer(s)Datasonics
Initial release2020; 4 years ago (2020)
Written inHTML5, JQuery, PHP, MySQL
Operating systemmacOS, Windows, ChromeOS, Linux, iOS
Available in1 languages
List of languages
English
Websitemasteringmusic.online

Mastering Music Online is available in two options: Mastering Music Online for Education, and Mastering Music Online for Families.

Mastering Music Online for Education

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Mastering Music Online is fully compatible with Google Classroom and many LMS such as Canvas. With nothing to install it is ideal for Chromebooks. [2] Each performing, composing and publishing studio lesson contains a rubric that indicates how it will be marked. Teachers can edit all the studio lessons and drop in their own songs and edit any of the aural lessons on intervals, scales, chords and cadences to meet their requirements. All the theory lessons contain narrated text to cater for poor readers and partially sighted students. There is a suggested lesson plan for each year level and teachers can also create custom lesson plans and assign these to their classes.

Mastering Music Online for Families

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The family option provides for up to 4 family members from one registration. The parent can view their children's work and results. There is a suggested lesson plan for each year level and parents can also create custom lesson plans for each of their children. Plus each family member can use the online recording studio for composing, arranging and publishing.

  1. ^ "Australian Securities and Investment Commission Company Search". May 19, 1988.
  2. ^ Kuzmich, Dr. John (December 9, 2022). "MIDI – The Music Education Tool K-12 Can't Live Without: New Benchmarks for Chromebooks".