Put a DJ in da House (Next to the Christmas Tree)

Do you know someone with tons of music, opinions on how it should be listened to, and with a desire to share their music with others? It might be time to give them the opportunity to become a disc jockey.

At first thought, it sounds expensive. Think of all the records, the turntables, the earth-moving speakers, the disco ball—then calm down. You don't need any of these to get started! All that you need is Zulu DJ software, and your existing music collection. Designed for beginners and professionals alike, Zulu gives any DJ-in-training the tools to start out with a basic setup and will grow with them as they begin to buy and use all that hefty equipment later on.

Beginners can practice transitioning between songs loaded on virtual decks, and with automatic beat detection, cross-fading, live effects, and synchronization between tracks, Zulu will make any DJ newbie sound like they know what they are doing. Soon, they'll be cueing up the next track and applying effects on the fly for a completely customized music experience.

Zulu also works great as an auto-DJ for those who want control over the music without the maintenance. Simply pre-load a playlist into the program, and Zulu will keep the music coming all night long, with seamless transitions between each track so you'll never hear a pause in the music at your holiday parties or upcoming New Year celebrations.

So if you're struggling with those last-minute gifts, consider Zulu for the music lover on your list. Then throw a party and put them in charge of the tunes!

Give A Gift of Memories

If you are looking for a really special gift idea, why not give new life to your home movies? Whether they are on VHS cassettes or just taking up disk space, you can easily edit them together and create a memorable home movie DVD for a truly priceless gift to give your loved ones.

First, collect together all of the home videos you want to use. If you have any old analog home movies stored on an old camcorder or VHS tapes you can use a Golden Videos VHS to DVD Converter with a video capture device to connect your camcorder or VCR to your computer and digitize your home movies in no time.

When you have all your video clips collected you are ready to start editing with a quick and easy video editing program like VideoPad. Trim down clips, arrange on the timeline and select transitions. Add a soundtrack or record your own narration to share your memories about the recorded events. VideoPad also has a video stabilization feature to help clean up shaky video if your hand wasn't very steady when you were recording. And for a little extra emphasis you can even adjust the speed of video clips to add in an instant replay of that first home run or other momentous event. VideoPad is very user friendly so editing your home movies really only takes a little time and a little creativity.

Once your editing is complete you are ready to package everything together. Give your video the finishing touch by burning to DVD and adding a custom DVD label for a polished and professional looking final product.

See our software gift ideas page for more ideas on software programs to give, or other ways to add a little personal flare to your gifts.

Holiday Photo Creativity

It’s the holiday season again, which means it’s time for family, food and photos. What should one do with the boundless amounts of photographs taken at this time of year? You should share them – and this year instead of making a resolution to send out a custom scrapbook to each family member (a goal most of us can never keep), I’m going to create a custom slideshow to send to the whole family.

It’s quick and simple with PhotoStage Slideshow Software. You can easily combine pictures with video clips and add sound or narration for a more festive slideshow. What better way to show off baby’s first Christmas than to give a play-by-play with sequence shots or add your favorite holiday tunes and videos? If you’re anything like me, you print your photos and stack them in a dusty box in some remote location, where no will actually see them – this year I’m going to make a captivating visual experience with them instead.

PhotoStage comes equipped with an array of transition effects so you can make every slideshow a unique event to be shared. You can edit your photos from right within the program, giving you complete control of the outcome.

My favorite part is being able to share my slideshows on my iPhone so I can look at them on-the-go! Making video slideshows really is worlds better than leaving holiday photos in a dusty box to never be seen again.

More Transitions and Other VideoPad Video Editing Improvements

The latest release of VideoPad video editor is making it even easier to do more with your video files. Version 2.20 was a significant and exciting release, adding even more of the features you've been asking for. If you have used VideoPad before, you will notice that the main screen has tabs for easier access to the additional transitions and effects that we have added. Now you can make your clip look like it has an old film quality, transition between clips with a wipe or a page curl, and play around with the numerous other transitions and effects for a video that’s all your own.

VideoPad also features a new overlay track that will allow you to extend the same text over one or more video clips, with options for making things like scrolling credits a breeze. VideoPad fans won't want to miss these improvements, and people new to video editing will be amazed at how easy making movies can be. Be sure to keeping feeding us your comments and suggestions on all of our software products so we can tailor them to better suit your needs.

Announcing Verity Parental Control Software

This week we added a brand new program to our ever-growing range of software, this time a little something for the family. Verity Parental Control Software is now available and completely free, giving parents more confidence and peace of mind. By monitoring a child's computer activity both online and off parents can rest easy that they can always look back at what their kids are doing on the computer without needing to hover and watch over their shoulder.

After a quick setup, Verity will begin logging the programs being used and the websites visited. Activity is tracked by user, program, keystrokes, mouse clicks, and screenshots and can be monitored through a password-protected web interface. Additional parental controls allow you to block specific websites and applications.

So if you are looking for a quick and easy way to track computer activity in your household you should give Verity a try, and be sure to let us know what you think.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival December 6, 2010

Audio is everywhere you look, or listen. Add a little time a dash of creativity and you will be surprised at what you can find out there to listen to. Take for example the discovery that you can get the Google translate tool to sound like a beat box. But be warned playing around with the different language combinations will suck away a chunk of your day before you know what happened.

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:


Nils J. Sandback presents Piano Humour: A Victor Borge Tribute posted at Piano Street's Classical Piano Blog, saying, "A tribute to the Danish pianist and humorist Victor Borge."

Bart Bryars presents First Time Success Making A Music Video, saying, "This is my first video, and the opening number the musical, Joey, that my wife and I have been working on."

Gregg Fine presents Getting Started in Advertising Music-The Video Reel Pt. 1 posted at Hidden Tiger Music Blog, saying, "This blog focuses on the art and craft of making music for advertising and television commercials. Additional topics include mixing, recording, audio engineering, composing, arranging."

You might also be interested in:

• Boost Audio Quality for Radio and Podcast Production
  
• Make your own haunting halloween soundtrack
  
• More awards for NCH Software including a new award for the audio editing favorite WavePad
  
• Showing that Good Things Do Come in Small Packages since the last edition we announced the WavePad Audio Editing iPhone App, and have had a stellar user review
  

That concludes this edition of "Do more with audio." Be sure to Submit your audio article, story or success to the next edition.

Software-Buying Decisions

This article on Organic Search Driving Software-Buying Decisions caught my eye since I have a continuing interest in Software Buying Trends. Some of the key findings from the research done by iPrsopect in their study on the effects of organic search, paid search and online display advertising were:

• 37% increased likelihood of visiting a website
  
• 30% increased likelihood of purchasing a software product
  
• 14% lift in brand recall with exposures to both organic and paid search results
  
• No change was seen in brand favorability based on organic results
  

Familiarity with a brand name has long been looked as important when making purchasing decisions. People tend to select things they are more familiar with, associating familiarity with reliability, so I have to agree that it is interesting that increased exposure didn't seem to have any impact on brand favorability. For a closer look at the research and findings see the full report on iProspect,Real Branding Implications of Digital Media - an SEM, SEO, & Online Display Advertising Study .