Michael Cochrane

“...indispensable for the working musician, the teacher and the music student”

Customer Experience

Michael Cochrane hails from Peekskill, New York, a little town about fifty miles north of New York City. The way to go for the musically gifted Cochrane growing up during the fifties was to start piano lessons at the age of eight. “I think that by the time I was thirteen,” he remembers, “I could play Beethoven’s ‘Sonata Pathetique,’ which I actually performed at one of my teacher’s recitals.”

By his third year in school, the jazz bug had bitten and there was no doubt what direction the college junior would pursue the rest of his life. Cochrane eventually switched majors and graduated with a degree in psychology. By then he was gigging around the Boston area and had become a regular on the local jazz scene. He stayed on in Boston for another four years before making the inevitable move to New York City. The relocation coincided with the beginning of a long association with trumpeter Hannibal Marvin Peterson.

During the next seven years, the New York pianist traveled the world with the Peterson band. They eventually recorded “One With the Wind” for Muse Records.

The years have seen Cochrane’s artistry more in demand. Despite his grueling schedule, he launched “Lines=of=Reason,” performing with his comrades in a close knit, long-term situation.

These days, Michael Cochrane is a busy man. Completing his eighth CD as a leader on the Steeplechase label, the pianist/composer shuttles between Europe and the U.S. with “The Spirit of Life Ensemble.” I am a jazz pianist/teacher living in the tri-state area. I own one of the earlier products from Superscope Technologies. It was a CD player that allowed you to slow down the tempo of tracks without changing the pitch. I found this feature, as well as the others that it offered, to be very useful.

I was thinking of upgrading to one of their more advanced models until I heard about the new Elevation Software.

I was thinking of purchasing a new Mac laptop and when I did I decided to download the Elevation software trial version and check it out. It truly exceeded my expectations.

First of all it had a very simple interface with easy to use virtual knobs and sliders. It made my work very enjoyable and productive. I would like to describe some of my work and how this software was a perfect fit for me.

As a player I am constantly involved with learning new material. In my practice sessions I like to work with the Jamey Aebersold play-a-long recordings. This software allows you to import tracks from these CDs or any CDs into the program. From there you can play along with the tracks. You are able to slow the tempos down, change the key. I am a pianist, so I can also take the original piano track out. Elevation has a recording feature that mixes your track with the play-a-long track.

This is very useful for a player. I think my recording studio chops have improved a great deal using this software. When you are finished doing takes, you can save them. You are then able to develop playlist from these takes and then later burn a CD. This feature is extremely useful. As I mentioned earlier the software allows you to change the tempo of a track without changing the pitch. I use this feature for transcribing solos. You can also create loops and work on a specific section. This makes doing transcriptions so much easier.

As a teacher I also find Elevation to be very useful. I am able to develop playlist for my students. In this way I can give them a CD of the tunes that they are working on for the week. They can take the CD home and practice. I can also burn a CD of my playing the tunes which gives them something to compare their work to. Because you can change the key of the track, I am able to develop practice CDs for them to work on transposing. In fact, there are endless possibilities available for me as a teacher to develop a workload to help my students progress

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