I met with Dave Chaimson of Sony Media Software this morning. In a private room off the show floor, Sony Media Software (known best for Acid Pro audio and Vegas video editing software) had set up a demo suite for its brand new sountrack creation program, Cinescore. The idea of the software is to allow editors to create royalty-free music beds quickly and efficiently.

Cinescore ships with 20 “themes,” which are broken down into 20 variations each, and each variation includes several songs. Each song is broken down into structural elements such as verse, chorus, interlude, etc. These and other elements (like intensity and instrument arrangement) can be dialed up and down. So an interlude can be extended to match up to video (which is displayed on the Cinescore interface as a non-editable timeline), which then dials down the chorus and verse to fit the desired segment length.

The Control key can be held to time-extend a segment (changes tempo, not pitch). Songs that overlap in a timeline auto-generate a cross-fade.

In addition the software ships with a variety of stingers and sound effects, which can be placed on an audio track separate from that of the main music. Cinescore is designed for podcasts, but there are a few features that will especially interest video producers. One is the insertion of “hint markers,” which would correspond to a video event that requires a change in intensity on the audio track.

If you’re thinking SmartSound Sonicfire Pro has new competition, you’re probably right…