Eric "El Cubanito" Freeman has been a good friend of mine since I started Salsa dancing.   Back in '99, we co-produced the "Cool Moves Revealed" salsa dance video, which gained a worldwide audience and helped launch our respective video-making careers. 

Since then, Eric has put out 10 more DVD's, and I've produced countless more.   Every time we get together I'm always anxious to ask Eric what his latest video project is.   But the last time we talked, he said, "actually, Edie, I'm not working on a video right now, I've got something even better."  "Better?" I asked.  "What are you talking about?" "ReplayerStudio -- it's a software program I created that will dramatically improve your ability to learn from all the video you've already collected ..." Well, I knew Eric used to be a full-time computer programmer, but thought he did nothing but dance and teach salsa for the last several years.   So his response caught my curiosity.  I downloaded a copy of his program, and began checking it out ...

Previously, I had used a VCR, then a DVD player, and occasionally a computer media player, such as Windows Media Player, to watch dance videos.  I would study dance by watching old swing, ballroom, and tango videos.  Each time I saw a move I wanted to learn, I'd rewind my tape, and play it over again -- and again, and again.  There were a couple of problems, though. 

In the past, when I used to hit the rewind button

I always had a hard time finding the beginning of the move I wanted to replay.  

Then I couldn't get the move to play at the appropriate speed.  I needed a slower playback speed, but the VCRs and DVD players I used offered only "too slow" or just regular speed.  It was frustrating, but I'd stick with it and eventually learn the move, mostly because I had no other option.  Oh, and the other big problem -- I'd watch a hour-long video straight through with no dance partner within reach.  I'd see tons of cool moves and styling that I'd want to learn.  Then, when a dance partner was around, I'd pop the tape or DVD back in, and then try to find all those moves again. 

By the time I managed to locate these cool moves,
my dance partner was out cold snoozing on the couch!

After checking out Eric's program,
I was SHOCKED AND AMAZED that his software solved ALL those problems. 

Eric has truly created an amazing system for me to not only study all that dance footage I've collected over the years, but to even catalog it as well! You're going to have to check this program out for yourself, because there's not enough room in this article to describe all the cool features it offers.  But believe me when I say that the old annoyance of having to find the beginning of a dance move using a clumsy rewind button is gone! And the problems with going back and finding the really interesting parts of an hour-long video tape I've already watched? Out the window!

This program does a lot, but here's what it does that will really make my salsa dancing life easier:

1.  There is a button that allows you to jump back exactly three seconds (or two or four or whatever you want -- you can set it).  Now, I just hit that button and I'm instantly seeing the move start over again.  This does not exist on a DVD player, or even on Windows Media Player.  In fact, on Windows Media Player, trying to jump back to the beginning of a move in a long video clip is so complicated it's not even worth the trouble!

2.  If I really want to study a move, then I just hit a couple of buttons and Eric's program automatically remembers the start time and end time of the move.  Then I can use the program's nifty "loop mode," which makes just that section of the video clip I want to learn play over and over again! The software also has frame-by-frame, and slow motion at speeds like 50%, 60%, 70%, etc.  of regular speed.  Sometimes I can't follow a move at full speed, I just need it slowed down a little bit -- but not so much that the flow of the move is lost.  ReplayerStudio allows me to set playback to 80% of full speed.  The dancers still appear with their natural flow, but the action is slowed down just enough so my brain can keep up with what they're doing.

Every dancer who’s played with this program extensively never goes back to using a DVD player, Windows Media Player or any other computer media player
-- those programs were designed to watch movies not dance clips.

3.  Here's the best part: Say my dance partner isn't around and instead I want to come back and learn the moves later.  Now,

I no longer have to remember or even write down where in the video the move is. 

Instead, I just take that loop I've set and press this button called "add bookmark", type in a name for the move, and the program marks the move in a special built-in database which Eric calls a "video catalog." What this means is that I can watch an entire dance video, from start to finish, telling the program to remember and label any clip I want.  I never have to fumble with finding a 15-second clip in an hour-long video again! Then, when I've got my man handy, I just open the video catalog I made previously, and play any move I want at the press of a button.

Software media players don't allow you do these things.  Eric seems to have created something unique and it's ideally suited for helping me learn new dance moves.  The only catch is that Eric's software doesn't read DVD's directly.  It works best with digitally encoded video and audio files.  So if you have a DVD, you'll have to rip the video and audio to your hard-drive first.  But uploading video you've recorded with your own camera works great, and the program works well with most video clips downloaded from the Internet as well.

Another feature that's really beneficial is the program's "BeatCounter." This feature alone makes ReplayerStudio worth purchasing , and may finally be the solution for helping my students who have trouble hearing the beat in salsa music.  The "BeatCounter" allows you to play a song, any song, and tap in the beat manually as it plays.  ReplayerStudio remembers all of your keystrokes, and the next time you play the video you can make it mark the count both by "beeping" and by displaying on the screen! There are lots of options, but what I do is just play the song, tap a key "on 1" and "on 5," and then tell the software to play back all eight beats -- or any combination of them.  Personally, I like setting it to "123-567-," which matches the beats when students should be stepping to the music.  At the moment, Eric also offers a best-hits salsa CD with all the beats already programmed in.  You can order this CD from him and he'll send it to you, along with the BeatCounter feature pre-programmed to display the count for all the songs, both audibly and numerically.  If my students take this home and really listen to it, I expect that they'd rapidly improve their ability to dance on-beat!

You can tap out the beat for video as well.  Then, when playing back the video, the count appears.  This may not sound like such a big deal, but remember that most of the time people learn dance moves at slow speed!  This Beat Counter feature actually remembers the beat and displays it as you advance the video frame-by-frame.  Without this feature, I'm always guessing what beat the dancers are on.  With it, there's no need for guesswork.  And finally there's one other really nice feature Eric included -- something that I never thought would be possible and that may have choreographers salivating -- the ability to advance or rewind through a move or routine beat-by-beat or measure-by-measure!

Just imagine -- you can now instantly back up to the exact beginning of a move by pressing the "back measure" button a few times, and, you can step forward through a combination exactly one beat at a time by pressing the "forward beat" button repeatedly.

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REPLAYERSTUDIO revolutionizes the way you view and analyze your DVDs, films,
and old videos!!! 

Click Below for Details!!!

RePlayerStudio!! Article By Edie, The Salsa FREAK                       Website:  http://ReplayerStudio.com                                                                            Email: Eric@SalsaVille.com     Legendary Salsero "Eric Freeman" Invented a Video Player on STEROIDS!! A Brand New Way to Review ANY Recorded Footage!!!