Story Index for Articles, Interviews, News and Reviews
COLUMN: Proving once more that bigger does not mean better, the 50th Grammy Awards event was bombastic, bumbling and bloated. Scott G watched and would have been appalled if he wasn’t so bored.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — JSM Music, Inc., the largest commercial music production company in America, scored a major touch down at the Super Bowl having provided music for one of the top ad-spots during the game. JSM’s music was featured on Pepsi’s “Magnetic Attraction” advertisement which showcased the musical and acting talents of superstar performer Justin Timberlake.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Rebelling against the current downturn for traditional record companies, Chris Honetschlaeger, President of BETA Records, has announced a new generation of record deal which partners the company with the artist in a non-exclusive three song contract and plans to sign 100 artists in 2008.
BERLIN and LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Native Instruments this week announced an upcoming expansion of its recently established KORE SOUNDPACK line, with four additional high-quality libraries scheduled for release in March. The new sound packs will offer a wide selection of inspiring, production-ready sound material for various musical applications and styles, ranging from state-of-the-art synthesizer sounds to highly authentic horns and versatile acoustic drums.
HIGH WYCOMBE, UK — Novation has announced the worldwide launch of Nocturn, their latest MIDI controller. Novation’s most affordable hardware controller to date, Nocturn promises to unleash the full potential of all your favourite instrument and effect plug-ins. Featuring the latest Automap Universal 2.0 software, exclusive to Novation controllers, Nocturn provides automatic, instant and intelligent control of all automatable plug-ins within every major sequencer, including Pro Tools.
Cakewalk, maker of leading DAW application SONAR, has announced an expansion of their strategic relationship with Roland. According to the company, this is the natural progression of a relationship that goes back more than a decade. In 1995 Roland began distributing Cakewalk products in Japan.
ANAHIEM, Calif. — WINTER NAMM 2008 — Cakewalk, the world’s leading developer of powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording, today announces The Minimoog Tribute Expansion Pack for Rapture and Rapture LE. Created by Craig Anderton, the Minimoog Tribute Expansion Pack pays tribute to Bob Moog’s legacy and pioneering work in the field of music synthesis.
ADELAIDE, Australia — Crysonic have announced their first new product of the year, CryCoder Vocoder, to be released this month including the availability of free Mac OS AU/VST versions of SINDO V1.0 and Spectra C1 for previous license holders.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Latin Thug Records presents the debut album from ground-breaking artist SOLOW13. The album will be available in stores and online February 26, 2008. Produced by SOLOW13 and Aaron (T-Bone) Boatright, the project represents a lifetime of work and experiences from this breaking talent. Legendary mastering engineer Brian “Big Bass” Gardner (Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Linkin Park, Madonna) mastered the project to create what will surely become a classic, iconic album.
ONTARIO, Canada — ASK Video Interactive Media, a leading creator of software tutorials on DVD, is now shipping a new DVD Video Tutorial featuring over five hours of instruction on Propellerhead’s Reason version 4.
PFINZTAL, Germany — VirSyn announced today the release of MATRIX – The Voice Coder, “The Vocoder for the 21st century.” MATRIX sets a new milestone in the long history of Vocoders started by Homer Dudley in 1936. This new application provides precise analog modelling 8-pole filters and extremely fast envelope followers for unprecedented resynthesis quality.
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The newly built church was filled to its capacity of 1500 seats; people were seated in the aisles, standing in the doorways, and waiting in the hallway to hear the music. Traffic around the church was snarled and backed up for six blocks, as more people continued to make their way to hear Trombone Shorty, and his musical guests perform at a free Christmas concert at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans this past week, it was announced today by New Orleans Music Hall of Fame.
LONDON, U.K. — FXpansion Audio UK Ltd. announced today the availability of the new BFD version 2. BFD2 is the most powerful acoustic drum production workstation ever. New features include 10 full kits, extra snares, cymbals, and more; added detail – Multiple mic positions, expressive articulations, up to 96 velocity layers.
BOSTON, Mass. — Jacob Hill, a 24-year-old songwriter, musician, and model from Plymouth, Massachusetts, will represent the United States in the second Mister International pageant to be held in Kuching, Malaysia from December 20 to 31. In May 2006, Hill was hand-selected by Critical Beauty, a pageant website and pageant consulting firm based in Boston, via an online casting.
BERLIN, Germany — Native Instruments today announced that a demo version of KONTAKT 3, the latest version of its industry-leading software sampler, is now available. With its powerful high-resolution audio engine, comprehensive sound shaping capabilities, unique KSP script programming, and universal sample format compatibility, KONTAKT has established the cutting edge of sampling technology for music production, live performance and sound design.
ONTARIO, Canada — ASK Video Interactive Media, a leading creator of software tutorials on DVD, is now shipping the Cubase 4 Level 2 Training Course on DVD, the second DVD in a three part series. ASK Video Founder and former Steinberg Product Specialist Steve Kostrey is back in Cubase 4 Level 2 to cover everything from Advanced Editing, Advanced Mixing, Scoring, and Video to complete audio file management.
PARIS, France — The E2Deesser features Eiosis’ patented, exclusive processing structure and algorithm to bring you a new approach to de-essing. It allows the independent processing of sibilants inside vocal tracks in an extremely easy to use and efficient manner.
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Yamaha Corporation of America has released new drivers and firmware updates for their GO46 Mobile FireWire Audio Interface, MOTIF XS Synthesizer Workstation, and n Series FireWire Digital Mixing Studios.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — NOTION Music, Inc., creators of NOTION music composition and performance software, has kicked off the second annual Realize Music Challenge. Again this year, composers from around the world will submit an orchestral piece completed in NOTION software for a chance to win a recording session with the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
COLUMN: Going behind the scenes and inside the shenanigans, Scott G peers through the smoke and tries to avoid the noise as he accompanies Giannetta Marconi to the Los Angeles Music Awards.
MEYLAN, France — Version 2 of Analog Factory is now shippping from Arturia. Registered users of 1.0 can download this upgrade for free. With 3500 presets, improved management of the effects and up-to-date compatibility with all sequencers, Analog Factory 2.0 is the instrument of choice when quality sounds must be accessible through a simple workflow.
BERLIN, Germany — Native Instruments and legendary hip hop artist Grandmaster Flash just announced a collaboration based on Flash’s recent decision to switch to TRAKTOR SCRATCH, finally making the move to a digital DJ system after three decades of pioneering vinyl DJing.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Voice Coaches, a voice over educational institution based in Schenectady, NY, has implemented a perfect way for their graduates to start their voice acting careers off by partnering with Voices.com, the industry’s online marketplace. Already trained and armed with a voice over demo, the grads from Voice Coaches will be able to manage their own website at Voices.com.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Rap icon B Real of Cypress Hill brings the heat just in time to melt away those holiday blues with the release of his eagerly anticipated new mixtape, The Gunslinger 3: For A Few Dollars More on Latin Thug Records, available in stores and online December 11 across the USA.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Nearly one hundred celebrities powered up and showed their support over two days for the fight against autism by signing a special edition BugE Personal EV Transport. The vehicle, built especially by Harvey Coachworks of Knoxville, MD., will be offered for auction on eBay.com from Dec 10th to Dec 20th to benefit Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against autism.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — AccessMusicNetwork.com announced today a new and innovative Internet Radio software product being provided as a packaged toolkit for the Entertainment and Leisure marketplace. The company’s Internet Radio Station Toolkit for professionals is being introduced with several listening audiences and demographics in mind including women, teenagers, and seniors.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Georg van Handel (CEO) and Chris Honetschlaeger (President) of BETA Records, LLC, announced today that they will partner with Audiobaba to match mainstream artist searches to unsigned artists. Using their proprietary acoustic fingerprinting technology.
BERLIN, Germany — Native Instruments and Beatport recently unveiled Beatport SYNC, a free music playback application for Mac and Windows that provides a unique feature set for modern listening habits. Based on the groundbreaking TRAKTOR DJ software, Beatport SYNC combines powerful music management capabilities with basic DJ mixing functions.
BERLIN, Germany — Native Instruments just announced KORESOUND PACKS, a new line of affordable high-quality sound packs for use in KORE 2, the innovative instrument host system. KORESOUND PACKS are carefully engineered sound collections that allow musicians of various genres to selectively expand the sonic scope of KORE 2.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — BETA Records LLC, in anticipation of their upcoming release of Version 3 of their online music social community, has created a technological innovation that could ultimately allow websites to become more dynamic, creative and sophisticated while enabling companies to cut costs and reduce loads on servers needed in large-scale clusters.
COLUMN: Like everyone who loves music, Scott G has noticed the ad world’s insistence on borrowing old songs to set the mood for commercials. Is it because they’re too lame to come up with original music? And how much does it hurt the music business?
PFINZTAL, Germany — Return to Analog. VTAPE is a set of two plug-ins based on a thorough simulation of the famous sound of analog tape machines. VTAPE Saturator simulates the recording and playback on an analog tape mastering machine.
CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. — CME is now shipping their new M-Key portable MIDI controller in the US. M-Key is a 49-key MIDI keyboard featuring an ultra-thin, full-action semi-weighted keyboard, a joystick control, a mobile phone sound module, trigger pad, knob controller, U-CTRL and speaker.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Killian Wells, an up-and-coming young pop singer, songwriter and producer, has allegedly become the target of a stalker from British Columbia, Canada, according to his label Inferno Records. Wells claims the overly zealous fan has e-mailed and made multiple phone calls to his Manhattan recording studio posing as a DJ from a phony radio station in an attempt to obtain unreleased tracks and to set up an interview. As a result, Wells has changed his phone number.
RECIFE, Brazil — D’Accord Music Software, the Brazilian leader in music software, announces a new version of its award-winning software – iChords – that recognizes and presents chords from any MP3, WMA files or CDs. By using iChords 2.0, the new version, musicians can learn how to play any song on keyboard or guitar. It also exports song videos to iPods(TM) and mobile phones.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Former TV anchor, author, and celebrity presenter Kelly Lange will give the Best Pop Campaign Award to Dee Dee Phelps for her 2007 promotion of “Vinyl Highway, Singing as Dick and Dee Dee” (ISBN: 978-1-934321-75-1). The award will be presented at the 13th annual Book Publicists of Southern California Awards Dinner.
OAKLAND, Calif. — AMP Cosmetics has launched a new line of cosmetics that rock. The products are dedicated to women who not only changed the sound, but the look of rock and roll. The team of experts at AMP Cosmetics has assembled a collection of high-quality products in some of the most vivid and bold colors available today.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — As an international distributor of electronic musical instruments during the 1990s, Geoff Farr frequently spent long nights in European hotel rooms watching the only television programs that required no translation: short experimental videos backed with electronic music scores. Farr says German television was an especially rich medium for an American insomniac interested in creative new videos.
MEYLAN, France — Based on the much-acclaimed Analog Factory 2.0, a software instrument offering 3500 legendary synthesizer sounds, Analog Factory Experience includes a high quality 32-key, custom-made, MIDI keyboard. Musicians just need to plug in the keyboard via USB and launch the software. From there they can put their mouse away, everything is easily controllable from the keyboard.
INTERVIEW: Managing at least 5 interlocking careers, Los Angeles-based Sheena Metal maintains a wickedly funny view of her life on the radio, on stage, and behind-the-scenes in the swirling worlds of music, movies and TV. The first time I saw Sheena Metal perform was in a real dive. Let’s call it Magee’s. It was popular […]
MODENA, Italy — IK Multimedia is pleased to announce that SampleMoog(TM), the Moog(TM) Synth Anthology Virtual Instrument, a cooperation between IK Multimedia, Moog Music(R) and Sonic Reality, is now shipping. SampleMoog(TM) includes the sounds of all the most sought-after Moog synthesizers spanning the entire Moog history, in an easy-to-use, sample-based virtual instrument “powered by SampleTank.”
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — International Productions, a Los Angeles based company, today announced that baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky will perform one live concert on the stage of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on November 11, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. Accompanied by conductor Constantine Orbelian and the Russian Chamber Orchestra.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Georg van Handel (CEO) and Chris Honetschlaeger (President) with BETA Records, LLC, announced today that they will partner with Limelight Networks to allow users to stream and download songs and videos at lightning speeds. Using their reliable network to distribute content globally, music fans will enjoy a high-quality rich media experience.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — With a new genre of music called axuality, guitarist Brian Butler is composing and performing music with a lofty goal: to improve listeners’ mental outlook while enjoying cool, unique guitar playing. Whether performing live or when recording his just-released album, also entitled “Axuality,” Brian Butler improvises layers of sounds in order to emphasize the purity of the creative process.
HAMBURG, Germany — Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH is proud to announce a new version of its award-winning Nuendo audio production environment. Nuendo 4 offers a range of new features and technologies dedicated to mixers, engineers and editors in post production, studio recording and live recording.
BOSTON, Mass. — Take a fresh look at your evolving music creation and production needs, and turn to SONAR 7 Producer Edition, the technology leading digital audio workstation. SONAR offers a remarkable experience that excels at every step of your production – from its inspiring, open and customizable environment, to intuitive music creation and editing tools, to polished mixing, editing and delivery – with the recognized best audio quality in the industry.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Korg is pleased to announce the release of system version 1.3 for Korg’s flagship OASYS synthesizer, delivering the next level of the sound-creating and performance potential of this acclaimed instrument. In addition to new features and enhancements, version 1.3 includes a new version of KARMA (2.1), and makes available two more optional expansions: the MOD-7 Waveshaping VPM Synthesizer, and the EXs-3 Brass & Woodwinds Expansion sample library.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP) recently announced their seminar line-up for September and October, 2007, which includes “Art of the Music Deal” (with music biz attorneys Todd Cooper and Dina Lapolt), and “Producing Hit Songs” (with Tena Clark).
GRENOBLE, France — Arturia announced today that they will soon publish a major upgrade to Analog Factory, to be called Analog Factory 2.0, and which will be free to curreny registered users. Most notable is inclusion of Jupiter-8V presets and nearly twice the sound “patches.”
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH is pleased to announce that Groove Agent 3 is now shipping to resellers in the US though Yamaha Corporation of America. Groove Agent 3 provides new virtual drummer modules, drum kits and a range of other features to provide a complete and unique virtual drumming solution within one VST instrument.