Today's Top Stories:

  Updates and Upgrades
Native Instruments has just announced the release of TRAKTOR 3.4 and TRAKTOR SCRATCH 1.3, both of which are free software updates that provide refined functionality. In their latest versions, both TRAKTOR 3 and TRAKTOR SCRATCH have been upgraded with crucial architectural improvements as well as enhanced time-code and MIDI-control functionality. Each version now offers full Unicode support, allowing for file names and tags in nearly any international script and language, including Japanese, Mandarin, Hebrew, Cyrillic and others. Both versions are also based on a revised high-performance audio engine that offers many functional advantages, including hot-plugging and instant switching for audio interfaces, WASAPI support for Windows Vista, and more. Other noteworthy improvements include increased tracking precision for scratching in relative mode, a new intelligent "Tracking Alert" function that gives early warning for adverse conditions like worn-out needles, enhanced MIDI controller handling, and a large number of detail optimizations and fixes. Both updates are now available as free downloads for all registered owners of TRAKTOR 3 and TRAKTOR SCRATCH, respectively.

Roland has just announced the release of version 1.10, a major system upgrade for their hugely popular Fantom-G series workstations. Aside from adding powerful multi-sampling capability, there's also a new "Favorite Play" screen and a BPM calculator function for samples, as well as new enhancements to Single, Live, and Song modes. Registered owners of Fantom G6, G7 and G8 workstations may download the new operating system from the Roland website free of charge.

  Guitar of the Day
If you're familiar with Paul Reed Smith guitars, you know about their Private Stock instruments. These are one-of-a-kind examples of the company's finest guitars, sometimes mixing and matching specific features from their product line to achieve what may almost appear to be an entirely new instrument. Smith himself says, "Pretty much anything a customer wants, we'll make." According to Joe Knaggs, who runs the Private Stock operation, orders are primarily customer-driven, but PRS takes orders directly from dealers, as well. He estimates that the ratio of hand-work to machine-work on a Private Stock is about 50/50 in the initial stages, though all are hand-finished, and some are hand-made from the ground up. Here at Sweetwater, some Private Stock guitars actually get sold before they ever get to be our Guitar of the Day. Today's example is a Private Stock Custom 24 (#1735) with a stunning quilted maple top, solid mahogany body, an insanely flamed maple neck, Macassar ebony fingerboard and headstock overlay, Lapis lazuli bird inlays with gold outlines, and gold hardware.

Like all Private Stock guitars, this one is crafted from only the absolute finest wood, which is hand-sorted and hand-selected, then set aside to be part of Smith's "private stash" of premium timbers. It is from this stash that all of the wood for any Private Stock comes from. This is applied over a select mahogany body and then given a tight, flame maple neck by the PRS elite craftsmen and luthiers. Like most models in the PRS line, this specific instrument has the trademark PRS "natural binding," where part of the top is left unstained to give the impression of a fully bound top; it really adds a nice contrast to the Indigo stain. It has two coverless Custom 24 PRS humbuckers with the popular 5-way rotary switching and a silky-smooth PRS vibrato tailpiece. The Macassar ebony fingerboard has the trademark PRS birds, but rather than abalone, these inlays are made of semi-precious Lapis lazuli with real gold outlines. Naturally, before it leaves the PRS shop, Paul himself inspects and plays each Private Stock instrument, and it is given both a standard serial number and a Private Stock number, along with a certificate of authenticity. After it's carefully placed in a special presentation case, it's ready to be shipped right to your door, absolutely free via FedEx. Don't let this one slip away!