Sweetwater inSync

Guitar of the Day

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

Wow! Check out what just arrived! If you thought you knew exactly what kind of solidbody guitars Jackson builds, a look at this beauty will be a revelation! Why? Well, first off, the Jackson Solo Custom Koa LTD is a true limited-edition instrument, lovingly crafted by Jackson's Custom Shop! The drop-dead gorgeous bound top is constructed of rare Hawaiian koa - a timber that is only found on the Hawaiian Islands and nowhere else on the planet! So right there, you're off to a great start. But to deliver the aggressive Jackson tone you know and love, there are a pair of premium, high-output, custom-wound Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups installed, so this baby sounds as good as it looks. Just plug it in and stand back! And given how difficult koa is to get these days, we can easily see this being an extremely collectible guitar somewhere down the road! But look closer and you'll see that the "shark's tooth" position markers on the ebony fingerboard are real mother-of-pearl with stunning paua abalone purfling that shine in a veritable rainbow of colors! The Jackson Solo Custom Koa LTD plays like a dream! It has a lightweight alder body (so you can play for hours without fatigue) and a hard rock maple neck with a comfortable, blazing fast profile, so your hand will literally fly up and down the bound fingerboard (which also happens to offer easy access to the uppermost frets for solos)! Of course, you'll want to be able to bend notes (or entire chords) up or down with ease, so Jackson installed a genuine, gold-plated Floyd Rose vibrato bridge/tailpiece combination. There's also a master volume, master tone, and a 3-way pickup selector toggle switch. Down at the other end of the neck, the trademark headstock has a flame maple overlay, a real abalone Jackson logo, and gold-plated tuners with faux pearl buttons. Each of these limited-edition guitars is constructed by hand in the Jackson Custom Shop, and there's no telling when the next one will arrive. If this beauty appeals to you, we'd strongly suggest you contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer about purchasing this one, particularly since you can get no payments and no interest for six months if you put it on your Sweetwater Musician's All-Access Platinum Card! Who knows when the planets will align again for such a killer deal?

New in Stock at Sweetwater

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Bogner Custom Shop Shiva 1x12 Combo with Reverb - Own a great guitar? If so, maybe it's time to consider whether you're getting all the tone it's capable of producing. Designed by Reinhold Bogner, the 80-watt Bogner Shiva 1x12" tube combo guitar amplifier with reverb packs a whole lot of punch into a very portable package that's ready to take up on any stage or into any studio! This puppy sounds absolutely fantastic, with two channels (each with its own reverb control), a tube-buffered effects loop, and global master volume and presence controls. Its EL34 power tubes provide enough British character and midrange detail to cut through any mix. Dial in your two favorite tones and switch between them with the included footswitch, which also lets you access the boost and reverb functions. You won't know just how amazing your axe really sounds until you play it through a Bogner!
Paul Reed Smith Starla - Certain to be an upcoming Guitar of the Day, the Singlecut-inspired Starla is the first solidbody electric guitar from Paul Reed Smith that features an authentic Bigsby B5 tail piece and Grover Tune-o-matic bridge. It sports a solid mahogany body, a 22-fret wide-fat mahogany neck, vintage-style tuners, and specially wound Starla Treble and Bass pickups with proprietary Alnico magnets that give you a clean, crisp tone that explodes into a veritable rainbow of rich harmonic overtones when you drive it hard. There's also a uniquely shaped black pickguard onto which the master volume, master tone, and 3-way pickup selector are mounted. Offered in a variety of colors, its spirit is in line with the extremely popular Mira, but Starla definitely has a personality all its own.
IK Multimedia Total Workstation 2 - This awesome bundle puts five award-winning virtual instrument workstations into your hands, for one seriously low price! There's over 28GB of samples and over 14,000 genre-spanning sounds included, so you won't run out of inspiration. Total Workstation 2 includes SampleTank 2.5 XL, the sample-playing workstation and creativity hub; Miroslav Philharmonik, the IK orchestral and choir workstation; Sonik Synth 2, a powerhouse synth workstation; SampleMoog, a massive Moog synth anthology; and SampleTron, a collection of virtual vintage Mellotrons, Chamberlins, and much more. With the IK Multimedia Total Workstation 2 bundle, you'll experience huge savings. The bundle costs just a fraction of what you'd pay for each virtual instrument individually - plus it arms your studio with all the right sounds to cover virtually any genre imaginable!
Aphex HeadPod 454 - This top-quality headphone monitor amplifier packs a high-quality 4-channel design and unprecedented headroom (no clipping, even at ridiculously high levels) into a very rugged, handy, and portable chassis! The HeadPod 454 includes four independent stereo power amps with ultra-wide frequency response, four individual volume controls, and a master control. It also minimizes ear fatigue, thanks to its open, natural sound. It works incredibly well with all headphone types, making it perfect for home recording and high-end post-production applications alike. When you need to get truly superior sound (and plenty of it) through your headphones no matter what, you can put your trust in the HeadPod 454 to deliver it!

Guitar of the Day

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:03 +0100

If you've been considering the purchase of a bass guitar that clearly has the look and feel of a vintage instrument but the broader sound palette of a modern instrument, please check out the Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass in Vintage White. This bass is the direct descendent of the original dual-pickup Jazz Bass, but with modern active EQ that will inspire any player to custom tweak their own signature bass sound. See, the Deluxe Active Jazz Bass has all the electronics onboard that will allow you to dial in your tone, courtesy of a pair of Dual Coil Ceramic Noiseless Jazz Bass pickups with nickel-plated pole pieces. The active controls let you set the master volume, pan pot, and 3-band EQ. This 3-band EQ comes with a 10dB treble cut or boost at 8kHz, a shift in the cut frequency, and about 2dB slope per octave. The midrange cut or boost allows you to cut by 15dB and boost by 10dB at 500Hz, with a wide-band slope. Finally, you can cut or boost by up to 12dB at 40Hz, with a 4dB slope per octave, for some real room-shaking low frequencies. Vintage White also happens to be one of our favorite colors, because it has the authentic look of a guitar that has been played for many years in smoky clubs and halls. The solid alder body is durable, but also light, so those extended sets won't wear you out anymore. The 20-fret maple neck has a modern C shape with a low-gloss satin polyurethane finish plus a premium rosewood fingerboard. The bridge is a Standard Vintage Style Deluxe Jazz, and the pickup switching is courtesy of a pan pot, which will let you dial in just the right amount of each pickup, rather than just selecting one or the other or both. The scale length is the Fender 34-inch standard, the 4-ply brown tortoiseshell pickguard is the perfect complement for the Vintage White body, and all of the hardware is chrome-plated. The Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass is the perfect combination of vintage looks and modern tone-shaping capabilities, and it ships directly to your door, in a well-padded deluxe Fender gig bag. It even includes free FedEx shipping, so your new bass will arrive both fast and in perfect condition!

Updates and Upgrades

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:02 +0100

Spiral, the far-out sequenced Native Instruments Reaktor synth many saw demonstrated in a YouTube video this past week, is now available free to all registered Reaktor 5 users. Just fire up Service Center and download it! Yup, it's just that easy. Native Instruments has also announced the larger context for Spiral. It's part of a new Soundpack called Animated Circuits, which adapts some of the best sequenced, mutating Reaktor ensembles for use with Kore. Since it's a Soundpack, you don't need either Reaktor or Kore to use it; it'll run easily in Kore Player. That said, you'll miss out on Spiral's absolutely groovy interface - you'll just get the sounds.

Trident Is Back and PMI Audio Has It!

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

After protracted negotiations, PMI Audio has announced its acquisition of the "original" Trident Audio Developments Company which ceased doing business in 2002. PMI has purchased all of the trademark rights, intellectual property rights, and goodwill and assets of Trident Audio Developments from David Stocks. Stocks had acquired the company from Relyon after Malcolm Toft sold it to that company in 1988. Fortunately, the history of Trident Audio Developments is very well documented, including the names of the people behind the company. PMI Audio has asked that users not confuse Trident Audio Developments with some other companies who have sought to use the Trident name. According to PMI, Trident Audio Developments is the original company, and any other company using any intellectual property or trademarks owned by TAD cannot use the name any longer. PMI Audio and Malcolm Toft have plans to bring Trident Audio Developments back to the audio market stronger than ever. Expect to see the first products in the 1st Quarter of 2009.

TC Electronic Brings System 6000 Plug-ins to DAWs

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

TC Electronic has announced a new addition to the PowerCore platform: by combining TC Electronic's System 6000 algorithms with its PowerCore platform, users will now get the ultimate studio tool for their DAWs. PowerCore 6000 will feature eight FreeScale DSP engines, the same DSPs used in TC's System 6000, and it has an SRAM memory design that supports high-performance reverbs and delays. This enables users to run the most revered reverbs and delay algorithms from System 6000 within popular DAWs like Logic Pro, Cubase/Nuendo, Digital Performer, SONAR, Live, as well as with any other VST- and Audio Units-compatible host. With the inclusion of the System 6000 plug-ins, PowerCore 6000 is one of the most powerful mixing and mastering solutions for DAWs available today. It includes seven pristine plug-in algorithms, which are ported 1:1 from System 6000: VSS3 Stereo Source Reverb, Nonlin2, DVR 2 Digital Vintage Reverb, MD3 Stereo Mastering, Brickwall Limiter, UnWrap stereo to 5.1 conversion, and TapFactory. PowerCore 6000 is ideal for high-end production environments where unsurpassed quality and processing capabilities are required. Designed for serious studios and demanding professional applications, PowerCore 6000 is sure to deliver, and it will meet or exceed even the highest expectations of audio pros around the globe. PowerCore 6000 ships with PowerCore software 3.2 and is compatible with the latest Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista 32.

Guitar of the Day

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

Check out today's Guitar of the Day, the Gibson Reverse Flying V Limited Edition! In the 1950s, competing against the modernistic curves of the early Fender solidbodies, Gibson was perceived by some as the old, stodgy guitar builder. So company president Ted McCarty decided, "If they want radical, let's give them radical!" Gibson proceeded to take everything it knew about building great guitars and used that to create three wildly untraditional designs, one of which was the Flying V of 1958. Not surprisingly, early Flying Vs weren't really taken seriously, but after the discovery of just how good a pair of humbuckers could sound when played through an overdriven amp, both originals and reissues from the late '60s suddenly found favor with players. Now, 50 years later, Gibson has taken that design and literally turned it inside out. What's more, the company has decreed that only 300 of these guitars will ever be built! Available in Natural, Classic White, and Ebony, the Reverse Flying V sports a solid mahogany body, a solid mahogany neck with a 1950s rounded profile, a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with classic pearloid dot markers, and a 24-3/4" scale. Just like the original Flying V, this reverse version comes with a pair of hot humbucking pickups, a 3-way toggle switch, and a single master volume control. A Tune-o-matic bridge is standard, but just like the original, there's no stop tailpiece. Rather, there's a special string-through-body "V" tailpiece. The headstock is actually more like the one that first appeared on the '58 Explorer, forming a "V" shape of its own. Green Key machine heads complete the picture, and as befits a limited-edition instrument, all of the hardware is gold-plated. Plus, you're sure to find the recent $600 price drop very attractive! It includes a Custom Shop hardshell case and free FedEx shipping to your door!

New in Stock at Sweetwater

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Dave Smith Instruments Mopho - This killer desktop synth represents the most affordable way to tap into the analog magic of Dave Smith Instruments! (Note: Dave is the man who gave the world the original Sequential Circuits instruments.) The monophonic Mopho (MOnoPHOnic, get it?) measures a mere 7.5"x5", but it sounds a whole lot bigger than that! The 100% analog signal path consists of a pair of oscillators, a classic Curtis filter (switchable to either 2- or 4-pole), plus analog VCAs, three envelope generators, and two sub-octave generators, all of which come together to create a streamlined synth reminiscent of the classic Sequential Prophet line. There's even a full-featured sequencer. Looking for classic analog synth sound on a tight budget? If so, we suggest you check out the Mopho today!
Marshall Lemmy Signature 4x12 - Now you can get massive Motorhead sound from Lemmy's Signature Bass Cabinet! The Marshall MF280L6 4x12" signature bass extension cabinet is built to handle the massive tone unleashed by Motorhead's frontman and bassist Lemmy Kilmister (it has a staggering 280-watt capacity). Built to provide both beefy tone and tight definition, the MF280L6 cab's four 12" speakers are protected by tough individual grilles, while heavy-duty Tolex covers the ruggedly constructed cabinet. You also get quality inset side handles for easy transport. Perfect for use with the 1992LEM signature bass head, this cabinet gives you Lemmy's signature punch, grit, and vibe!
Marshall Lemmy Signature 4x15 - If you thought four 12" speakers moved a lot of air, wait until you pummel yourself - and your audience - with four 15" drivers! The Marshall 1979L6 4x15" signature bass cabinet is built to handle the massive crunchy tone dished out night after night by Motorhead's bassist and frontman Lemmy Kilmister. The beefy 1979L6 cab's four speakers are protected by tough individual grilles, while heavy-duty Tolex covers the ruggedly constructed cabinet. You also get quality inset side handles for easy transport. When a 4x12 just isn't enough, check out the 1979L6!
MakeMusic PrintMusic 2009 - Finale's PrintMusic 2009 lets you create printable scores and play back your work, all in an easy-to-use format. There are a variety of ways available for note entry into PrintMusic 2009. Enter notes with your computer keyboard and/or mouse or play your MIDI keyboard - with or without a click track - and watch your music appear on-screen in real time. You can even use the exclusive and innovative MicNotator to play notes into your microphone using a brass or woodwind instrument. Existing sheet music can be scanned, and PrintMusic 2009 supports the importation of MIDI, MusicXML, SmartScore, or Finale family notation files.
Roland TDW-20 Expansion - The Roland TDW-20 expansion board adds over 300 new sounds and smooth-sounding ambience types to your TD-20 kit! The TDW-20 makes your premium V-Pro kit even more expressive and realistic. This easy-to-install board also offers wider drum dynamics, smoother control on the hi-hat, and enhanced V-Editing, including virtual mic-size and resonance adjustments for the kick drum. From subtle ambience to explosive new sounds, your TD-20 kit will truly come alive when you add the TDW-20!

Guitar of the Day

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:03 +0100

Some of our more alert readers have pointed out that we don't do as many acoustic guitars as we do electrics, and even fewer nylon-string classical guitar models. Well, today we're featuring not one, but two acoustics - and they're nylon-string classicals! We're talking about the GAD-C2 and GAD-C3 Flamenco Negra from Guild, a name you probably normally associate with bigger hollowbody electrics and steel-string acoustics. You might actually be surprised to learn that Guild has actually been building fine-quality, affordable nylon string guitars since 1961 - that's 47 years! So you can bet they've got the process figured out by now. Play one for even a few minutes and you'll be convinced of it! Both models have the Hauser classical body shape, but the GAD-C2 has a Western Red Cedar top, while the GAD-C3 has a solid AAA American Sitka Spruce top. Each has a high-gloss polyurethane protective clearcoat to prevent nicks and scratches (and it also brings out the richness and beauty of the woods). Both have a Natural finish with Guild classical spruce bracing, a one-piece mahogany neck with rosewood insert, and a flat radius 18-fret ebony fingerboard. Both have solid Indian rosewood backs and sides, although the GAD-C3 has an upgrade to AAA-quality rosewood and premium binding front and back. Both also have a solid Indian rosewood bridge with a compensating bone saddle. Guild 3-in-line tuners are standard equipment on both models. But most importantly, these instruments play and sound just like nylon guitars you'd expect to pay at least twice as much for, and both include absolutely free shipping right to your door via FedEx.

New in Stock at Sweetwater

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:02 +0100

Yamaha Tyros3 - Yamaha's flagship arranger keyboard is here and it's brimming with incredibly realistic sounds, robust recording features, premium Auto Accompaniment styles, and performance-enhancing pads and sliders. Plus, Yamaha has added their new Super Articulation 2 voices to the 61-key Tyros3, for an unprecedented level of expression. Designed to be your music-making hub, you can connect a microphone, a video monitor, and a USB storage device and record and mix songs right onboard the keyboard! What's more, you'll enjoy even more creative options and editing abilities when you tie the feature-packed Tyros3 into your computer setup! The Tyros3 features an incredible 1,540 voices, giving you all the sonic tools you need to maximize your creativity.
TEAC FillTune HP-F200 - Based on the latest research into the science of acoustic transmission, the HP-F200 bone-conduction headset allows those with outer-ear hearing problems to listen to speech or music by vibrating bones in the inner ear. The FillTune HP-F200 can be attached to an external microphone, music player, or wireless transmitter for a wide range of listening options. This incredibly effective, foldable headset allows full-bandwidth listening while still letting you pay attention to outside sounds. A 1/8-inch connection allows a wide range of mics, wireless transmitters, and music players to be plugged in. For high-fidelity bone-conduction headphone performance in a comfortable, foldable design, you can't beat the performance you get from the Teac FillTune HP-F200!
Yamaha Pocketrak CX - The Yamaha Pocketrak CX handheld digital recorder doesn't just offer the stunning CD-quality stereo recording capability of its predecessor, the Pocketrak 2G - it also offers enhancements such as improved recording time, a built-in high-sensitivity 90-degree X/Y microphone for natural-sounding stereo recordings, peak limiter, training features, and more. This super-slim (1/2" thick) recorder also includes a built-in preview speaker, USB 2.0 connectivity, 2GB of onboard memory, and it even includes Cubase AI4 production software. A re-chargeable battery built into the compact body allows dozens hours of continuous recording and playback in a variety of different recording formats from CD-quality WAV files to convenient MP3.

Updates and Upgrades

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

Steinberg has announced that the latest update to its Cubase Essential 4 Personal Music Production System is now available. Adding new features, including support for Steinberg's new MR816 CSX/MR816 X and CC121 Advanced Integration hardware products, support for the new VST Sound format and full compatibility with the new Sequel Content Sets, the 4.5 update for Cubase Essential 4 owners is now available. Cubase Essential 4.5 offers enhanced support for the Yamaha MOTIF XS series as well as the KX USB Music Studio series. Cubase Essential 4.5 also introduces VST Sound, a new and improved universal media management format that is a fundamental part of Steinberg's VST3 standard. With version 4.5 Cubase Essential provides full compatibility with Steinberg's entry-level Sequel 2 Music Creation and Performance Software as well as the new Rock, Hip Hop,, Industrial, Elektro and Funky Content Sets. Each of the new sets offers over 200MB of content that is fully compatible with the Cubase MediaBay, making getting started with the new content fast and easy.

$50 Cash Back on Blofeld

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

MV Pro Audio (Waldorf's U.S. distributor) is offering a significant $50 cash rebate to purchasers of the hugely popular Waldorf Blofeld desktop synth module. The rebate program runs from October 8th, 2008 through November 30th, 2008. Blofeld has been the recipient of numerous rave reviews from most of the major music magazines, all of which have made note of the unit's exceptional value. With the dollar's recent gains against the Euro, and the resultant rebate, the unit's economic value is even more striking! MV Pro Audio president, Michael Marans, is quick to point out that Blofeld is manufactured in Germany, and boasts one of the most powerful and sophisticated synth engines available on the planet today. It's a synth engine defined and refined by years of innovation, and revered by musicians around the world. The $50 rebate is available on all Blofeld desktop synthesizer purchases; a rebate form, complete with all the rules and regulations governing the program can be downloaded.

Guitar of the Day

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

As usual with most Gretsch guitars, today's Guitar of the Day, the Model G6118T-LTV Anniversary, has a story behind it. See, the very first Anniversary Model made its debut in 1958 and commemorated the 75-year history of Gretsch (1883-1958). Oddly enough, for a company that specialized in high-end guitars, the first Anniversary Model was relatively affordable. Just as strange was the fact that the company actually released no less than four Anniversary models, but it's the 2-tone finish, dual-pickup model 6118 that made the biggest splash! And while this diamond-jubilee hollowbody was first released in 1958, it continued to be offered all the way into 1962 (to celebrate to company's 79th anniversary, do doubt). Those who knew Gretsch guitars looked closely at the 6118 and realized that it was the exact same guitar as the Chet Atkins Model 6120, but with a 2-tone paint job rather than the standard Amber Red finish. Even more odd was the continuation of the 2-pickup Anniversary into the Baldwin era, when the last Anniversary rolled off the assembly line in 1981! Today's G6118T-LTV Anniversary keeps the 16-inch wide, 2.5-inch deep single-cutaway, arched laminated maple body with 2-tone paint job (with an aged Smoke Green nitrocellulose lacquer on the top, along with a darker green back, sides, and neck), plus a 2-piece maple neck, nickel-plated hardware (including the traditional B6C Bigsby vibrato tailpiece), and a pair of specially designed TV Jones PowerTron pickups, which have the classic Gretsch tone, but are slightly hotter, so they'll overdrive nicely through the right amp. One other new feature that you can't see is the arched laminated trestle bracing. This construction synchronizes the vibration of the top and back, with more acoustic properties heard in the overall sound. Unlike the 1958 Anniversary model, this one has real f-holes! It also has a premium ebony fingerboard with authentic mother-of-pearl neo-classical "thumbnail" position markers, and a green plexi pickguard. Finally. it includes a custom-shop hardshell case and free shipping right to your door via FedEx. Now that's worth celebrating!

New in Stock at Sweetwater

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Fostex FR-2LE - The rugged FR-2LE includes a built-in stereo microphone, so you're always ready to record, plus two XLR/TRS combo inputs with phantom power for recording with your own choice of mics. You can record in Broadcast WAV format at up to excellent 24-bit/96kHz quality right onto a CompactFlash card. What's more, it offers an MP3 mode that boasts over 92 hours of recording on an 8GB CompactFlash card. You can record over 12 hours at 16-bit/44.1kHz, CD-quality sound on an 8GB CompactFlash card, and the FR-2LE also offers a 2-second "pre-record" buffer, so you won't miss the start of something if you don't push record fast enough.
Hartke LH1000 - The LH1000 is a 1,000-watt (2 x 500W) bass amplifier head featuring a classic 12AX7 Class-A tube front-end with a solid-state output. Portable and roadworthy, the Hartke LH1000 offers both treble and bass shelving, so you can give its warm tone as much edge as you want. You can also tweak the bright and limiter switches to shape your sound even further. Rackmount it for the ultimate in convenience, then plug in - there's a front-panel XLR direct output, a rear-panel 1/4" effects loop and 1/4" output connectors. It's designed to drive Hartke HyDrive cabs, but it has more than enough power to drive whatever cabinet you want. Includes a rugged metal chassis, steel faceplate and handles, so it's ready to take whatever kind of abuse you can dish out.
TASCAM HD-R1 - The HD-R1 Solid State Recorder packs a high-quality 2-channel solid-state recorder into a compact 1U rackmountable chassis. Using CompactFlash media, the HD-R1 records up to 24-bit/48kHz PCM or MP3 files and can be controlled remotely. Mic preamps (with 20dB pad) and selectable phantom power are included, as are a range of I/O options, including RCA, XLR, Euroblock, and S/PDIF. You get practical features, such as Power-on Play, selectable monitoring, and a range of play modes with the HD-R1. Remote control is possible via Ethernet, RS-232, Parallel, or 16-pin direct play via D-sub25 pin/Parallel.
TASCAM Track Pack T2 - The Track Pack T2 USB interface, microphone, and software bundle offers exactly what you need to get started recording quality audio on your computer! The Track Pack T2 includes the compact US-144 USB 2.0 interface, which delivers sound quality up to 24-bit/96kHz. The interface provides two XLR inputs with integral phantom power, two analog line inputs, S/PDIF RCA digital input and output, and MIDI I/O. You also get a great-sounding TM-78 vocal and instrument mic and Cubase LE 4 48-track audio production software, all at a surprisingly affordable price!
Fulltone "RTO" Robin Trower Signature Overdrive - Fulltone's newest stompbox offers a big, thick overdrive fit for a player of Robin Trower's status. The RTO is touch responsive, allowing every nuance of your playing to shine through, so chords sound huge and you've got plenty of sustain. Looking to clean up your tone a bit? Simply roll back the volume, giving you a wide array of dynamics in real time. RTO is built for Fenders and Marshalls, but responds well to all types of guitars and amps. Fulltone's custom-made brass-shaft pots are among the strongest and smoothest available, and are mounted to the interior PCB board via a proprietary "thru-PCB" method rather than having the pot be secured by the pot terminals!

Guitar of the Day

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:03 +0100

Today's Guitar of the Day, a Gibson Custom SG Standard Historic Reissue with Maestro Vibrola, has several things going for it. First off, it's a stunning re-creation of one of the most popular guitars of the 1960s, and second, it plays like a dream! By now, most guitarists know that the SG (which was Gibson's shorthand for "solid guitar") debuted in 1961 as the new Les Paul. Unfortunately, Les didn't particularly care for the design (after all, this was no longer the guitar he had helped create) and he asked the company to remove his name from it. Available almost exclusively in Gibson's popular Cherry finish (although a limited number of Ebony SGs were made over the years), players liked the thin, fast neck, which was attached to the solid mahogany body in such a way that they had easy access to the highest frets, making it great for soloing. While we think today of the Les Paul as Gibson's most successful design, in the 1960s and into the '70s, the company's best sellers were the SG and the semi-hollowbody ES-335. In fact, Gibson didn't even release a proper re-creation of the Les Paul Standard until 1974! When people think of Eric Clapton's "woman tone," what comes to mind is a Les Paul; yet it was actually a handpainted SG that Clapton used early on with Cream that delivered that tone. But that was then, and this is now, and our reissue SG holds up beautifully in terms of good looks and sound quality (courtesy of a pair of Burstbucker Pro pickups). To keep the guitar from looking like it just popped out of the Gibson factory, this SG's nickel parts have been given a light aging process so they won't blind someone during a performance when the stage lights bounce off it. Even the Cherry finish has been made to appear slightly faded. It's a small detail, but the pickup toggle switch has been given an aging toner so it's a light butterscotch color rather than plain white. And since this is a historically accurate reissue, the truss rod cover even says "Les Paul" on it. But what naturally grabs your eye is the Maestro Vibrola tailpiece, since it's the largest piece of hardware on the guitar. For some reason, Gibson chose to design their own vibrato rather than license a Bigsby for use on this instrument, and this one is accurate right down to the fine engraving work. Like other guitars that seemed to have been born perfectly evolved from Day One of their existence, this SG Standard reincarnation proves why Gibson was such a respected builder of fine electric guitars. It's a joy to play, it records beautifully, and it reminds us of the Golden Age of guitar building here in the U.S. of A. Naturally, it includes a Custom Shop hardshell case and free shipping right to your door!

Updates and Upgrades

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:02 +0100

Line 6 has announced the availability of GearBox version 3.64.1 for Mac computers running OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5. (Leopard). This version fixes an incompatibility with QuickTime 7.5. So now GearBox users can play GuitarPort Online tracks when QuickTime 7.5 is installed. System Requirements:

Intel or Power PC-based G4 1.5GHz or better (G4 1.67 or better recommended).
OS X 10.4 or better.
512MB RAM minimum (1GB or more recommended).
1GB free HD space minimum (10GB or more recommended for recording).
USB 1.1 or 2.0 port on computer for connecting Line 6 hardware (USB 2.0 port is required for TonePort UX8 and POD X3 family devices).
Internet connection required for activation (once activated, Internet connection is not required, except for access to optional Guitar Port Online membership service).
Host application that supports RTAS or AU Plug-ins (for use with optional GearBox RTAS/AU Plug-In)

Major bug fixes include:

GearBox player can now play GuitarPort Online tracks when QuickTime 7.5 is installed.
GearBox tuner now works correctly with PODxt devices.
GPO connectivity has been improved.

Cycling '74 Announces User Conference

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:01 +0100

The folks over at Cycling '74 today announced that their very first user conference, Expo '74, will be held in San Francisco in April of 2009. The conference will include presentations, installations, workshops, and collaborative events that are designed to cover the company's Max, MSP, and Jitter software. Details will be posted to the conference web site over the upcoming months. The company has confirmed that the conference will take place on April 22-24, 2009 at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center. Cycling '74 is committed to making the conference affordable for its software users.

Toontrack Announces New Distribution Plan

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Toontrack Music has announced they will be joining Waves' pioneering Virtual Stock Software Distribution (VSSD) fulfillment program for product distribution. What this means is that end-users will always have immediate access to the complete range of Toontrack products from Sweetwater. After you purchase a Toontrack product, we'll will enter the order number and instantly receive copy-protected software with unique serial numbers required to unlock the product, so there's no waiting - you can get busy making music! Naturally, your Sweetwater Sales Engineer can explain in greater detail just how this works.

Word For The Day: Bitonality

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The combination of two keys simultaneously. Just one example is Charles Ives's Psalm 67, which was originally written and performed in 1898. Here two choral groups sing opposed triads - C major and G minor. The harmonic clashes of bitonality may be mysterious (as in the Ives piece), plangent, or acerbic. Bitonality is particularly associated with the music of Darius Milhaud (1892-1974).

Word For The Day: General Pause

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Often abbreviated to simply "G.P.," this is an indication in orchestral scores that all of the players are silent at that point. It often occurs after a climactic passage, and was one of the most notable innovations of the 18th-century Mannheim School of orchestral playing.

Word For The Day: PAIA

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

In the 1960s and early '70s, a number of companies in the U.S. sold electronic kits for consumers to construct, thus saving them money. For musicians, many of the most popular kits came from a company called PAIA Electronics, the brainchild of a man named John Simonton. From simple wah pedals and rotary speaker effects to modular synthesizers (priced at a whopping $139, or you could add a keyboard for an additional $61), the company had a wide array of instruments and effects that were simple enough to build that most electronic hobbyists able to handle a soldering iron could put them together. Most of the products the company offered went out of production in the mid-1980s.

Word For The Day: Oberheim OB-X

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

The polyphonic, programmable analog OB-X synthesizer was released by Oberheim in 1979. It was available in 4-, 6-, and 8-voice configurations. It even offered 32 program memory slots, polyphonic portamento, and polyphonic sample-and-hold. The 8-voice version would have set you back $5,995 at the time. MIDI? It was still a few years off, being first introduced on the Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 in 1983.

Word For The Day: Sync Track

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

A timing reference signal that has been recorded on tape, which consists of a sync tone containing (typically) 24, 48, or 96 pulses per quarter-note. A sync track is intended to be patched directly to devices such as drum machines and sequencers that will accept the appropriate clock input, as distinguished from a click track, which was designed to be listened to by a human musician.

Word For The Day: LaBaye 2-by-4

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Dan Holland probably wasn't the first person to ask "why does a solidbody guitar actually need a body?" In theory, as Les Paul clearly demonstrated when he built "The Log," it could be any shape, so why not make it from a piece of 2x4 lumber? In typical 1960s fashion, Holland teamed up with guitar manufacturers Holman-Woodell in 1967 (who had already created instruments for Wurlitzer and a few other companies) and LaBaye was set up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In all, only about 90 of these dual-pickup instruments were ever actually built, making this truly a "rare bird" worth searching for.

Tech Tip: Optimizing Systems in Finale 2009

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

This is critical for people who write (or plan to write) orchestral scores. When a publisher assembles an orchestral score, it's customary to remove any staff within a given system that consists entirely of rests. So if, for example, you are writing a score for a 24-piece orchestra which begins with a 16-measure flute solo, you would not want that flute solo to consume four full score pages, with 23 blank instrumental staves on each page. Instead, you'd want the flute line to appear by itself at the beginning of the score. Fortunately, Finale can perform this supression of blank staves for you, either one staff system at a time, or for the entire piece at once, in a process called (appropriately) "optimizing systems." Tutorial 5 (Working with Scores and Parts) in the Finale user's manual deals with this in great details.

Tech Tip: Authorizing Finale 2009

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Q: The hard drive I had installed Finale 2009 onto recently stopped working. How do I proceed to get my authorization back? A: The process is the same on both Mac and Windows systems and applies if you make any major change to your computer system, such as replacing or upgrading a hard drive, replacing the computer's motherboard, or installing a new operating system without first deauthorizing (which is difficult to do if your hard drive has a sudden meltdown). The User Authorization Codes are computer specific, and so will only work on a single installation. What you'll need to do is contact Make Music's Customer Service by phone, FAX, or standard mail with your current serial number and the location ID for the specific installation in question. They will clear the previous authorization from your account, thus allowing you to reinstall and authorize Finale 2009. Note: The Customer Service phone numbers and address can be found on the Finale user's manual.

Tech Tip: What Fuzz?

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Q: Recently, MTV counted down the best rock songs of all time. The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" came in at number one, mainly because of that memorable 8-note lick. I've tried to duplicate that sound with my band, using a whole bunch of distortion devices, and can't seem to nail it. Suggestions? A: To the best of our knowledge, the only fuzz pedal available when that song was recorded was the Maestro Fuzz Tone (which was actually a Gibson product, first made available in 1965). By today's standards, that pedal is somewhat of a dinosaur, but because of its simplicity (it only had two controls, volume and attack), individual notes were still clean enough to be heard without becoming overly mushy, particularly if the attack control was set in its middle ranges, say from 5 to 7.

Tech Tip: Over/Under

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

Q: I have begun to notice more and more players stringing their Gibsons with the strings passing over the stop tailpiece and then across the Tune-O-Matic bridge. Is there an advantage to this as opposed to the standard method of running the strings through the stop tailpiece, then over the bridge? A: We're not sure who first came up with this, as it goes all the way back to Duane Allman and Billy Gibbons in the early 1970s. The thinking is that if you screw the stop tailpiece tight to the body, then insert the strings from the front and loop them over the tailpiece (sort of like Gibson's one-piece compensated bridge on its Les Paul Junior), you'll get increased sustain and a fatter tone, as well as a slightly different string tension/feel. There is no hard evidence supporting this practice, but since it won't hurt your guitar, you might want to give it a try and decide for yourself!

Tech Tip: Understanding the Hysteresis Control in GateEx

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

When using the GateEx feature in BIAS Mastering Perfection Suite, you'll notice a knob labeled "Hysteresis," which comes after the Hold Knob. Actually, the Hysteresis control is quite similar to the Hold control in its practical application of helping to avoid or eliminate chatter, but achieves this in a different way. Rather than simply maintaining the gate's open position for a user-specified duration, the Hysteresis control allows users to set independent threshold levels for opening or closing the gate by specifying the difference between them in decibels. With this approach, the gate opens when a primary threshold level is exceeded by a suitable signal level, and closes again only when the signal level drops below a secondary threshold level. By default, the Hysteresis Knob is set to 0dB, and has a range of 0-10dB.

Tech Tip: Avoiding a Small Repli-Q Glitch

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0100

When audio playback is stopped while BIAS Repli-Q is running as a plug-in, the host program may still be sending digital silence (a zero-amplitude signal) to it. If the Learn Spectrum button has been clicked, Repli-Q is learning the spectrum of the silence, which is a flat spectrum of very low amplitude (about -96dB). If playback then starts, Repli-Q continues averaging the actual signal spectrum with the -96dB spectrum. Naturally, the final spectral average will be false. The correct manner of operation is to start playback first, and then click the Learn Spectrum button in that order. Then click the Learn Spectrum button a second time to stop learning.