August, 2005 archive

Line 6 has announced the launch of Variax Workbench version 1.1, the interactive, virtual custom shop available exclusively for Line 6’s Variax Electric 300, 500, 600, and 700 guitars. Released in early 2005, the hardware/software package is now available as a free software download for users who connect their Variax directly into Vetta II and [...]

Bob Moog’s death has led to an explosion of coverage of his life and work. Here’s a sampling of recent coverage:

From circuitry, a symphony – “What Stradivarius was to the violin and Les Paul and Leo Fender were to guitars, Robert Moog was to synthesizers.”
The magic of invention – Robert Moog gave the music world [...]

DUY has announced a new mastering plug-in for TDM: DUY MagicEQ, a Statistically-Adaptative Automatic Equalizer. MagicEQ automatically equalizes your mix and lets you adjust the result to give your own extra “touch” to the sound, making the equalization process fast and simple. DUY MagicEQ is shipping now.
To use DUY MagicEQ, you simply insert the plug-in, [...]

Big Fish Audio has announced the release of Rotation, a collection of construction kits for pop & rhythm and blues music.
Description
Britney, Christina, Justin, Janet…any of those names sound familiar? Of course they do, because they’re on top of the charts and in heavy rotation on the radio. The whole world knows who they are! And [...]

Record label Shima has posted free electronica MP3s from the Greek electronica group Parallel Worlds.
Parallel World’s music is a combination of dreamy/atmospheric textures with pure analogue electronic rhythms and sequences, combining the feel of 70s electronic music with modern electronica and ambient music. For Parallel Worlds, melody is essential, but most important is emotional context. [...]

Big Fish has introduced Elements: Traditional Jazz, a sample collection featuring Jazz Drums, Bass, Piano & Guitar Loops.
Description:
Jazz, “a genre of music characterized by a strong rhythmic understructure, blue notes, and improvisation on melody and chord structure.” Experience traditional jazz in its purest form. If your productions call for authentic jazz, the complex yet simple [...]

Gemini has introduced the iKEY Portable USB Recorder, a digital audio recorder capable of capturing an audio signal, converting it to MP3 or WAV format, and writing it directly to a USB compatible storage device in real-time.
The iKEY will allow the user to record live music, live speeches/seminars, radio, karaoke, transfer a vinyl collection to [...]

Synth designer Rob Papen has introduced a new virtual synthesizer, Blue. The new synth delivers FM Synthesis, Phase Distortion Synthesis, Wave Shaping Synthesis and Subtractive Synthesis is one creative combination.
BLUE has six oscillators which can be connected in various ways, two analogue style modelled stereo filters, an enormous range of processing and modulation options and [...]

Korg has released Latin & Latin Dance, the latest expansion option for the Professional Arranger series keyboards.
This new collection is available as an expansion board (PaX-EXB02) for the Korg Pa1X and Pa1XPro (v.2.0 or higher), and as an expansion card (RMC-PCM03) for the Pa80 (v.3.06 or higher). “Groove Sampling” captures live performers playing real instruments [...]

As the first release in Beta Monkey Music’s Signature Series, the new Jazz Essentials offers authentic and expressive drum loops for traditional jazz.
The royalty-free collection features more than 400 loops in pure and true detail, covering authentic jazz phrasing from a cool and relaxed 100 bpm, a blistering bop at 325 bpm and all points [...]