February, 2007 archive

Elsewares, a web store that sells indie art and design works, has a cool MIDI Plug Keychain.
The keychain created from a male or female MIDI plug attached to a split ring via a 10 gauge wire terminal.
Ships in 1-2 weeks. Made in USA.

NAMM Show: DigiTech, a leading manufacturer of guitar and bass multi-effects processors, and a Harman International, introduced the GSP1101 1U Modeling Preamp/Processor.
Featuring the latest in modeling from DigiTech, the new 1U rack processor will include two AudioDNA2 super chips exclusively designed by DigiTech. The GSP1101 will feature top-level control knobs such as Gain, Bass, Mid-range, [...]

Monkey Straddle, the debut CD of Nnnj (”inch”) on The Agriculture records, is an interesting downtempo blend of influences ranging from ambient to jazz to IDM to world music.
Nnnj’s music falls into the broad downtempo category – but the tracks on Monkey Straddle are some of the most interesting examples of the genre that we’ve [...]

NAMM Show: EASTWEST introduces Quantum Leap Pianos, the most detailed collection of the world’s finest grand pianos.
More than half a million dollars’ worth of pianos are included in this collection, all meticulously recorded. These include a $225,000 Bechstein D-280 Concert Grand, the same kind of piano engineer/producer Ken Scott used to record Elton John, David [...]

NAMM: Denon Professional announced the new DN-A7100 A/V Surround Preamplifier.
Designed specifically for surround sound decoding in installed sound, house of worship, broadcast, conference and studio monitoring applications, the DN-A7100 provides a flexible array of features suited for fully balanced 5.1 and 7.1 surround playback. This dedicated professional quality surround preamp was developed based on feedback [...]

Daniel McPharlin has posted a create collection of photos of miniature analog cardboard synths.
Obsessive-compulsively cool.

NAMM: Digidesign announced Reel Tape Suite, a set of analog tape emulation plug-ins that re-create the warmth of analog tape recordings and tape effects in digital recordings or live audio. Digidesign Reel Tape Suite, which operates as an AudioSuite, TDM, and RTAS plug-in, brings the vintage sound of analog gear to digital audio while providing [...]

At the 2007 NAMM Show, Cortex made a variety of introductions for DJs:

HDC-1000 – New Software Update Available
The NAMM show marked the debut of the latest free software and database manager update for the HDC-1000.
V1.8.10 contains new features such as Scratch capability, Playlist Creation ability (using the new Cortex Database Manager V 2.4 (Special Edition [...]

NAMM: E-MU Systems announced the new Emulator X2 Platinum Streaming Sampling Synthesizer, which offers both 32-bit and native 64-bit applications, multi-processor and multi-threading support, and includes over 20GB of sounds. Its sound library includes over 5,500 instruments that include everything from vintage keyboards and orchestral instruments to the Hip-Hop and Electronica soundsets of E-MU’s legendary [...]

2007 NAMM Show: EASTWEST announced a new virtual instrument collection themed around the Beatles, Fab Four Virtual Instruments.
The result of more than a year of research, equipment acquisition and recording, Fab Four Virtual Instruments — unaffiliated with or endorsed by Apple Corps. Ltd. — presents a faithfully executed, incredibly accurate and comprehensive collection featuring the [...]