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Kyma International Sound Symposium, 24-26 September 2010 in Vienna Austria 7 Sep 2010, 6:26 pm

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. /Music Industry Newswire/ — Sound designers, composers, sound artists, film makers, game designers, researchers and others sharing an intense interest in sound will be convening in Vienna Austria from the 24th through 26th of September to immerse themselves in sound design and music for three days of discussions, concerts, demos and courses at the annual Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS2010): www.tonsalon.at.

The Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS) is an annual conclave of current and potential Kyma practitioners who come together to learn, to share, to meet, to discuss, and to enjoy a lively exchange of ideas, sounds, and music! The preliminary program is now available online: bit.ly/9wXW7h

Who should attend
Anyone having a passion for sound design and computer music will find people and events to inspire and stimulate their creative sound work at KISS2010. If you are curious about Kyma, a beginning Kyma user or an expert who’s been using Kyma professionally for years, KISS2010 is an unparalleled opportunity to see Kyma in action, meet with the hardware/software designers, participate in serious discussions on sound design and music, be among the first to hear pre-announcements of new features, interact with other professional and avocational sound designers and musicians, hear some electronic music concerts, attend a 5-hour Kyma masterclass, and still make a little time for yourself to explore some of the musical sites in Vienna.

The venues
Lively discussions, electronic/computer music performances, demos, workshops, and paper sessions will be held in the newly renovated Casino Baumgarten, a spectacular 19th century ballroom, and the Rhiz Bar Modern, a showcase for experimental media located beneath the famous City Railway of Vienna.

Casino Baumgarten (bit.ly/aFNfNy)
Linzer Straße 297 – 1140 Vienna

Rhiz Bar Modern (bit.ly/dvzEjI)
Gürtelbogen 37&38 – 1080 Vienna

To register for KISS2010:
You can register at any time up to and including the first day of the symposium, but the deadline for the discounted rate is 13 September 2010! The participation fee of ¤ 90 (¤ 40 for students) includes the 3-day symposium, morning/afternoon refreshments, and 2 evening concerts. To register, please visit: bit.ly/buf4Pd

Background
Kyma is a sound design environment created by Symbolic Sound Corporation (www.symbolicsound.com).

This year, the KISS symposium is being organized by Wiener Klangwerkstatt in cooperation with Symbolic Sound and with the support of Analog Audio Association Austria, Preiser Records, and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research.

Conference Contact Information:
Barbara Kopf
KISS 2010 Conference office
Telephone: +43 (0)650 212 1646
Web: www.tonsalon.at/KISS2010 .

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

ASCAP announces mobile member app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 6 Sep 2010, 7:57 pm

NEW YORK, N.Y. /Music Industry Newswire/ — ASCAP this week announced a new mobile app for Apple’s iPod touch, iPhone,and iPad. The new app allows members to view royalties, membership info, catalog data, as well as ASCAP’s entire repository of over 8.5 million copyrighted musical works, and up-to-the-minute news about ASCAP and the music business.

According to ASCAP, “You no longer have to be sitting at your computer to access your ASCAP Membership. Just grab your mobile device, log in through our secure portal and you’re plugged in to all your ASCAP business!”

The app is free and can be downloaded from the App Store (size: 1.9MB for version 1.0).

What Is ASCAP?
ASCAP is a membership association of more than 390,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASCAP also represents hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled by composers, songwriters and music publishers, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership.

ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. ASCAP’s licensees encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly. ASCAP makes giving and obtaining permission to perform music simple for both creators and users of music.

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

Tools and Tactics for Today’s Musician 6 Sep 2010, 7:39 pm

Music Industry Newswire COLUMN: Getting information about songwriting and music publishing is easier than ever because of the Internet but the problem is that the Internet presents more information than anyone can assimilate. Compounding the problem, some of the information is just plain wrong.

PHOTO: Josh Feingold

That’s one reason it is so helpful for songwriters to affiliate with one of the three performance rights organizations (PROs) here in the United States: ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. You know, quite apart from the fact that they are your way to collect performance income from your songs.

In addition to posting a lot of information on their sites, each of these organizations stage conferences involving lectures, workshops and presentations covering a wide variety of topics relating to the business of music.

The most recent event was by SESAC and it was notable for being free for attendees. Held at the Skirball Center and under the leadership of SESAC’s James Leach, this was a day-long affair with speeches, panels, commentary, insight and presentations from experts in the business. Maddy Madsen (5 Alarm Music and Rescue Records) was interviewed by SESAC’s Ashley Miller about the ins and outs of licensing music for film and TV. The tracking of licensed songs was expertly covered by SESAC’s Hunter Williams and Greg Riggle. Music in games was handled by Woody Jackson (co-composer of Red Dead Redemption), Kim Nieva (Wave Group), J.P. Shub (X-Play), and Jody Whitesides (songwriter/composer).

Other subjects dealt with at the conference included music publishing (Michael Eames of Pen Publishing), lyric writing (Pamela Oland), vocal training (Jan Linder-Koda) songwriting (Greg Curtis and Trevor Gale), and management (Berko Pearce from Rm64, and Judy Stakee).

Fitting in nicely with the keynote address from music technology evangelist Ted Cohen of TAG Strategic was a seminar on technology tools available to today’s songwriters and performers presented by Josh Feingold, SESAC Associate Director of Writer-Publisher Relations. In addition to the usual suspects (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter), Feingold and Cohen had quite a few recommendations:

* Pandora
* Slacker
* Rdio
* Rhapsody
* Pitchfork
* Foursquare
* Tunecore
* InGrooves
* Big Fish
* Ioda
* Iris
* BetterThanTheVan
* MOG
* TopSpin
* Skype
* ReverbNation
* Nimbit
* Slingbox
* Vivo
* Bandcamp
* Last(dot)fm
* UStream
* PureVolume
* Ping(dot)fm
* Vimeo
* EchoNest
* MoodAgent

Yes, that is quite a list. But wait, there’s more:

* Roku – Cohen says this service “gives you Netflix, Pandora, Facebook on your TV” which will be great for now but watch out because”TV sets will have built-in apps soon.”
* Sonos – Cohen notes that advances “got music off your computer desktop and into your home and Sonos is a wireless way to access your music via Rhapsody, Pandora, Sirius, Slacker, Clear Channel – it literally is the world of music at your fingertips.”
* ThePublicRecord – Feingold likes “the interactive opportunities” as you collaborate on remixing tracks from current artists.
* Mobile – Cohen feels this is going to be major as we enter the era of “the connected automobile, with 3G and 4G stereo systems in your dashboard so you won’t even need a hard drive in your car.”
* Magnet(dot)tv – Cohen recommends trying this to “sell your music on your own web page.”
* DamnTheRadio – Feingold suggests this as something “that compliments your use of Facebook.”
* Video – Cohen is a big fan of “Flip cameras and camera phones because now you can easily create and share music videos almost instantly.”
* Klout – Feingold recommends trying this “to go along with your use of Twitter because it helps identify who you are reaching.”
* Hello Music – It’s hard to resist Cohen’s description that “It’s like the Beverly Center of music services.”

To which any independent artist, songwriter or music publisher can say “Terrific! Great! Neat! Nifty! Wonderful! And thanks for the superb list!

One teeny tiny question: if we delve into all these services, when do we have time left to create new music?

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

G-Player 1.2.4 is now available – Play Gigastudio Samples on Mac and Windows 6 Sep 2010, 6:49 pm

Miami Beach, Fla. /Music Industry Newswire/ — Safta Consulting has announced the latest update to their Gigastudio/Gigasampler sound file player, G-Player 1.2.4, is now available. For those not familiar with the product, G-Player was created to emulate the Gigastudio sound as close as possible. According to the company, “When other samplers can only improve their Gigastudio file import, we work directly on the audio engine until we get a perfect result. For example, G-Player is the only sampler that emulates the 3 velocity curves of Gigastudio (linear, non-linear and special).” You may know the publisher as the developer of the popular CDXtract.

This new version includes the following improvements and corrections:
- New stack editor
- 2 new stack modes: Velocity and Random
- Stack key switch can be placed on the right side of the instruments
- Each instrument in a stack can be transposed
- Fixed a bug that prevented G-Player to load many giga files on Windows
- The sample pre-loading can be set down to 0.2 second for super fast loading

- Good news, the Mac 64 bit version is almost finished.
- We also have a beta version that runs on the MUSE Receptor.

More information: www.soundlib.com/gplayer/ .

For new users, the product is $149. It loads most Gig files perfectly, however will not open fully encrypted files like some BFD libraries, or Larry Seyer drums (or other files requiring iLok key or dongle). It does not require GSIF drivers!

I have been testing this product on my new Mac 8-core machine (purchased copy), as a long-time Gigastudio™ user, and will post a review on MusicIndustryNewswire.com soon.

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

Minds of the Music Biz: Ted Cohen 1 Sep 2010, 3:53 am

Music Industry Newswire COLUMN: Ted Cohen is considered a visionary in music and technology, and I agree. After all, he played an important role in devising the licensing agreements that helped create the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store. He got started in computing in 1979 with an Atari 800 (“8K of memory tricked out to 48K”) and has embraced technological advancements ever since.

He was in Artist Development at Warner Bros. Records in the late ’70s and early ’80s, working with Prince, the Pretenders, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, the Ramones, and many others. He moved on to become Sr. VP of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music.

Today, he is managing partner of TAG Strategic, a digital entertainment consulting firm working with emerging businesses and multinational companies. Current and former clients include Hello Music, Amazon, Emblaze Mobile, Microsoft, StreamJam, Verizon, SanDisk, Motorola and UK Trade & Investment.

Ted Cohen is also an optimist. “I think the future of music looks pretty bright,” he said recently, making it the underlying theme of his keynote address at the SESAC conference held at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. In fact, he had many fascinating and very upbeat points to make about the music business in general and indie artist opportunities in particular.

In his hour-long presentation for the performing rights organization, Cohen took listeners on a quick rollercoaster ride of all aspects of the music business. At the start, he put today’s situation in perspective: “This is the first time in history where a working business model was replaced by people just saying ‘I’ll take something for free.’ We have moved from an era of consumer empowerment to an era of consumer entitlement,” and he got to the bottom line right away: “What we have to do is figure out how to monetize consumer behavior. It’s not about devaluation of music; it’s about the re-valuation of music. We just need to find the monetary sweet spot the public wants.”

Part of the solution may result from changing mindsets. One of his suggestions is to stop calling music “content.” He feels this term is misguided. “We experience music, we don’t consume it. If we consumed it, something would come out the other end.”

Another part of the solution is to recognize and embrace change. “Here’s the old way things happened in the music business. . . ”

Old Way:
* Write great songs
* Record in expensive studio
* Release album
* Release single
* Hire promotion
* Buy ad in Rolling Stone
* Make expensive music video
* Hit the road with tour support
* Schedule in-store performances
* Do some TV appearances

“Now, the only thing that is still on the list is the first one. . . .”

New Way:
* Write great songs
* Record at home
* Social networking for distribution and marketing
* Collect e-mail addresses & connect with people
* Make Flip video or phone-cam video

“Ten years ago, distribution was king. Now, distribution is trivial. Anyone can get it.
Today, it’s all about getting people’s attention. The trick is ‘rising above the noise’.”

In this century, everyone has access to music. The idea, according to Cohen, is to make certain that passive fans become active participants. That’s what makes social media networks more important for getting music out to people.

Cohen is also upbeat about “New revenue streams: pay per play, pay per view, subscription services, ad-supported music, brand-subsidized music — there are a lot of ways to go.”

He is especially keen on subscription services for music. “I like the subscription model, where you pay a flat fee each month and get all the music you want.” He calls music subscription “a lean-back experience” because the music is available when desired and you need do so very little to have access to millions of songs. “This is a recurring revenue stream for artists and music publishers,” he notes. Additionally, “Subscription encourages listening to more songs, the ‘deep cuts’ on an album, and it lead to listeners finding new songs.”

The subscription model in the midst of the new ubiquitous distribution approach means “There is no need to record an entire album. If you have three great songs, create the three-songs and put them online. It’s whatever you want to do. There’s no longer a reason to get 12 songs together, get them to a label and wait months for them to hit stores.”

Cohen has never lost his love for music. “The freshness of music today is what’s most appealing to me,” he has said. “If I’m listening to a lot of indie music that’s been delivered digitally, then a lot of it is very fresh – 20 to 30 days old at most. It’s exciting.”

A big issue with all the access to music is filtering. There are firms that attempt to search for music you like, but perhaps the best filters are other listeners. “Most people I know aren’t sharing files, they’re sharing playlists,” Cohen points out. It’s not that the algorithms don’t work. Cohen’s firm works with Hello Music and he’s happy to discuss companies like Echo Nest. Many of these firms “combine algorithms and social behavior – what kind of music do your friends like, what’s happening on the music blogs, and so on. The problem with algorithms is that they search for and find similarity. They don’t find uniqueness. If something is truly unique, it’s not matched to anything.”

Cohen is pleased that much of today’s technology is going to bring music to us wherever we want it. He speaks of “The Connected Home” and “The Connected Auto” and is eager to embrace the new methodology of distribution and communication.

At one point in his presentation, he recommended a book called “Ruling the Waves” (“Ruling the Waves: From the Compass to the Internet, a History of Business and Politics along the Technological Frontier” by Debora L. Spar). Cohen mentioned one example from the book, the way radio was as much of a “wild west” scene as much of today’s internet usage and payment battles. “Back when radio was new, you could have three stations broadcasting on the same frequency.” The result was chaos, “and nobody could be heard.” But with FCC regulation, each broadcaster gets assigned a specific frequency “and now all three broadcasters can do business and the
public is served.”

I checked out Spar’s book and found a relevant passage: “Governments provide the property rights that entrepreneurs eventually want, the legal stability that commerce craves, and the stability that society demands. For in the end, even pirates and pioneers want order. Once they have staked out their claim or claimed their loot, they want someone else to protect it. And that someone is usually the state.”

Hearing Cohen’s views on music, technology, rules, and breaking out of conventional approaches was a unique, exciting and valuable experience. I recommend watching for interviews, speeches and position papers from him. If he’s an example of “an old record company guy,” as one person described him, I wish there were a lot more of them.

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

EASTWEST Announces TERAPACK Trial Program – Entire Libraries on one Hard Drive 31 Aug 2010, 8:40 pm

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. /Music Industry Newswire/ — EASTWEST, the industry leader in virtual software instruments announces the TERAPACK, the company’s entire collection on a terabyte hard drive with free 10-day trial versions of all products. The TERAPACK is designed to allow users to demo the entire EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP product line quickly and easily on their own systems without having to install any samples. TERAPACK customers can buy full licenses of most of the included products for 50% off the suggested retail price until September 30, 2010.

The TERAPACK includes 10-day trial licenses of all EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP products except Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus (Platinum 24-bit samples are included), including their latest releases Hollywood Strings and The Dark Side. The trials are complete versions and include all instruments and samples, but with 10-day time limited licenses. Each 10-day license starts upon activation of the individual collection. Full licenses of any product can then be purchased from www.soundsonline.com or www.soundsonline-europe.com for permanent use.

The TERAPACK is supplied on a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/3.5″ internal hard drive with a 5-year manufacturers warranty for optimum performance. The hard drive houses all EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP virtual instrument collections and is used to test drive the 10-day trial versions. Both trial and full licenses can be run directly from the drive, saving installation time and space.

The TERAPACK includes EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP products Hollywood Strings, The Dark Side, Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Symphonic Choirs, Symphonic Choirs Expansion, Quantum Leap Pianos, Stormdrum 2 and SD2 Pro Upgrade, Voices of Passion, Ministry of Rock, Fab Four, Goliath, Silk, Ra, and Gypsy. The TERAPACK is available for Mac and PC, is compatible with all major DAW platforms, and requires a separate iLok key for operation.

Pricing and Availability:
The TERAPACK is now shipping in limited quantities for $129 MSRP. TERAPACK customers can purchase full licenses online and through authorized resellers of the included products (except Hollywood Strings and The Dark Side) for 50% off the retail price through September 30, 2010. Complete product information, system requirements, and ordering information is available at www.soundsonline.com/terapack.

About EASTWEST
EASTWEST has been dedicated to perpetual innovation and uncompromising quality of Sample Libraries and Virtual Instruments for more than 22 years, setting the industry standard as the most critically acclaimed soundware developer.

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

Neil Peart Drums Volume 1: The Kit is Now Available for Kontakt 26 Aug 2010, 8:45 pm

SUNRISE, Fla. /Music Industry Newswire/ — Sonic Reality announced today that their new Neil Peart series drum sample instrument library, Neil Peart Drums Volume 1: The Kit, is shipping in the NI Kontakt-compatible edition (requires SR’s Infinite Player for authorization). The BFD2 version was announced as shipping earlier this month. Neil Peart, legendary drummer of the band RUSH, has collaborated with Sonic Reality and producer / engineer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains) to bring the authentic sound of Neil Peart’s Snakes and Arrows Custom DW Drum Kit into the digital domain. With advanced features such as deep level dynamics, humanized random alternating hits, discrete multiple mic mixing and more, this deluxe sampled kit is an ultra-realistic recreation of Neil s actual acoustic set as used live on tour and in the studio.

The BFD2 version is also available as a download and as a DVD package at the same introductory price of $149. We also offer a crossgrade product to allow you get the second version at a low price. If you own either the Infinte Player or BFD2 version, you can purchase the other version for just $49.95.

The Whole Story:

Sonic Reality is proud to announce Neil Peart Drums Vol. 1: The Kit, a sample library for Infinite Player powered by Kontakt, as part of the Drum Masters series. Neil Peart, legendary drummer of the band Rush, has collaborated with Sonic Reality and producer/engineer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains) to bring the authentic sound of Neil’s “Snakes and Arrows” Custom DW® Drum Kit into the digital domain. With advanced features such as deep level dynamics, humanized random alternating hits, discrete multiple mic mixing and more, this deluxe sampled kit is an ultra-realistic recreation of Neil’s actual acoustic set as used live on tour and in the studio.

Now for the first time, e-drummers, keyboardists and composers can play rock drum samples with the iconic signature sound of drum legend Neil Peart and have a world-class, hard-hitting drum kit suitable for many styles of music from Progressive Rock to Heavy Metal! Producer Nick Raskulinecz engineered the sample sessions with over 20 channels of Neve® mic preamps, deluxe vintage tube mics and multiple room positions for one of the most elaborate sampled drum kits ever.

Neil Peart has been one of the world’s most acclaimed drummers for over 35 years. His virtuosic work with the band Rush has inspired drummers and expanded the school of rock drumming beyond all technical limitations. Peart is known for his intricate beats, fast hands and complex time signatures.

Neil Peart joined Rush in 1974, who has written and recorded rock classics such as “Tom Sawyer,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Freewill,” “Limelight” and “YYZ.” The band continues to play around the globe to enthusiastic audiences of all generations.

Note about Kontakt Player and Infinite Player:

Remember that while Kontakt Player 4.1 itself is FREE from Native Instruments (we provide it to you for convenience), these third party sounds do require a “gateway” for them to be played in Kontakt Player or the full version of Kontakt. The gateway that unlocks Sonic Reality sounds with NI’s service center is called the “Infinite Player”. You must have the Infinite Player in order to play Sonic Reality sounds.

For purchasers of this product, a complimentary Infinite Player license will be provided to all new users of the Infinite Player. For exisiting Infinite Player users, your license already supports this product.

Requirements: Operating System
* Windows XP
* Mac OSX
* Vista
* Universal Binary.
More information: www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=4432 .

Copyright © 2010 Music Industry Newswire(TM). A unit of Neotrope® - all rights reserved. For Licensing Information, contact legal@musicindustrynewswire.com
Part of the NEOTROPE®.News Network.

Native Instruments Announces TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 16 Aug 2010, 7:04 pm

Berlin, Germany /Music Industry Newswire/ – Native Instruments today announced TRAKTOR KONTROL S4, an integrated DJ system with state-of-the-art performance capabilities and intuitive tactile control. Based on ten years of digital DJing expertise, TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 combines a special version of the TRAKTOR PRO software with an advanced hardware controller, both developed in unison to give DJs of all genres unparalleled creative possibilities with supreme work flow and ease-of-use.

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 represents a new level of software and hardware integration that makes DJing more versatile, more intuitive and more fun. The full-featured controller combines a four-channel mixer section with ergonomically laid-out high-quality control elements and an integrated audio interface, all designed to professional specifications. All relevant functions including looping, cueing, effects control and track browsing are immediately accessible on the robust and portable hardware, while dynamic multi-color backlighting, LED status displays and comprehensive level metering allow DJs to focus on their performance rather than on the computer screen.

The included TRAKTOR PRO S4 software offers the full feature set of TRAKTOR PRO, further expanded through powerful new performance functions and an optimized user interface that offers superior usability under all conditions. Two flexible Sample Decks can add up to eight simultaneous one-shot samples or beat-synced loops to the mix, opening up creative remixing and mash-up possibilities that go far beyond conventional DJing techniques. The unique Loop Recorder also allows DJs to capture and overdub audio loops from the live mix, cue signal or an external input on the fly, and drop them back into the mix at any time.

The dual touch-sensitive jog wheels on the KONTROL S4 hardware offer extremely precise and responsive deck control due to a new patentpending electromagnetic technology, complemented through Native Instruments’ high resolution NHL protocol that provides superior performance over conventional MIDI. The integrated low-latency 24bit/96kHz audio interface is based on the acclaimed AUDIO 4 DJ, and provides professional signal quality to match the most high profile club systems. External time-code control via turntables and CD decks will be enabled through a future software upgrade. To accommodate touring DJs, a professional flightcase that doubles as an adjustable performance stand will also be available as an accessory for TRAKTOR KONTROL S4.

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 will be available this winter for a suggested retail price of $999 / 899 EUR. The TRAKTOR KONTROL Case will be available at the same time for $189 / 169 EUR.

EASTWEST Releases THE DARK SIDE Virtual Instrument 16 Aug 2010, 6:03 pm

HOLLWOOD, Calif. /Music Industry Newswire/ — EASTWEST, an industry leader in virtual software instruments has released THE DARK SIDE, created and produced by Doug Rogers and David Fridmann, THE DARK SIDE is the first of its kind: an unconventional, hip and exciting collection of virtual instruments, some dark and eerie, and some which have been purposely—and skillfully!—mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition.

THE DARK SIDE provides inspiration for all composers and artists that are looking for unique instruments, designed to work for everything from alternative to symphonic rock, and of course, film, TV, and game music production.

THE DARK SIDE includes a vast, 40 Gigabyte collection, including dark and eerie instruments, and highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and effected instruments, all organized into instrumental groups so you can create complete tracks.

Creativity without limits!

“THE DARK SIDE idea came to me when I was mentoring a young alternative group about some demos they sent me. To my ears, the tracks didn’t sound tough enough for their intended market, so I told them they needed to toughen up their sound,” said Doug Rogers, Founder and Award-Winning Producer at EASTWEST. “I looked around for sounds that could accomplish this and found absolutely nothing, even in our own vast collection. I saw this huge, gaping hole in the market that needed to be filled. Then and there, I decided to make it my next project after my recent pristine orchestral productions, a complete aural turn-around.”

Rogers partnered with Grammy Award-Winning record producer David Fridmann, who’s unconventional (and successful) work with the likes of MGMT, The Flaming Lips, and Weezer to name a few he had admired. Fridmann’s “no rules” style of production was exactly what Rogers was looking for to help produce THE DARK SIDE instruments.

Once they got started, they were like bulls in a china shop: mass aural destruction was the name of the game. They turned traditional instruments into highly processed drums, percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboards, strings, and FX, all organized into instrument groups for easy audition and recall.

Rogers and Fridmann not only tapped into a wealth of recording and producing experience for THE DARK SIDE, but had the gear to match. Many individual instruments were processed through 5 or 6 effects units, some of the vintage and esoteric tube variety owned by the pair.

THE DARK SIDE more distorted and mangled instruments are intended to be used with cleaner instruments to make them really stand out in a mix, or to disturb the senses. With today’s brick-wall limiting, distorted instruments may be the only product trick left to make an instrument stand out in a mix, a successful production technique used often by Radiohead, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, etc.

As the project progressed, they realized the instruments would work for almost every style from alternative to symphonic rock, and THE DARK SIDE name was chosen as a play on words between both styles of music. However, these instruments would be equally at home in Dance, Electronica, and even Hip Hop.

THE DARK SIDE includes EASTWEST’s PLAY 2 software, which can operate standalone or as a plug-in inside popular DAW hosts that support VST, Audio Units, and RTAS.

Pricing and Availability:
THE DARK SIDE is available for Mac and PC for $395 MSRP. Complete product information, demos, and ordering information is available at www.soundsonline.com/the-dark-side.

Robert Inventor announces Bounce Metronome Pro 4.1 for Windows 14 Aug 2010, 9:55 pm

OXFORD, U.K. /Music Industry Newswire/ — Version 4.1 of Bounce Metronome Pro – the metronome with the precise Gravity Bounce Conductor. To practice swing, polyrhythms and mixed meters with mixed note types, almost any rhythm. This metronome with its gravity bounce conductor can show you any rhythm precisely. You can use it to work with tricky rhythms such as swing, polyrhythms, mixed meters etc because the crisp conducting visuals help you play every note exactly in time. Range of rhythms available is vast.

Version 4.1 of Bounce Metronome Pro adds several new metronomes. Includes polyrhythms with mixed note types such as 4/4 over 4/3, additive mixed meters 4/4 + 7/8 etc. Other new features including Go Silent Briefly, Custom Conducting Patterns, Instruments for individual beats and beat boxing, Flamenco Clock, Drum Rudiments, etc etc.

With it’s crisp and precise Gravity Bounce Conductor visuals, it’s like having your own conductor to help you learn even the most tricky rhythms and to help you keep time.

NEW SINCE VERSION 3.2

POLYRHYTHMS WITH MIXED NOTE TYPES

This plays rhythms like 4/4 over 4/3 – it’s like a 4 over 3 polyrhythm but you count 4/4 in both parts – so the 4/3 though it has three beats to the measure of the 4/4 rhythm, is played with emphasis every four beats, so has a measure that is a third longer than the 4/4.

FLAMENCO COMPAS “CLOCK”

Plays the 12 beat pattern – basically a 6/8 alternating with 3/4 – which is needed for practice of many Flamenco rhythms, shown with the 12 at the top for first beat and in clock like format as the balls bouncing inside the clock to show the beats.

MIXED METERS WITH MIXED NOTE TYPES

This lets you play rhythms like 4/4 + 7/8 or 2/4 + 3/8.

NEW WINDOWS

The Conducting patterns window lets you set your own custom conducting patterns – there I just mean the order of the beats such as 3 1 4 2 – doesn’t yet let you rrecord a conducting pattern e.g. with mouse or video and play it back.

The Label Beats lets you label individual beats as you like, including a beat boxing feature and an option to auto convert beat boxing syllables to corresponding non melodic percussion instrument sounds that get played on the same beat.

OTHER NEW FEATURES SINCE 3.2

Up / Down arrow key cycles through list of tempi (and optionally time signatures) you set for it. You can also cycle through time signatures at the same time as you change tempo – e.g. 80 bpm in 4/4 then 30 bpm in 3/4 with 2 subdivsions then 120 in 6/8 or whatever.

Go Silent Briefly – The idea here is that you continue to play when the sound stops. Then when the sound comes back again, aim to be exactly in time with the metronome, or as close as you can get to it.

One reason to do this is to help you to learn to keep a steady tempo without a metronome. You can also use it when you learn tricky rhythms e.g. polyrhythms etc, to see if you can keep them going during the measures when the metronome is silent.

Option to select separate instruments for each beat in the rhythm:

New features for the Gradually Changing Tempo – you can now do a stepping progression. E.g. suppose you have set it to gradually increase in tempo by 2 bpm over a period of time, then gradually drop down again by 1 BPM. Now you can also set it to repeat that endlesesly as e.g. 100 102 101 103 102 104 … Then you can set a maximum tempo to stop the stepping progression at, and also set what happens when the progression ends.

You can now export the animations with sound.

More information: www.bouncemetronome.com/ .

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