PC and Music News

AKG unveils the GB 40 GuitarBug transmitter which seems to be the easiest way to turn a guitar, bass, or portable keyboard into a wireless instrument.

Described as the world's smallest switchable wireless transmitter, it operates with a single AAA battery providing more than 11 hours of operation. The frequency response is optimized for guitar and bass and can be used for keyboards and all instruments with a jack plug. The patented FlexxJack-Plug is an additional feature to allow for extended flexibility by matching all guitar outputs with an included long adapter jack.

The GB 40 GuitarBug will be available as single version and as "guitar-set" version with a stationary receiver SR 40 Flexx. Pricing TBA.

Chandler Limited enters the 500 race furiously with its new Little Devil Equalizers and Compressors. Using all discrete circuits that combine Chandler's best designs with the hottest designs from the past, transformer balanced everything, and the American hand made quality you expect from Chandler, the Little Devils will take the lunchbox up (or down) to the next level.

Technically and sonically speaking, the Chandler Little Devils are steeped in the sound and function of all Chandler gear - discrete amplifiers, inductors, transformers, and quality American build. You won't find any surface mount or ribbon cables in the Little Devils (used to build cell phones and computers) that are becoming popular money-saving and sound-crippling build techniques used by some other manufacturers.

Pricing :

- List : $1375 for the EQ and $1155 for the Comp
- Estimated street price : $1250 and $1050 respectively

More information available on :

SAE London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Oxford are opening their doors to all this spring – everyone's invited to come and see the facilities that make SAE the "world's number one school for anyone wanting to get ahead in the fields of Audio, Film and Multimedia".

The Open Day takes place on Sunday, January 18th.

The Open Day will run from 10am to 5pm, and all are welcome to attend demonstrations for Audio and Digital Film courses in the studios and classrooms – including London's Music Business course that's geared towards those needing a solid understanding of the business side of the world's most dynamic and exciting industry.

Tours take place between 10am and 5pm, but for those who can't make it on the 18th January all colleges will be running Twilight Tours on Wednesday 21st January between 5pm and 8pm.

The d16 Group has just released the newest plug-in from their SilverLine effects family - the Redoptor - which is a Vintage Tube Distortion emulator based on typical guitar tube amplifier. Unlike regular amplifier Redoptor has an adjustable preamp characteristic and more control over the tube distortion. It also contains a fully controllable 4-band parametric equaliser.

Features :

- Exact tube and tube's circuits emulation.
- Crossfade between tube and transistor distortion.
- Adjustable power of new harmonics.
- Tunable preamp filters.
- Fully equipped parametric equaliser.
- Presets organised into groups.
- MIDI learn function.
- 64-bit internal processing.
- Multi-mode distortion's quality adjustment.

Priced at €35, Redoptor is available now for both Mac OS X and Windows in VST and AU plug-in formats. A demo version is also available.

Sounds And Effects announces that African Drum Pak 1 has been released for the Akai Music Production Centers MPC 500/1000/2500/4000. The download Pak includes talking drums (odunu), udu drums, lizard skin drums, clay frame calf hide drums from Cameroon, 2 varieties of cup gongs, ivory tusk horn, shekera and husk shakers.

African Drum Pak 1 is available now at an MSRP of $29.95.

Toontrack Music announces the Jazz EZX featuring percussive artist Roy "Futureman" Wooten. Roy Wooten is an inventor, musician, composer and multi Grammy Award winning performer with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones among others.

Roy's ground breaking percussion technique takes playing drums way beyond just simple time keeping. His approach to his craft is a much more all-encompassing and universal one. He views himself as a storyteller playing music to reach beyond the limits of common musical understanding. His recordings for the Jazz EZX, captured at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, will set a bench mark for how sampling percussive instruments specifically and any musical instrument in general will be done in the future.

"More and more I see the piano like a drum set and the drum set like a piano." says Roy and indeed he sees every single hit and swirl recorded as part of a whole, as part of a musical sequence rather than as single solitary, monotonous hits. That lends a unique scope and musicality to these recordings that has its explanation in the fact that as an instrumentalist Roy Wooten strives to employ the power and science of Mother Nature.

Toontrack Music has had the privilege to capture the magic of Futureman. His touch, his heart, his philosophy and his unique approach to his craft in the Jazz EZX.

The Jazz EZX will be available through Toontrack Music retailers all over the world at the end of January 2009.