You Rock Guitar

An all-in one game controller/MIDI guitar/Digital guitar thing for $179? Sounds - well, quite cool...

From their site:

"100 Guitar & Synth Presets – blends, mix sounds, levels, tunings, capos, tap mode, open mode.
25 Sampled Real Guitars – Strats, Les Pauls, Acoustics, Nylons, 12-strings, Telly’s all 16 bit long samples.


25 You Rock Mode™ Tracks – just the rocking start to learning all the progressions that changes the world


50 Alternate Tunings – From Hendrix and Hutchins, Mitchell and Hedges plus the classics.


Digital Capo – No need to tune a single string.


Tap Mode – When you’re felling like Eddie, we ready to deliver
Whammy Bar – pitch bend up or down.


Vibrato Joystick – for that mushroom sustained amp feedback effect.
1/4” and stereo mini output – Yeah we got that.


On-board recorder – take the You Rock Guitar anywhere and still save your creations


MIDI & USB – the fastest and easiest, all 16 channels plus Mono modes on Channels 1-6 or 11-16"

The You Rock guitar isn't quite out yet, but check out the vid....

And then pop to their home site for more...

"You Rock Guitar" > read the full post

ES1 Skin anyone?

Been at bit bored over the holidays, have been designing a new skin for Logic's ES1 synth. Anyone interested? Let us know, and we'll make it available for download.....

"ES1 Skin anyone?" > read the full post

Smack my bitch up - Ableton style

Thanks to Rhys for sending me this link - how to make The Prodigy's Smack my bitch up in Live, complete with the sample resources.....

"Smack my bitch up - Ableton style" > read the full post

Free melhoman performer edition

Ohmforce are giving away their Melhoman performer edition for free! Very nice of them too.

It's a bit of a weird one, this, but very cool. Been playing around with it this morning, and it's worth a read through the manual just to see what it can do - it looks deceptively simple!

It comes in Mac and PC RTAS and VST, as well as AU, and even as a stand-alone, so just

head here to pick up your copy.

"Free melhoman performer edition" > read the full post

CBGB's virtual tour

Bit of an oddity this...

Found a virtual tour of the classic NY venue CBGB's. If you never had the chance to go there, why not put on a Bad Brains CD too loud, open a can of beer, tip the contents of an ash tray over your clothes and turn up the heating until you're sweating like a pig, and experience what it was really like

"CBGB's virtual tour" > read the full post

Pro Tools on the Mackie Onyx - now official!

Good news everybody!

AVID (owners of Digidesign, who make Pro Tools) have come to an agreement with LOUD (parent company of Mackie) about running Pro Tools on Mackie hardware.

This means you can now run Pro Tools LE on the Onyx 820i, 1220i, 1620i and 1640i mixers - with official support.

We'd looked at this ages ago, but this was before the official licensing agreement.

Check out the Mackie news site to read the announcement

"Pro Tools on the Mackie Onyx - now official!" > read the full post

Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No 1?

Not sure if you've seen this already, but there's a campaign underway to stop the X Factor single reaching number 1 at Christmas, by buying Rage Against the Machine's Killing In The Name Of.

Looking at the iTunes chart this morning, Rage are at number 2 at the moment, so it'll have to gather a little momentum to defeat Joe McElderry's Miley Cyrus cover.

Check out the Facebook campaign homepage, or head straight to iTunes to join in..... but.....

Rage Against the Machine were released and published by Sony - who Simon Cowell works for.

Still, at the very least, you'll own a copy of a very cool song...

"Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No 1?" > read the full post

Get yer free plugins, they're luverly!

Something a bit different for you all - a 4-band distortion plugin from TCK Plugins, called the Dirty Bastard. Good for anything from adding a little valve warmth, to distorting signals beyond recognition.

It's made using SonicBirth, so you'll need to have that installed for the Dirty Bastard to run (Mac only I'm afraid, but in AU and VST versions).

Don't worry though - SonicBirth is free, and you can use it to design your own plugins too.

(Need a little help getting started making your own plugins? Try out this tutorial).

Head to the London School of Sound website to download the Dirty Bastard.

"Get yer free plugins, they're luverly!" > read the full post

Minispillage

AudioSpillage are offering a free version of their upcoming DrumSpillage drum synth.....

It's a cut down version of the full version, but still pretty cool.

Just head here to download!

"Minispillage" > read the full post

New Smashing Pumpkins album

Smashing Pumpkins are releasing their new album for free, one track at a time....

"New Smashing Pumpkins album" > read the full post

Rammstein vs. Cookie Monster

Not much to add, just check out the vid!

"Rammstein vs. Cookie Monster" > read the full post

More No-Brainer Deals from audioMIDI.com

Couple of tempting deals from audioMIDI.com - they're offering the Nomad Factory Blue Tubes Analog Trackbox for $15 (around £9) - that's 90% off.

They're also offering an LE version of the XILS3 matrix synth for just $20 (£12).

The Analog Trackbox is a tube emulating gate, compressor and EQ. It offers two different tube emulations, and comes in both Mac and PC VST and RTAS formats, as well as Audio Unit, so it should be compatible, whatever your system. You can choose between Hard Disc and iLok authorization, and there's a 15 day demo here.

The XILS3 LE is modeled on a classic matrix synth - you can connect anything to anything else! It can be used as a synth, or as an effects processor.

I'm waiting for my serial numbers, so I'll write more once I've had a chance to play with both of them. In the mean time, head here to check out the offers yourselves.

"More No-Brainer Deals from audioMIDI.com" > read the full post

NI synths for €99 each!

But only if you're quick....

Edit: Too slow!

Native Instruments are offering Reaktor 5, Absynth 5, Massive and FM8 for €99 - but only for one more day!

"NI synths for €99 each!" > read the full post

Muppets do Queen

After the monstrosity that was X-Factor Queen night comes something fantastic - the Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody. Just awesome.....

"Muppets do Queen" > read the full post

Blue Cat Plugins in RTAS

We mentioned the Blue Cat free plugin bundle a little while back, but the good news is that it's now also available in RTAS formats! Great new for us Pro Tools users, who tend to feel a bit left out when it comes to free stuff...

Phasers, flangers EQs and a frequency analyzer come with the bundle. Just head to here to download in your favorite format...

"Blue Cat Plugins in RTAS" > read the full post

Foosball night

Thursday night was Foosball night at the London School of Sound south campus. Thanks to all who turned up - was a fun night.

Though most people thought the deserving winner was robbed (knocked out in a semi-final round sudden death point), the reigning champion is me!

As it would seem a bit mean for staff to take the cash, the prize money is being put into a beer fund for the next planned night - Doubles matches. All current and former students are welcome - details will follow once we iron out the details.

For the few of you who are interested, you can check out the final match here.

"Foosball night" > read the full post

Korg nano Controller update

Those of you who've invested in a Korg nano should be interested in this. They've just released a free control surface plugin for you.....

With Garage Band and Logic, it was difficult to assign the nano to control plugin parameters. Well, now it isn't! Simple enough. Go get it here..

"Korg nano Controller update" > read the full post

Free plugin from Valhalla DSP

Yes, it's free plugin time again.....

Valhalla DSP was set up by one of the guys behind Audio Damage (check here for the free Audio Damage free offerings). It's a strange modulating delay effect. No GUI yet, but apparently that's on it's way.

Not sure what I'll use it for, but it's fun to play with. Head here for the download.

"Free plugin from Valhalla DSP" > read the full post

Free TC Electronics M30 Reverb

But only if you act quickly!.....

TC Electronics are giving away the M30 reverb unit if you sign up to their newsletter before Wednesday the 18th of December 2009.

It's available for Mac (AU and VST) and PC (VST) formats, and will cost $79 after Wednesday.

So why are you still here? Go and sign up!

"Free TC Electronics M30 Reverb" > read the full post

A history of Autotune

Quite a cool vid, explaining the history of autotune, helped by Weird Al Yankovic.....

"A history of Autotune" > read the full post