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Native Instruments today launched the "Kickstart Your Summer" special, which offers a 50% discount on all software updates and upgrades across the NI product range in June.

For producer products, the special offer includes the update versions of the KOMPLETE 6 bundle, the KORE 2 software and those of ABSYNTH 5, BATTERY 3, FM8, GUITAR RIG 4, KONTAKT 4 and REAKTOR 5, including the KONTAKT 4 crossgrade for owners of any KONTAKT PLAYER-based third-party software instrument.

For DJ products, the special offer applies to all update and upgrade versions of TRAKTOR PRO, TRAKTOR DUO and TRAKTOR SCRATCH PRO, including the "TRAKTOR SCRATCH Certified" upgrade for selected DJ mixers.

The "Kickstart Your Summer" special offers are available exclusively in the NI Online Shop from June 1st to June 30th.

Additional information on "Kickstart Your Summer" is available at www.native-instruments.com/kickstartyoursummer

I found a few great sites that offer Propellerhead tutorials, there is some really great stuff here. It is worth a look.

18 Reason Tutorials
http://blog.audiojungle.net/resources/18-reason-tutorials-that-cover-all...

20 Record Tutorials
http://www.propellerheads.se/products/record/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_ar...

I found a pretty cool site today. It is http://making-music.blogspot.com/. I usually hate blogspot sites, as they are usually just junk. This one turned out to be pretty useful. It covers various software applications used for making music. There are several free items to be downloaded. It is worth checking it out.

Editors Keys makes some really cool and innovative products. They recently contacted me to do a review of the Portable Vocal Booth Home Version. What a treat, this product is so cool, I was very excited to give it a try.

First of all it is very sturdy and easy to setup. I had it put together and on my mic stand in less than five minutes. Basically what it does is surrounds your mic with soundproof foam. This is a great way to create clean vocals without reverb as well as keeping out computer noise, barking dogs, crying babies and screaming wives.

The specially moulded foam has been shaped and processed in a way which not only helps to create dry vocals, but to also prevent exterior noise such as traffic noise or air conditioning entering into your mic.

I did a few tests with and without the vocal booth, and yes it was quite a bit clearer with the portable vocal booth than without. I record in a concrete basement, so there are tons of sound reflections as well as noises that bleed onto vocals, the portable vocal booth did reduce the outside noise quite a bit. I was extremely happy with the way my vocals sounded with the portable vocal booth. My next test is to try it out with my 12 string acoustic, I'm sure it will work wonders there as well.

The Editors Keys Portable Vocal Booth Home Edition goes for $144 and comes with 110% money back guarantee. Go to Editors Keys to get more information.

I would recommend the Editors Keys Portable Vocal Booth Home Edition to anyone who's looking to improve their vocal sounds without creating a real booth. This is an excellent and inexpensive solution to all of your home recording vocal issues. Check it out!

http://www.editorskeys.com/Recording_Equipment.html

Native Instruments today introduced DEEP FREQ, a powerful effects processing suite for use with KORE 2 and the free KORE PLAYER. Complementing the acclaimed DEEP RECONSTRUCTIONS and DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS packages, DEEP FREQ focuses on intense and intricate frequency manipulation to transform audio material in innovative and inspiring ways.

Created by expert sound designer and producer Denis Gökdag, DEEP FREQ provides 150 sophisticated multi-effect combinations based on the powerful sound processing engines of ABSYNTH, GUITAR RIG and REAKTOR integrated in KORE. Through complex combinations of filters, resonators, frequency shifting, resynthesis, granular synthesis and other advanced algorithms, DEEP FREQ can fundamentally alter and reshape the tonality of beats, melody lines, vocals and any other audio material with spectacular and unconventional results.

Despite the complexity of the underlying effect configurations, the operation of DEEP FREQ is entirely straightforward due to the KORE user interface. The unified parameter mapping within KORE 2 and KORE PLAYER gives immediate, intuitive control over the sonic characteristics of the effects, making DEEP FREQ an especially efficient and immediate sound shaping tool for musicians, producers and DJs.

DEEP FREQ available for download purchase in the NI Online Shop for $79.

How many times have you been sitting behind a drum kit or at the organ laying down a track and oops, you screw up. Now I have to walk over to the computer, reset the track, hit record and quickly run back over and sit down again. Very frustrating when you are recording alone.

There may be a solution to this dilema. X-Tempo Zone created an awesome product called the Pok. It is a wireless foot controller that controls your DAW (as well as other things).

X-Tempo Zone was cool enough to send me a Pok Wireless controller for review. I was instantly in love with this controller. It was built very sturdy and looked awesome too. I noticed immediately how much more effecient the Pok makes the recording process. No more getting up and resetting takes, no more tripping over cables, no more missing the first bar of the song.

The Pok allows you to free up your hands and use your feet to control your DAW. The Pok wireless signal will reach up to 100 feet. I would imagine there would also be some really awesome live applications for the Pok as well, but I rarely play live these days. Imagine triggering drums, loops, sequences and backing tracks without your hands ever touching the laptop. You could be your own one man band!

The Pok can be customized and will support over 20 commands. The Pok has 8 pedals and each pedal can have three functions.The Pok comes programmed for Pro Tools but can be used with all other leading DAWs such as Ableton Live, Acid Pro, Audacity, Ardour, Audition, Cubase, Digital Performer, FL Studio, GarageBand, Logic, n-Track, Nuendo, Reaper, Record, Sonar, and Sound Forge. It comes with editing software so you can easily customize everything to your specific needs.  Read More »

These are a few new songs that I created using Reason 4. I'm really loving Reason, I've pretty much dumped Pro Tools for the time being while I explore the world of MIDI and Reason.

Two Headed Cow by toddfugere
Slow Jam by toddfugere
Happytechnotica by toddfugere
Pre Birth Addiction by toddfugere
Seventies Groove by toddfugere

After three years of development, Electri6ity, an epic electric guitar virtual instrument containing the most advanced, detailed, and versatile collection of electric guitars ever made in a virtual instrument, is now shipping!

Electri6ity contains eight of the most famous and distinguished guitar tones from the history of the instrument: the Strat, Tele, P90, Les Paul, Rickenbacker, Danelectro Lipstick, ES335, and L4. More than 24,000 24-bit samples were taken of each guitar. Three pickup options (front, rear, and mixed) are available on every guitar. An impressive amount of samples allow you to play every articulation on every fret of every string for an absolutely authentic guitar sound. Downstrokes, upstrokes, seamless velocity layers, ghost notes, mutes, harmonics, hammer-ons, pulloffs, slides, releases, and FX...the sky is the limit with Electri6ity. For more information, please visit the Vir2 web site to learn more about this amazing instrument.

The right ad libs and call outs can make or break a track.  P5Audio has got your back with the Urban Shorty Hype Producers Pack!  These contain both the Loops and the Chopped licks from the series featuring a professional female rapper and singer giving you hundreds of hype phrases and chops to drop into your tracks and take them to the extreme! 

• 200 loops and 830 chopped licks of female Call outs, shouts, sung and spoken vocal fx and hook phrases.
• Call outs include cities and locations, fashion, sex sounds, drink names, Hustla chants and much more!
• Performed by a professional Female Rapper and singer.
• Includes both sung and spoken vocals, and autotuned vocals.
• Recorded in 10 tempos.
• Avaliable for WAV 24 bit, and Acidized WAV 16 bit, REX and Apple Loop format, NN-XT, Battery, Sampletank, EXS-24, HALion, Kontakt.
• ALL ROYALTY FREE!

StudioLive 24.4.2 sports the same friendly user interface, robust feature set, and extensive I/O configuration as the StudioLive 16.4.2 but with several significant additions and enhancements. The most obvious difference is that the new mixer provides 24 input channels, rather than 16. As with the 16.4.2, each input features a trim pot, XLR mic input with XMAX™ mic preamp, 1/4-inch TRS balanced line inputs and unbalanced insert points. Like the 16.4.2, the StudioLive 24.4.2 offers 4 subgroup outputs, but where the 16-channel model offers 6 aux buses, the 24.4.2 provides 10 aux buses.

As with the 16.4.2, each input features a trim pot, XLR mic input with XMAX™ mic preamp, 1/4-inch TRS balanced line inputs, and unbalanced insert points. Both StudioLive models provide four subgroups, and both serve as dual-port FireWire audio interfaces that can route all channels and buses to and from a Mac or Windows PC. But where the 16.4.2 is a 32x18 FireWire interface, the 24.4.2 can send 32 channels to the computer and can return 26 channels via FireWire. It works with any ASIO- or Core Audio-compliant audio application and is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X, including Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Latency is so low that you can use your host program and plug-ins with your StudioLive in real time for live performances.

The now-familiar Fat Channel provides extensive metering and the programming interface for the EQ, dynamics processing, high-pass filter, and signal routing. But the StudioLive 24.4.2’s Fat Channel provides a 4-band fully parametric EQ, an upgrade over the StudioLive 16.4.2’s semiparametric equalizer, and in addition to on/off switches for each band, the entire EQ can be switched on and off. The StudioLive 24.4.2’s gate/expander has also been upgraded from the gate/expander in the 16.4.2, adding Key Filter and Key Listen features, and the limiter adds a variable threshold.  Read More »