M-Audio have recently announced that they have been feverishly beavering away over the last few months to create drivers that are compatible with the newly released Window 7 operating system. The Beta stage drivers are now available for the majority of their current products. All downloadable from www.m-audio.com, they are free but you must be registered to the site forum. The products that benefit so far are listed below:
ProFire Series
ProFire 2626
ProFire 610
USB Series
Fast Track Ultra
Fast Track Ultra 8R
Fast Track Pro
Fast Track USB
Producer USB
Mobile Pre USB
Transit
JamLab
Black Box
Ozone
Micro
Audiophile USB
Keyboard/MIDI Series
KeyStudio 49i
ProKeys Sono 61
ProKeys Sono 88
Midisport 2×2 20th Anniversary
Midisport 4×4 20th Anniversary
Musical instrument manufacturers Yamaha have started to expand their electric drum-kit range as far as desktop kits.
With respect for electric kits from its peers in the bag, thanks to the hugely popular DTXtreme IIs kit, Yamaha has begun to deliver smaller, more portable friendly drum/pad machines. The Yamaha DTX Multi 12 looks more like electronic synth pads and houses 12 velocity-sensitive drum pads and a sound module in a compact, low-profile unit.
The on board sound module collect sounds from a local Yamaha Motif Synthesiser and comes as standard with 1200 individual voices. The module also caters for users to upload their own sounds and loops to the 64MB memory and assign selected pre-made patterns to specific pads, making the unit useful for triggering samples and patterns, as well as connecting it to laptops via USB for easy management of its 200 different drum kit setups for live play.
Available this December (with no exact release date yet) makes it an ideal Christmas gift, at £685.
MOG has provided a quick intro to their new music streaming service that will be launching very soon in the USA.
There currently is a lot happening in the music space online, with Spotify delaying their launch in the USA, and Myspace Music possibly moving over to a subscription model. MOG music streaming service only costs $5 per month, which means it could be a great little option away from these other major players.
Search looks to be extremely fast, with intelligent auto-complete. Adding songs from various places in the service is simple (compare to MySpace Music, which is still cumbersome after a year). And users can make the playlists private or public.
XM founder Gary Parsons is out as chairman at Sirius XM radio, bringing the company in line with Nasdaq rules about independent board members. LA Times publisher and CEO Eddy W. Hartenstein replaces him as non-executive chairman.
Canned quote:
“I could not be more proud of everything that has been accomplished in satellite radio,” said Gary Parsons. “It has been a true honor to serve the stockholders of these companies since founding through delivery of an unparallel service to millions of loyal and devoted subscribers. While it has been a privilege to serve SIRIUS XM as Chairman and to have guided the company successfully through the merger of SIRIUS and XM, I believe now is the right time to step aside. As SIRIUS XM, we have achieved significant synergies while bringing together two incredibly talented teams and unique service offerings. Moreover, despite the challenging economic environment, we have begun to generate positive cash flow and have substantially improved our financial condition. While challenges remain, I’m confident that under the direction of Mel Karmazin and with the assistance of Eddy Hartenstein, SIRIUS XM will continue to grow and flourish.”
More from the AP:
NEW YORK (AP) — Sirius XM Radio said Thursday that Gary Parsons has resigned as chairman and a member of the board and will be succeeded by Los Angeles Times publisher and CEO Eddy W. Hartenstein as non-executive chairman.
Parsons founded XM Satellite Radio and was its chairman before the company’s merger with Sirius. His replacement with an outside director brings the company in line with Nasdaq Stock Market rules on independent board members.
In a statement issued by the company, Parsons said “now is the right time to step aside,” following the merger of Sirius and XM. He said he was proud “of everything that has been accomplished in satellite radio.”
Parsons said the combined company has begun to generate cash flow and improve its financial health despite the economic downturn. He did not indicate any future plans.
CEO Mel Karmazin said Parsons was a pioneer who steered the company in the right direction including the merger.
Hartenstein was a director of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and has been served on the Sirius XM board since July 2008. The former DirecTV chairman and CEO became the Times’ publisher in August 2008.
This is a nod to a friend of mine, who’s currently gigging and promoting an album <–[iTunes] that we’re distributing. Hopefully you’ve already got a Spotify pass, and you like funk…
There are some great sites out there that are really trying to help unsigned bands, one of which I like to think is our service. A new site that I came across today is Bands Under The Radar.
Bands Under The Radar is a site that likes to highlight bands from all over the world who are going completely unnoticed at the moment. The sites uses technology from Top Spin media to offer a great list of Mp3s on their site for a very little price. The last example is their download 100 songs for only $10.
Tunespro is a new music download store that I just came across and its seems to be to good to be true. A few years ago there was a music download store called Allofmp3.com which operated out of Russia and offered top music from the major labels at hugely discounted rates. Of course Allofmp3 was not backed by the major labels and was soon sued and taken down. Tunespro seems to be the next Allofmp3.
Tunespro has a great design and has some of the newest tracks from all of the biggest artists worldwide. However, Im sure that the major labels would like to hear that their music is being sold at only $0.19 per single and $2.99 per album. Compare that to iTunes who sell their tracks at approximately $0.99 per single and $9.99 per album.
Looking at Tunespro there is completely no information about the company running the service and the only way to get in touch is via their very basic contact form. Its shouting illegal!
Rammstien’s new album, more accurately the front cover, ‘Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da’ (Love is for everyone) has been deemed as “harmful” to young people and can no longer appear on public display in most shops across Germany.
According to German officials, the artwork offends act 18 of their youth protection act. The Office for the Examination of Media Harmful in Germany put pen to paper this week and the law came into effect on Wednesday 11th November (yesterday).
On top of this, Rammstein will not be allowed to perform song ‘Ich Tu Dir Weh’ (‘I Want to Hurt You’) live in Germany anywhere until the ban is lifted.
The album cover sees the band preparing a young woman (along with some vegetables!) for what looks like human stew, insinuating cannibalism. Or sacrifice in some opinions.
Billboard has always been a leader in breaking news and inside sources, however they seem to have lost their way a bit online. Thus, Billboard is now looking to grow its service even further and expand into other areas. Today, Billboard is launching a new service called Billboard Live. Having the chance to stream festivals across the ocean is nice, but Billboard offers us a customized version of streaming by letting us choose what we want their cameras to focus on.
According to Associated Press, not only does this new website offer music lovers FREE streaming of selected concerts, but there are options galore! Users get to choose from five different camera angles in which they would like to view the show.
Two more factors that could possibly make this the #1 concert-streaming site? First off, the ADD generation of social platforms have the option to also use Twitter or Facebook without having to leave the website. Secondly, (and of course) it’ll be available on for iPhone.
The on board sound module collect sounds from a local Yamaha Motif Synthesiser and comes as standard with 1200 individual voices. The module also caters for users to upload their own sounds and loops to the 64MB memory and assign selected pre-made patterns to specific pads, making the unit useful for triggering samples and patterns, as well as connecting it to laptops via USB for easy management of its 200 different drum kit setups for live play.
