Sonic Reality has announced the release of the Studio Masters Drum Masters Silver, Gold & Platinum Editions, featuring legendary drummer’s kits and grooves.

For the first time, multi-track drum kits and multi-track Rex 2 grooves are playable from one virtual instrument plug-in for creating the most realistic drum tracks ever. Bundled with Sonic Reality’s new Infinite Player powered by Native Instruments Kontakt, the Drum Masters range of products offers the authentic sound of legendary session drummers recorded in some of the best studios in the world.

Studio ProFiles Drum Masters Silver, Gold & Platinum Editions

Drum Masters Silver Edition MSRP $299 — Featuring legendary drummer’s drum kits and grooves in 24 bit Stereo Rex 2 format mapped in beat mode across the keyboard and as playable kits in the supplied “Infinite Player” plug-in. It includes sample material from Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson), Steve Gadd (Paul Simon, Steely Dan), Danny Gottlieb (Pat Metheny Group), Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel), John Blackwell (Prince, Diddy), Nick D’Virgilio (Genesis, TFF, Spock’s Beard), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) and Ed Greene (Barry White, Steely Dan). Users will be able to continually expand their bundled Infinite Player with additional stereo and multi-track drum kits, and grooves.

Drum Masters Gold Edition MSRP $499 (or “Kits Only” for $399) — The Drum Masters Gold Editon includes everything from the Silver Edition plus a variety of multi-track drum kits and grooves.. From the powerful 3 snare Yamaha kit of Jerry Marotta with world pop rhythms in the style of Peter Gabriel to the R&B pop sound of John Blackwell to the classic funk rock sound of Ed Greene to progressive rock drumming with Nick D’Virgilio and modern jazz with master cymbalist Danny Gottlieb, the Gold Edition offers a wide variety of killer drum sounds for every need. With 150 multi-track grooves from each drummer and the associated drum kit from the session you can build a drum track with seamless transitions between the midi playable kit and the original audio grooves all while having full discrete mix control of the mic channels in both. Stick, brush, blastick/hot rods and mallet played kits are also included.

Drum Masters Platinum Edition MSRP $995 — The Drum Masters Platinum Edition includes everything from the Silver and Gold Editions plus additional multi-track and stereo grooves and more stellar sounding studio drum kits with discrete control of the mics. Special additions include samples of a 6-tom Gretsch® kit in a large room modeled after the famous Town House studio in London as well as a vintage Premier kit with the addition of Roto Toms and Timbales as toms similar to those played by drummers Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Nick Mason, Neil Peart and other great drummers. Includes extra drum sampling sessions done with the help of the “Drum Doctor” Ross Garfield and recorded at the esoteric Lawnmower Studio in Pasadena where Nick D’Virgiilio and Dave Kerzner of Sonic Reality used to record with Kevin Gilbert.

The Platinum Edition includes over 2,000 multi-track drum grooves plus additional midi grooves will be made available for all three versions at http://www.sonicreality.com

Visit Sonic Reality for more information and audio demos.

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This DVD is a very personal statement by Roger. Indeed, way too personal! A bit egotistic even. This is even more apparent on the extra material where Roger felt he had to point out about ten times in the interviews how important he was for Supertramp and that he wrote most of the songs alone. Come on Roger!

For those hard core Roger Hodgson fans I was talking about however, this DVD is truly essential! For the average prog fan, however, this is certainly not an essential DVD. Not even for Supertramp fans is this essential. As I said, this is a very personal statement by Roger. A bit of a celebration of one man.

Roger Hodgson is a great singer/songwriter here - in the pop realm, and a great one man performer at that. The audience here love him, of course. But for people who want Supertramp or any kind of progressive rock this DVD is a let down. Both the progressive credentials and the rock credentials are highly questionable.

Good, but hardly essential for anyone but the hard core fans of this man.

by SouthSideoftheSky


HODGSON, ROGER Music Online:
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Toontrack has released version 1.1.5 of dfh EZdrummer, a multi-microphone drum sampler designed for musicians and producers in need of a compact, affordable, easy to handle plug-in without compromising sound quality or control.

Changes in EZdrummer v1.1.5

• Fixed: The infamous VintageRock-BlackBeauty crash.
• Ability to recall saved files from Sonar track templates.
• Muted snares used in EZX grooves now ‘translate’ properly to pop/rock kit.

Visit Toontrack for more information and audio demos.

Wavelore Instruments has released version 1.1 of Pedal Steel Guitar, and version 1.2 of American Zither, two virtual instruments powered by the GVI engine.

The update for Pedal Steel Guitar (Full & Lite Editions) adds the free Wavelore Brush Kit —played with wire brushes — to the WLPS / WLPSLE soundset.

DEF dynamics and round-robin samples give the kit a great playability. Complete with kick, snare (including stirs) 2 toms, splash, crash, ride, and hi-hats in 5 gradations between open and closed, plus hi-hat pedal.

Wavelore American Zither is updated with Wavelore Slide Whistle, Hand Drums, and new free shaker instruments (shakerx2, rattle and cabasa) to the WLAZ soundset. The update also addresses the issue of running the patch installer on XP systems with Service Pack 3.

Visit Wavelore Instruments for more information.

Sonic Reality has announced the Infinite Player, a new expandable studio instrument plug-in for Windows and Mac.

This new powerhouse plug-in and stand alone music software is made to be infinitely expandable with fresh new sample content from Sonic Reality including the highly anticipated Studio ProFiles series multi-track drum kit and groove collections. Special bundles of libraries with the Infinite Player will be made available through Sonic Reality dealers world-wide as well as ala carte instant downloads on the new http://www.downloadablesoundz.com and http://www.sonicreality.com

Infinite Player features

• Powered by Native Instruments Kontakt Player: high resolution 24 bit fidelity, virtually unlimited polyphony, up to 64-part multi-timbrality, advanced surround capabilities and integrated effects including convolution and master effects.
• Reads Sonic Reality’s proprietary multi-channel Rex 2 files which are mapped across the keyboard in Kontakt’s Beat Mode which offers for the first time real audio drum grooves with both the ability to lock to your host’s tempo and also the ability to mix the discrete mics of the recorded drums.
• Users of Kontakt software can also read Infinite Player libraries inside full Kontakt and the individual rex grooves can also be read by any software that supports Rex 2 files such as ProTools, Cubase, Logic, Stylus RMX, Reason, Project 5 and more.

The Infinite Player is available for download from downloadablesoundz.com and Sonic Reality and it can be purchased in combination with Sonic Reality sound collections such as the Studio ProFiles Drum Masters Silver, Gold and Platinum packages and others at a variety of prices ranging from $199 USD to $995 USD.

Visit Sonic Reality for more information.

British producer James Holden, boss of Border Community records, is often tipped as one of the great thinkers of electronic music thanks to his cutting-edge approach to techno and electronica.

Here Future Music magazine catches up with James Holden in his studio to discover his Top 10 favorite bits of studio kit, which includes a drum machine made by Mattel which is “the most evil thing in the world,” says James, plus lots of cuddly toys that he has circuit bent.

• text Beatportal

• http://www.jamesholden.org/

• http://www.myspace.com/iamtherealjamesholden

“My Favorite Headache” Geddy Lee lets us know whom we’re listening to right up front: That serrated bass riff and its chunky sound leave us with no question. The vocal melody and the words put to it evoke thoughts of madness and nihilistic hopelessness. The lyrics are a bit esoteric, which is unusual for Rush, but again, this is not Rush, and Peart is not holding the pen. My own feeble attempt to penetrate the lyrics and give them meaning would lead us to believe that the song is about (at least in part) how television is replacing our observations of the natural world around us (“I watch the sea; I saw it on TV”).

“The Present Tense” This song lavishes us with pleasant guitar and bass work, alternating between loud choruses and quiet verses. As will be the case with this album, the vocal melody is incredibly creative and memorable. The bridge doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the song, at least at first, but repeated listens can remedy that.

“Window to the World” Once again, the composition is ingenious, even if the song has more of a pop-rock feel to it. The guitar part that bookends the song is intriguing and should have been brought out a little more in the mix.

“Working at Perfekt” The guitar and bass share in making up the main riff here. The instrumentation during the choruses differs a little each time, with some cellos adding to the sound. The vocal harmonies are some of the best Lee has ever invested his voice in. Electronic sounds and bass dominate the ending.

“Runaway Train” The main riff is simple enough, and the song is largely straightforward rock. Just over two-minutes in, there is pleasantly encouraging middle section. The song is perhaps a bit longer than it should be since it overuses the main riff and the chorus chords, but it’s a solid song.

“The Angel’s Share” The acoustic guitar dominates this piece, and it is one of two soft songs on the album. It’s a beautiful one, about how little man knows in comparison to celestial beings. It is one of the most memorable songs on the album, with exquisite strings brought in here and there. There is a rare guitar solo in the end.

“Moving to Bohemia” The seventh song on the album is one of the best, with some of Lee’s more interesting lyrics, which describe recognizing reality for what it is rather than accepting and offering up sugar-coated and censored versions of the truth. The strings make another appearance.

“Home on the Strange” Even though all of the songs are highly enjoyable, “Home on the Strange” is the worst one here. The lyrics are amusing enough, about a man Lee has worked with (and yes, he really does sleep with a chainsaw when he’s camping). Lee insists that the words describe a very eccentric individual, but that we should recognize that our world is made up of many eccentric individuals, so we should not isolate them just because they are, well, weird. Compared to everything that came before and after, the music is really off-kilter, and the bridge is repetitive.

“Slipping” The only song to really make use of the piano, it is the softest one on the album. It is a song that would really be at home in the soundtrack of a romantic drama. The words remind us that no matter the intentions of the people we love, they can still fail and hurt us somehow.

“Still” What an amazing song- so full of hopeful optimism and determinism, and the groove during the verses is simply not to be missed. It is a song to listen to when the circumstances of life are bearing down upon you. Listening to it now, I think of my own difficult situations, and reflect on the economic struggles 2008 has brought. But as Lee reminds us, “These moments will pass.” And at some point, we will overcome in our struggles, stand on top of the hill we were climbing, and look back with relief and great joy.

“Grace to Grace” A moderate radio hit when the album came out, “Grace to Grace” is a phenomenal way to end the record. It’s inspired by Lee’s mother, who was a victim of World War II. Rather than come out of those horrific experiences bitter and cynical, she has created “wonderful possibilities” with “grace and dignity,” as Lee himself says. The music during the verses suggest the abrasive and harsh events people often go through, while the amazingly beautiful music during the choruses conjures up the gracefulness people who endure mature into.

by Epignosis


LEE, GEDDY Music Online:
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Cycling ‘74 has released an SDK (Software Development Kit) for Max 5, the graphical programming language specifically designed to be used for applications involving Audio, Video, Robotics, and Sensor systems.

The first version of the software development kit for writing external objects for Max 5 has been released. So now you too can release your inner übernerd and begin writing C code that takes advantage of all the new features in the Max environment such as platform-independent vector-based graphics, tempo-based scheduling, and attribute attributes. If you’re not a C programmer, you can still find satisfaction in this announcement in anticipating some cool new third-party externs in the near future.

Visit Cycling ‘74 for more information or download the Max 5 SDK here.