Rock Band to Get its Own Music Marketplace

Put the Rock Band Network on your radar right now. Whether you’re a music maker or Rock Band groupie, this brand new MTV initiative is about to change the hit game for the better so that everyone can get a piece of the pie.
Rock Band Network, currently in closed beta, should launch to the public in August (with in-game sales later in the year), and allow for any wanne-be or tried-and-true beat master, music mixer, or soulful singer to add their music to the Rock Band catalogue for user purchase and game play.
MTV has infused Rock Band Network with professional utilities to enable a community of music makers to get their work to the masses and profit by it. Paul DeGooyer, a senior VP with MTV games, tells Billboard that “We’re talking about a set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.”

Now that’s huge. Here’s how the process will work. Artists, labels, and unsigned types will submit their musical machinations via upload to the new site. Songs will be subject to review, and then Rock Band-ified by Harmonix freelancers/developers, eventually getting added to a distinct in-game Xbox Live store. Songs will be priced by creators — anywhere between 50 cents and $3 — who will earn 30% of all sales.

Essentially it’s as if MTV replicated the Apple App Store model and applied it their hit Harmonix product, Rock Band. The model is proven, the idea is sound, and the interest will be huge. You can expect this to not only revolutionize the Rock Band experience, but to create a new ecosystem and community around music making for Rock Band.

Read more »

Kaliakra Rock Fest 2009/July Kavarna Bulgaria

Read more »

Native Instruments KOMPLETE 5

KOMPLETE 5 brings you all the sounds you need to produce complete music productions. You get the complete arsenal of all the top-of-the-class synthesizers, samplers, vintage keyboards and effects from Native Instruments - including a total of 7500 preset sounds and 60 GB of sample content - all in the highest studio quality.


Native Instruments KOMPLETE 5

KOMPLETE 5 Includes the Following Instruments:

KONTAKT 3 - the industry-standard sampler with a 33 GB library
GUITAR RIG 3 Software Edition - the ultimate guitar and bass studio
MASSIVE - the formidable sound monster for fat basses
REAKTOR 5 - the extremely versatile, modular instrument studio
ABSYNTH 4 - the legendary synthesizer for vivid soundscapes
BATTERY 3 - the dedicated drum sampler providing premium drum kits
AKOUSTIK PIANO - three famous grands and one upright
ELEKTRIK PIANO - the sounds of four renowned electric pianos
B4 II - perfectly recreates the sound of the legendary B3
FM8 - FM synth for crystal-clear, airy, and razor-sharp digital sounds
PRO-53 - the faithful reproduction of a synth legend
Native Instruments
Brand New Songs

Read more »

Made Event Announces ELECTRIC ZOO NEW YORK 2-Day Outdoor Festival on Randall’s Island NYC

Made Event Announces ELECTRIC ZOO NEW YORK 2-Day Outdoor Festival on Randall’s Island NYC


New York’s Electronic Music Festival
September 5 & 6, 2009 (Labor Day Weekend)
New York’s premiere electronic music production team Made Event presents the next chapter in their ongoing success story of top-quality electronic music events. This Labor Day weekend on Saturday, September 5th and Sunday, September 6th, 2009, Electric Zoo will transform Randall’s Island Park from 12 noon to 11pm each day into an open-air music festival with the world’s biggest electronic music talent spanning the globe.

The world’s No.1 DJ ARMIN VAN BUUREN and French superstar house music sensation DAVID GUETTA will helm an unprecedented line-up of over 50+ artists across multiple stages, covering all genres; House, Techno, Trance, Electro, and Indie, including DJs and live acts.

The principals of Made Event, Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma explain their vision for the festival, “We have been inspired over the years by what happens in Europe each summer, and we’re very excited to be bringing our version to America; Electric Zoo, New York’s first electronic music festival. Our intention is to showcase the top artists in each of the sub-genres, there will be something for everyone – a literal ‘zoo’ of electronic music. For us, this is the culmination of many years of dedication and hard work. The realization of this goal is another step forward for electronic music here, and we’re laying the foundation for many years to come.“
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th

Armin van Buuren
Benny Benassi
Danny Tenaglia
Roger Sanchez
Luciano
Robbie Rivera
Marco Carola
Chus & Ceballos
Kaskade
Paco Osuna
Chris Lake
Speedy J
Martin Buttrich

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6th


David Guetta
Ferry Corsten
Richie Hawtin
Markus Schulz
Special Disco Version featuring
James Murphy & Pat Mahoney
(LCD Soundsystem/DFA)
Frankie Knuckles
Steve Bug
Josh Gabriel
James Holden
Audion
Menno De Jong

+Many more artists to be announced!
Tickets for ELECTRIC ZOO are currently available as single-day passes at $55 and double-pak two-day passes at $100 for General Admission. VIP single-day passes are available at $120 and VIP double-pak two-day passes at $225. VIP passes include a separate VIP entrance, access to VIP lounge with private cash bar, exclusive viewing area at main stage and access to VIP-only deluxe bathrooms. Tickets are available at www.electriczoofestival.com.

Randall’s Island is accessible by car, bus, pedestrian and ferry.

For additional info, please go to www.electriczoofestival.com.


About Made Event
Made Event, helmed by Mike Bindra and Laura De Palma, working with a team of industry leaders, is committed to excellence in the programming, promotion, and production of electronic dance music events. They stand at the vanguard of their field due to the world-renowned caliber of entertainment and expert production values they bring into a variety of distinctive and innovative venues. With over 25 years of combined experience, and over 400 successful events produced in New York City and at Winter Music Conference in Miami, Made Event continues to set the bar for quality electronic music events. For more info, please go to www.made-event.com

Read more »

Introducing Digital Sound Factory Studio Orchestra

Studio Orchestra offers a comprehensive collection of over 2 gigabytes of the finest string, brass, woodwinds, and percussion samples, all meticulously recorded for the right expressiveness in each note to convey a truly realistic feel. What sets this orchestral library apart from the rest is that it also includes synthesizer waveforms, vocal ensembles, Not only is the library authentic, but it reaches out and explores the timbral possibilities of electro acoustics creating incredible ready for scoring mixtures. The sounds are fresh, yet aged to perfection, and will work great in any mix.

Enter the coupon code PROMO at check out within the next 72 hours and save 30% on all Digital Sound Factory products. Please log in at:DigitalSoundFactory

Our sound libraries are compatible with Steinberg Cubase/Halion, Cakewalk Sonar/Dimension, Propellerheads Reason, Native Instruments Kontakt, Apple Garageband, Apple Logic, Ableton Live, Wuzikstation, Overture, Finale, Creative Audigy/X-Fi, E-MU EmulatorX/Proteus X, FL Studio, VSamp, SFZ, Alchemy, SynthFont, and more.

Read more »

Arturia releases 'The 10 Year Suite' - 8 Instruments in 1 Pack

This summer, Arturia is celebrating 10 Years in business. As part of the festivities they are releasing a new special anniversary pack: "The 10 Year suite".
This collector pack, available in limited quantities, includes:
7 anthology synthesizers: Minimoog V, Moog Modular V, CS-80V, ARP 2600 V, Prophet V, Prophet VS and Jupiter-8V.
Analog Factory, a synthesizer offering instant access to 3500 sounds.
Brass, a software recreation of a trumpet, a saxophone and a trombone.
These instruments offer the contemporary musician "the sonic palette and the expressivity needed when quality and musicality is the highest priority", according to Arturia.
Each instrument will also receive a free online upgrade this summer – as part of Arturia's 10th anniversary celebration.
Pricing & Availability
Priced at $649 / €549, The 10 Year suite is now shipping. All plug-ins are available for Windows and Mac OS X in stand-alone and VST, AU and RTAS plug-in formats.
Arturia Web

Read more »

Angelina Jolie and Ann Curry at World Refugee day 2009

Actress and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, left, and TV journalist Ann Curry, right, join the commemoration of World refugee Day at the National Geographic Society in Washington


Angelina Jolie has enjoyed a long and successful career as an actress. She has won numerous awards for her work, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in 1999's Girl, Interrupted and three Golden Globe awards. She has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her latest film, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood.
The daughter of thespians Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight, acting was in Jolie's blood. She trained while still a teenager at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she was seen in several stage productions. She later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles.
She began appearing in films and TV production in the mid-1990s, winning a first Golden Globe for her role as the wife of the controversial lead character in the 1997 small screen production of George Wallace. She won a second Golden Globe the following year with her title role in Gia, a TV drama about supermodel Gia Carangi and her struggle with success, drugs and the AIDS that eventually killed her. She also won a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for Gia.
An early film from this time was Playing God and prior to that she starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame's four-hour mini series, True Women, based on Janice Woods Windle's best-selling historical novel. Jolie also starred in Annette Haywood-Carter's acclaimed Foxfire and Iain Softley's Hackers.
She played a rookie police officer opposite Denzel Washington's veteran detective in The Bone Collector, a thriller directed by Phillip Noyce. She also co-starred in Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, while Playing by Heart earned her The National Board of Review's award for Breakthrough Performance.
But her real breakthrough performance came in 1999 with Jolie's mesmerizing portrayal of a mental patient in Girl, Interrupted, which netted her the acting holy grail of a Golden Globe, Oscar and Screen Actors Guild Award. The film, based on a true story by Susanna Kayson, was directed by James Mangold and co-starred Winona Ryder.
Jolie followed this in 2001 with the phenomenally successful Tomb Raider, which was partly shot in Cambodia and helped her become a Hollywood superstar. In 2003, she filmed a sequel - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life.
The start of the new millenium was a busy period for Jolie, who appeared with Nicolas Cage and Robert Duvall as car thieves committing their final heist in the smash hit, Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). She was seen opposite Antonio Banderas in and was also in the romantic comedy, Life or Something Like It (2002).
In 2004, Jolie starred in the thriller, Taking Lives, with Ethan Hawke, a year after portraying a United Nations relief worker in the provocative drama, Beyond Borders. In 2005, the actress co-starred with Brad Pitt in an amusing remake, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She also appeared in Oliver Stone's ancient Greece epic, Alexander, and action/ adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. She lent her voice to animated feature Shark Tale. One of her co-stars was Jack Black and the two teamed up again in 2008 for another animated film, the hugely popular Kung Fu Panda.
In 2006, she appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, a film about the early history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon. She played Margaret Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. The following year, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time, which captures life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week.
In the same year, Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's documentary-style drama, A Mighty Heart, about the 2002 kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. The film earned her fifth Golden Globe nomination and her third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. She also played Grendel's mother in Robert Zemeckis' animated epic, Beowulf.
Her most recent films are Wanted, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Mark Millar, Kung Fu Panda and Changeling, which is inspired by events that occurred in Los Angeles during the 1920s. It tells the story of a woman driven to confront a corrupt LA Police Department after a boy believed to be her abducted son is not the boy she gave birth to.
Angelina Jolie/Wikipedia

Read more »

Akai APC40 ABLETON PERFORMANCE CONTROLLER

Ableton Live software is a powerful, flexible environment for creating, performing, and producing music. This unique software demands an equally unique control instrument. Akai Professional and Ableton are proud to present the APC40: the Ableton Performance Controller. Combining the APC40 with Ableton Live transforms your experience from constructing tracks on a computer to fluid, musical creation.





The APC40 is the link between human and computer that perfectly balances analytical parameter control with creative expression. Whether you are an electronic music artist and Live is your canvass, a DJ using Live to mix or remix tracks, or a more traditional musician using Live on stage or in the studio, you will find the APC40 to the intuitive, powerful instrument that directly links your inspiration with Ableton Live.

DIRECT DESIGN
Because Akai Professional and Ableton designed the APC40 specifically for Ableton Live, you don’t need to map its controls to talk to the software. Just connect your laptop to the APC40 via USB and you're ready to make magic. The APC40 is plug and play, so you don't need to install drivers. First-time setup is literally three steps: load Ableton Live, plug in and power up your APC40, and select the APC40 as Ableton Live's controller. That's it. No mapping, no setup, no hassles.

The APC40 comes pre-mapped for instant use with Ableton Live software, so if you're new to it, you'll find using the APC40 to be easy to get around on. And if you’re an experienced Live user, you'll be happy to note that you can custom-map every single knob, button, and fader on the APC40 to completely customize the controls for the way you like to work.
Key Features
Designed in partnership with Ableton for Ableton Live
Unique clip matrix with multicolor lighting displays current clip status
No mapping required; every knob, button, and fader is customizable
Bidirectional communication between APC40 and Ableton Live
Solid, professional feel with rugged, metal chassis and premium controls
Comes with Ableton Live Akai Professional APC40 Edition software
Works with standalone editions of Ableton Live
USB plug-and-play connection for Mac and PC
Premium controller with rugged, metal chassis
Includes:
APC40 Ableton performance controller
USB cable
Power supply
Software CD
Quick start guide

VDO from Stephan Vankov

Read more »

Record from Propellerhead

Tech Info
Multi-core
Record makes use of extremely efficient multi-core audio rendering, making the software very lightweight, even with large projects.

Record's dynamic multi-core audio rendering improves performance without introducing any latency. It is future proof, making use of as many processors or processor cores as your operating system can handle.
Plenty of ins and outs
More ins and outs than you can shake a wand, baton or even a cane at. Got a multi-channel audio interface? With Record you can use up to 64 input channels simultaneously – and up to 64 simultaneous output channels. Should you ever feel the need.
Works with any audio interface
Record's rock solid audio implementation will support any audio card with Core Audio drivers on Mac OS X or ASIO drivers on Windows.
Reason integration
If you have Reason registered and installed on your computer, all your favorite Reason devices will automatically be available within Record's ever-expandable, multiple racks. No setting up. It just works.
ReWire synth application
Use Record as a ReWire slave. Record interfaces with most audio applications on the market through Propellerhead Software's ReWire technology. ReWire is a virtual multi-cable that handles up to 64 channels of streaming audio, as well as MIDI, sync and transport controls between applications.

Read more »

SOCIAL NETWORKING:350+ Social Networking

Books:
Americabookshelf.com – One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.
BooksConnect – A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.
BookCrossing.com – A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.
Bookhopper.co.uk – Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.
Bookins.com – Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.
BookMooch.com – An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.
Booksalescout.com – Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.
Bookswim.com – Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.
ConnectViaBooks – A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.
GoodReads – GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.
PaperBackSwap.com – Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.
Pazap.com – A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.
Read It Swap It – A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.
Revish – Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.
Shelfari – Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.
Socialbib – Book swapping network between students.

Business Networking & Professionals:
AdvisorGarage – It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.

ArtBreak – ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.

Blogtronix – Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.

Commutal – Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.

CompanyLoop – An online co-working community for global businesses.

ConnectBeam – Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.

Decorati – An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.

DoMyStuff – A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.

Doostang – An invite only career community for professionals.

Fast Pitch – It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.

iKarma Inc. – iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.

ImageKind – ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.

Jambo – Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.

Jigsaw – An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.

Konnects – Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.

Lawyrs – A professional social networking community for lawyers.

Linkedin – LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.

mediabistro.com – mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.

Pairup.com – Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.

Ryze.com – A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.

Spoke.com – Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.

Visible Path – Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.

WebCrossing Neighbors – It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.

XING – XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.

Read more »