Hollywood, CA – July 2008… In what may well prove to be the biggest movie of summer 2008, the forthcoming August 1st Universal Pictures release of Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor marks the third film in the Mummy franchise. Staring Brendan Fraser, who reprises his role as explorer Rick O’Connell, the film’s soundtrack was composed by Randy Edelman, winner of 10 BMI Film Music Awards and was mixed and engineered by music scoring mixer Elton Ahi. Collectively, Edelman and Ahi have created a dazzling soundtrack to director Rob Cohen’s breath-taking onscreen visuals—and it was accomplished using Q10 reference monitors from Equator Audio Research. more

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, JULY 24, 2008 – Although it is one of Nashville’s newest recording facilities, Alpha Studios Nashville is already making a splash not only within the local music scene but internationally as well. Included in its arsenal of new state-of-the-art gear are Aviom’s Personal Mixers, which are powered by A-Net®, the company’s groundbreaking high-speed digital audio transmission protocol. Musicians benefit from the increased monitoring control during recording sessions, and the studio enjoys the competitive advantage offered by having the mixers. more

Burbank, CA… Mojave Audio, a company founded by David Royer (known for his work with ribbon microphones) is pleased to announce the introduction of the Mojave Audio MA-201fet Cardioid Condenser Microphone. Evolving from David’s 20-plus years as a designer of custom microphones, the MA-201fet is an ideal choice for recording vocals, dialog work of all types (including broadcast and voiceovers), recording acoustic instruments such as guitar, piano, and wind instruments, as well as choral work. Additionally, this new microphone is a great choice for kick drum, bass amps, drum overheads, capturing drum room sounds, and orchestral recording. more

OXFORD, ENGLAND— Sometimes you reach a time when you are so excited about what you’ve achieved you simply have to stand up and tell the world about it — and for us at Solid State Logic this is one of those moments. more

Steinberg Ships Sequel 2 and add-on content

Steinberg North America today announced the shipping of Sequel 2, a new version of Steinberg’s successful music creation and live performance software. Sequel 2 introduces new features, including a hardware Controller Learn mode, Track Freeze, a virtual keyboard, Track Icons and many more.

“This new release builds on the successful launch of Sequel last year, with more functionality that makes music creation even more creative and fun, while making no compromises on ease-of-use and accessibility,” comments Nadine Roos, Steinberg’s Marketing Manager for Sequel. “Many Cubase owners will also find Sequel an attractive, mobile composition tool for sketching out musical ideas, with the included content and the new Sequel Content Sets add even more audio content to fuel creativity.”

The new features include a unique Controller Learn Mode, which allows extremely easy setup for almost any hardware controller to offer tactile control over practically any Sequel 2 function, instrument or parameter. Track Freeze enhances CPU efficiency, while the new Track Icons visually label tracks, making them easy to find and adding an attractive new element to the Sequel user interface. The Sequel MediaBay sound management system has also been improved, while new the new Audio Reverse effect and the Audio Warp features offer even more creative options.

Steinberg has also released three new Sequel Content Sets for the genres of Rock, Industrial and Hip Hop. Each content set adds 200-300 top quality loops in the respective style, and are available from www.steinberg.net.

Sequel 2 is currently available at authorized Steinberg retailers for $99. Updates to Sequel 2 from the previous version are available exclusively from Steinberg’s online store for $29.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – BBE Sound, provider of high definition sound technology for both the professional audio and consumer electronic markets, recently constructed its own recording studio within its warehouse space at its Huntington Beach, California headquarters. With that, BBE Sound took inventory of Auralex Acoustics’ best-selling acoustical treatments and expert acoustical recommendations, to treat the space from the initial stages of the project.

The studio project, spearheaded by Paul Gagon, VP of engineering at BBE Sound, was constructed over several years. And, as an engineer, he was able to customize it, accordingly. Being familiar with acoustics, he created a studio with nonparallel walls, to reduce reflected sound and unnecessary echoes. He was also conscious of isolation issues, being that the studio is located within its corporate headquarters. more

Buma/Stemra issues Beatport.com a Pan-European License

Hoofddorp/Denver (CO), 21 July – Beatport, the world’s leading online electronic music retailer has signed a licence agreement for author’s rights with Buma/Stemra covering all of the world’s music repertoire. The license applies throughout the entire European Union. Buma/Stemra is the only music copyright organisation so far to issue such a Pan-European licence. The licence model offered by Buma/Stemra provides online music service providers with a one-stop shop for authors’ rights for music for 27 European countries.

“Beatport has partnered with the world’s leading artists and record labels to bring their content to a growing online community of DJs and enthusiasts who are looking to legally purchase electronic music in premium encoded, non-DRM formats,” says Jonas Tempel, CEO of Beatport.

The company has taken a proactive decision to adjust its business practices to meet the requirements of rapidly changing copyright administration across Europe. From its inception, the Denver, USA-based Beatport has accounted and paid all publishing royalties to its label partners as required under US laws. However, Beatport’s European label partners reported difficulties in effectively disbursing this publishing income to the relevant rights owners. In order to address and resolve this problem Beatport has over the last 18 months thoroughly explored all possible solutions to cause the publishing income from sales in Europe to be paid more efficiently to the relevant rights owners. After extensive research and discussions, Beatport has teamed with the Dutch society Buma/Stemra to create the perfect partnership for this transition.

“Not only is the Netherlands home for some of electronic music’s greatest producers and DJs,” said Jonas Tempel, “but now, Buma/Stemra has matched that spirit of innovation by currently being the only European music copyright organisation to provide a Pan-European licence that covers all of the world’s music repertoire, greatly simplifying the process of paying royalties.”

This licensing model allows Beatport to efficiently take care of the music copyright payments for all of Europe in a single transaction. Jonas Tempel went on to say, “In addition, I am impressed with the quality of Buma/Stemra’s services, and the organisation is making serious investments in innovation as well as blazing the trail in the development of new online licensing models in the midst of a rapidly changing market.”

This is not the first time that Buma/Stemra has issued such a Pan-European licence. The American online music store eMusic has also concluded a similar agreement with Buma/Stemra, allowing it to launch its online music subscription model in 27 European countries in a single transaction.

Cees Vervoord, CEO of Buma/Stemra, is excited about this latest agreement: “The license agreement with Beatport, which many international music users and right holders are watching with great interest, puts Buma/Stemra in a leading position internationally with respect to the rollout and implementation of competitive new licensing models in line with the needs of today’s market. This allows Buma/Stemra to continue to represent the interests of all music authors and publishers in the Dance scene (both Dutch and international), in an effective manner.”

One-stop shop

The Pan-European agreements Buma/Stemra has signed with Beatport and eMusic are in line with the European Commission’s intentions to end the traditional system of territorially restricted collective management in which the music copyright organisations each hold a monopoly in their own country and online licences are issued separately for each EU member state. Without the approach offered by Buma/Stemra, music retailers need to make 27 stops, one in each country, to take care of the music copyrights. This results in endless administrative and fiscal complications. Buma/Stemra acknowledges the need for competition between the various European music copyright organisations and has, in keeping with the requirements of both the European Commission and the online music market, developed and fully stands behind a one-stop-shop model that allows music users to obtain a single licence to exploit authors’ rights in all the European Union.

The licensing model is based on retaining the world’s music repertoire for every European music copyright organisation. The royalty rates applied through this multi-territorial license are the tariffs set in the country where the copyright is to be exploited (sometimes called the “country of destination” principle or the “country of usage”). In other words, music used in, say, Germany will be accounted for on the basis of the tariffs in use in Germany; music used in Spain will be subject to royalty payments on the basis of the tariff in use there. The advantage of this model is that competition between collecting societies offering multi-territorial licenses takes place on the basis of the costs and services of the music copyright organisations and not on the royalty rates paid to rightsholders. The income of authors, composers and music publishers is thus safeguarded from any downward pressure which might occur in the case of unbridled competition. This model for a one-stop-shop is a highly efficient way for both the music user and the rights holder to make licensing arrangements throughout Europe.

Peachtree City, GA, July 21, 2008—Avastor, a leading manufacturer of ultimate storage solutions for audio/video professionals, introduces its new line of SDX portable hard disk drives. Targeting the prosumer market – as well as the pro market – the SDX line is more competitively priced than the highly popular HDX drive which offers the ultimate in external professional portable storage. more

New York, NY - July 2008… Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is, unquestionably, one of rap and hip-hop music’s most prolific talents. In addition to his marquee status as a performer, Diddy is also an accomplished record producer, actor, and all-around entrepreneur. He oversees his Warner Music Group-affiliated Bad Boy Records and also serves as producer of MTV’s Making the Band. Daddy’s House Recording Studio—located in the heart of midtown Manhattan—is the private production facility where a huge percentage of Diddy’s musical efforts take shape. This is a cutting edge studio in every sense of the word, and among its most recent acquisitions is a pair of Q15 studio reference monitors from Equator Audio Research. more

Composer Duane Neillson Creates Original Music With Propellerhead Reason For The Emmy Award-Nominated Sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris”

Composer/musical creator Duane Neillson is the man behind the music on hit TV shows including “Dr. Phil”, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Insider”, “Rachael Ray”, and a host of other productions for CBS/Paramount and Warner Brothers. But it wasn’t that long ago, four years to be exact, that he was toiling away at a day job and dreaming of a career in music. Neillson finally took the leap, trading an office cubicle for a full-time music career. As a long-time Reason devotee, Neillson used the software solely to create music for the Emmy Award-nominated sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris”, allowing him the flexibility, and the inspiration, to create under what are often deadline-driven conditions.

“I chose Reason for “EHC” specifically because of my ability to tailor the synths and loops to match the theme and musical decade of the show, which is ‘80s Hip-Hop and R&B tracks. Sometimes I’ll get a call or an email at the end of the day, and the producers will need an idea, or more often a few different ideas, for first thing in the morning. And it isn’t a problem. The volume of choices available to me within Reason, even before taking into consideration the thousands of Refill packages, is pretty amazing! Reason does the job perfectly. Even using the mastering suite within Reason helps me get that fat, funky hard edge, which I couldn’t get from any other music applications that I use. And Reason really is an inspirational tool, as well.”

Neillson cites a host of other features in Reason that help streamline his burgeoning musical tasks. “What I love most, other than sound quality, is having total recall; the ability to automate basically everything and with Reason and specifically, the ease of use and ReWire integration with my main host recording applications. And even though my tracks are fairly sparse, they can become heavily processed with effects, e.g., compression, EQ, reverb, delay, etc., so Reason’s CPU efficiency is invaluable.”

Propellerhead ReFills figure significantly into his work, be it Reason Strings, Reason Pianos or Reason Drums. Neillson says his favorite Reason rack device has to be the Dr. Rex loop player. “I’ve literally done entire cues, with almost nothing else. I do my drums, bass, key/synth, horns, guitars, vocal snippets, scratching, whatever it is. That’s where I tend to start at least for the music I do for “EHC”. A lot of the time, I might go back and play the parts on a similar sounding synth or live instrument, but in most cases, it’s 95% Dr. Rex for the initial creation, and very often the final product.”

For more on Duane Neillson, and to sample some of his musical compositions, go to:

http://www.myspace.com/duaneneillson.

About Propellerhead Software

Propellerhead Software is a privately owned company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Formed in 1994, Propellerhead has created some of the most innovative new music software (ReBirth, ReCycle and Reason) and technology standards, including ReWire and the REX file format, which are used extensively in all kinds of music production. Propellerhead ReBirth program was the first virtual emulation of vintage analog gear—a trend that now dominates music software. www.propellerheads.se