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ESI ship K.ON controller keyboard

German company ESI tell us that they are now starting shipping of the new K.ON controller keyboard in Europe. Availability in North America will follow within a month.
ESI say that, equipped with a stable aluminum cabinet, K.ON is not only stylish, but perfectly optimized for professional usage live on stage or in any studio environment. Various faders and dials as controllers are provided, allowing remote control of software and hardware synthesizers. K.ON has a total of 4 expansion slots, compatible with existing synthesizer modules from other vendors and with forthcoming expansions from ESI. One of the expansion slots is occupied by the standard I/O board featuring support to bus-power the keyboard via USB and making it compatible with all current Windows versions (incl. Vista 32- and 64-bit) as well as Mac OS X (incl. Leopard).
Features

• 3 digit LED display
• 9 endles dials
• 9 faders
• modulation wheel / pitch bend
• numeric keypad
• transport control buttons
• various editing functions for programming
• power supplied via USB or optional external power supply
• expandable via 4 expansion slots on backside
• Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Mac OS X 10.3 (and higher) compatible
• bundled with Steinberg Cubase LE 4.0 for PC and Mac

Pricing and Availability:
K.ON has a MSRP of 599 EUR.

More information:

• www.esi-audio.com

Featuring a total of 400 R&B keyboard music loops, Modern Beats proudly delivers its new “RnB Keyz Loops” library. The set includes a wide array of professional keyboard hooks and riffs for today’s serious R&B music producer. Years of music theory, performance technique, and dynamics have been poured into the music loops library, providing music producers with over 440MB of skilled performances. ‘RnB Keyz Loops’ provides users with both style and sophistication with its numerous arpeggios performed in both major and minor scales, and elegant chord progressions ranging from simple to complex (7th, 9th, & 11th chords).

‘RnB Keyz Loops’ is organized into 5 popular R&B industry tempos: 64bpm, 69bpm, 74bpm, 79bpm, and 84bpm. Each tempo group contains 20 original loop themes with 4 variation loops within each theme: “Hook1″, “Hook2″, “Verse1″, and “Verse2″. Additionally, each tempo group features unique key signatures:

• 64bpm = Key of D major/minor, 80 loops
• 69bpm = Key of A major/minor, 80 loops
• 74bpm = Key of C major/minor, 80 loops
• 79bpm = Key of E major/minor, 80 loops
• 84bpm = Key of G major/minor, 80 loops

‘RnB Keyz Loops’ comes in sample accurate, stereo acidized WAV format. Compatible with Fruity Loops, Acid Pro, Cubase, Sonar, ProTools, or any software reading WAV. The loops library is offered both on CD-ROM or as a download and is priced at $59.95.

For more information, visit their web site at www.modernbeats.com.

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IK Multimedia is pleased to announce that SampleMoog™, the Moog™ Synth Anthology Virtual Instrument, is now shipping. SampleMoog is the first release of the new Sonik Instruments’ range, and is a cooperation between IK Multimedia, Moog Music® and Sonic Reality. SampleMoog includes the sounds of all the most sought-after Moog synthesizers spanning the entire Moog history, in an easy-to-use, sample-based virtual instrument “powered by SampleTank” and is available as a plug-in for popular DAWs and as a standalone application for Mac and PC.

SampleMoog offers over 1,700 basses, leads, pads and effects’ sounds from the very first Moog Modular to a variety of different Minimoogs to Taurus Bass Pedals, Polymoogs, Memorymoogs and more. Whether you want a lead sound or a phat R&B synth bass or swirling FX, this is the ultimate source for everything Moog! Load up monster analog modular synth patches or the powerful rumbling sound of Moog Taurus™ I Bass pedals and shake the house! SampleMoog takes you back in time to the days of analog and honors one of the founding fathers of synthesis, Bob Moog. An homage to the incredible range of instruments from the first Etherwave® Theremin to the latest Minimoog® Voyager®, this virtual instrument is a must-have for any fan of the “Moog Sound” as well as an analog synth powerhouse for any musical style.

Software features

SampleMoog is based on the SampleTank engine, offering unique proprietary features like one-click sound browsing, multiple synth-engines including real-time harmonic manipulation of the waves, built-in vintage multi-effects and fast loading samples for studio or playing live. SampleMoog not only brings you the classic analog sound of Moog but also goes far beyond by combining it with the modern technology of the SampleTank engine, which includes physical modeling effects and IK’s exclusive STRETCH™.

• 16 part multi-timbral sample-based synth
• Stand-alone and plug-in for VST, AU, RTAS on Mac/PC
• 2 synth engines (Resampling and STRETCH™)
• Built-in multi-effects with 4 effects per part selectable on 32 high-quality DSP effects, with BPM sync
• Over 50 synth controls with Mono/Poly/Legato modes with selectable Legato, 2 LFOs, 2 Envelopes, syncable LBF/BPF/HPF Filters, Velocity, Range and Macro controls
• Sounds can also be read by SampleTank 2.5 and up

Sound features

16 highly acclaimed Moog synthesizers have been meticulously sampled and expertly programmed by IK and Sonic Reality’s sound designers. There are over 600 multi-sampled sounds with over 1,000 preset patches totaling more than 4GB of samples in SampleMoog, from the rarest vintage models to the most modern top of the range Moog synthesizers, including:

• Modular Moog 3C
• Modular Moog 15
• Modular Moog 55
• Minimoog® Model D
• Polymoog
• Moog Taurus™ I
• Moog Prodigy
• Moog Multimoog
• Moog Vocoder
• Moog/Realistic Concertmate MG-1
• Moog Source
• Moog Rogue
• Memorymoog
• Etherwave® Theremin
• Moog Voyager®
• Moog Little Phatty®

SampleMoog has a list price of 249/$299 and will be available from all IK dealers and resellers within this month.

For more information, visit their web site at www.ikmultimedia.com.

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AudioWarrior has introduced a 6-string acoustic dreadnought guitar to its collection of KONTAKT 2 instruments.

The 6 String Acoustic Strummer is a special featured virtual rhythm guitar that will Auto-Strum in any key and any tempo with a wide variety of songwriting chords that can be used to build complete rhythm guitar tracks via AudioWarrior’s exclusive iStrum® MIDI Patterns and AudioWarrior’s Pat Pending G-Mapped chords. (more…)

The new version of Public Beta features RTAS for Digidesign Pro Tools M-Powerered, LE and TDM users as well as optimisations for Imageline FL Studio 7 and Ableton Live. It also includes beta support for Cakewalk Sonar and Steinberg Nuendo as well beta support for Microsoft Windows Vista 32. (more…)

Operating System Version 1.5 for the Pa800, Korg’s most recent arranger keyboard, has been released. As usual, the new OS is freely downloadable from Korg Italy’s web site, and is easily installed by the user.

The new operating system includes important new features and enhancements, such as dual MP3 files playback, MP3 recording, Guitar Mode, a Master EQ and direct on-screen manipulation of sliders and knobs - and much more. (more…)

Korg USA has introduced a new, artist-driven educational feature on their website.

ProSessions is a monthly series of metronome-based practice videos featuring a lineup of professional musicians such as guitarists, keyboardists, percussionists and bassists. They are designed to help players learn from the pros to get the most out of their practice time and sharpen their timing. (more…)