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How To Make It In Nashville

Hal Leonard's Making the Scene: Nashville shows you how to succeed in Music City


Hal Leonard tells us that a new series on living in arts, entertainment, and media centers begins with a step-by-step guide to establishing yourself in Nashville, Tenn: Making the Scene: Nashville - How to Live, Network, and Succeed in Music City by Liam Sullivan. Here's their press release with the details...

How hot is Nashville? So hot that when ABC was looking for a setting for a musical/drama series to compete with Fox's Glee and NBC's Smash, it landed in Music City, U.S.A. Aspiring singer-songwriters, country music fans, and musicians of all stripes inspired by ABC's Nashville to move to country music's hometown will find a wealth of invaluable information about what it will take to make their mark in Making the Scene: Nashville - How to Live, Network, and Succeed in Music City by Liam Sullivan.

One could argue that moving to Nashville is the easy part. Getting acclimated and gaining a foothold in the Nashville music scene can be another story. Making the Scene: Nashville addresses those challenges, while serving as a comprehensive guide for musicians and artists looking to move to and establish themselves in the city. Making the Scene: Nashville is filled with interviews with Music Industry professionals, who provide insight into how the music scene in Nashville works and what the best plan of attack is for hitting the big time.

There are also uplifting and heartwarming interviews with singer-songwriters from around the country who have made the move and embrace Nashville as their new musical home. Music venues in Nashville are plentiful and bustling with singers and songwriters every night, and Sullivan lays out a step-by-step approach to figuring out not only how to get gigs, but also understanding how the music business in Nashville works. With the help of interviews with a host of Music Row professionals, Making the Scene: Nashville covers every facet of Nashville's music scene: from tips to performing "live" to understanding music publishing terms that every musician should know. Sullivan explains the best way to approach an open mic or writer's night, and maps out the most musician-friendly neighborhoods. He also looks at Nashville's hundred years of music history, important to know when speaking with music publishers and executives alike.

Van Morrison once said, "Music is spiritual, but the music business is not." From where to buy gear to where to see live music and where to network and exchange ideas with other musicians, Making the Scene: Nashville provides the tools newcomers will need to meet the challenges of the business and make the move to Nashville.

About the author
Liam Sullivan is an active musician and is currently creative director of Tricktones LLC, a music production company. Sullivan spent the past 15 years as an executive with music magazines, holding positions with Spin and Entertainment Weekly. Previously, he founded Vertigo Magazine, a cutting-edge guide for adventurous tourists in New York City, and Linx, a step-by-step walking guide through the streets of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Pricing and Availability:
$19.99

More information:
www.halleonardbooks.com

Windows 8 Compared To Windows 7

Rain Computers UK releases the results of their Windows 8 audio performance testing


Rain Computers UK, builders of bespoke computers for audio and video production, have released the results of their Windows 8 audio performance testing. Focusing on plug-in and VST Instrument performance withinCubase and across three different systems they compare the ASIO performance of Windows 8 with Windows 7 and get some very pleasing results. All the results and explanations can be seen on the YouTube video and in the article at the URL listed below.

Robin Vincent from Rain UK shares some of his pros and cons about the new OS and sums up by saying that"audio performance should not be a reason to shy away from Windows 8".

More information:
Windows 8 audio performance testing

Producer Loops Releases Future Progressive Trance Vol 2

Five more construction kits from The Madison


Future Progressive Trance Vol 2 from The Madison and Producer Loops is the second in this collection of five construction kits that they say are designed to push the boundaries of Progressive Trance.

A spokesperson told Sonic State, "These unique Kits showcase Progressive Trance in all its glory and are loaded with pounding drums and percussion, stunning synths, epic pads, seering leads, amazing FX, fantastic fills, euphoric melodies, driving chunky basslines, and more. The Madison boasts a distinctive production style, recognisable by his trademark delicate melodies, vocal glitches and unapologetic, cone-trembling basslines. By experimenting with state-of-the-art production techniques, while combining the genre's signature elements, he has created a versatile collection of Kits sure to become a staple in any Progressive producer's arsenal."

About The Producer:
Hailing from the Ukraine, a country that continues to emerge with new production talents, Stanislav Nozdrachov or The Madison as you may know him, has leapt to fame, enjoying consistent Beatport Top 100 chart placements and recent success on labels such as Armada, Enhanced and Infrasonic. He has gone on to remix for high profile artists, such as Matt Darey, Tritonal, Susana, Ana Criado, Dennis Sheperd, and many more. Having only been on the global Trance scene for two years, The Madison has already managed to chalk up support from the DJing elite, with Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz, Dash Berlin, and Above and Beyond championing his releases in both live sets and radio shows.

Pricing and Availability:
Future Progressive Trance Vol 2 is available for instant download for £29.95 / 37,19 EUR / $39.59 USD.

More information:
www.producerloops.com

Vestax Announces Spin2 DJ MIDI Controller

Certified by Apple to control applications on Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch


Vestax Corporation has introduced Spin2, which they tell us is the world's first DJ MIDI controller certified by Apple Inc. to control applications on Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Here's what they have to say about it:

Spin2 is an all-in-one 2-channel DJ controller designed together with Algoriddim, the creators of the popular music-mixing djayapps forMac, iPhone and iPad and the video-mixing app vjay for iPad. Spin2 plug & plays with each popular app from Algoriddim, skipping complicated setups to immediately mix songs from iTunes libraries and videos in media libraries.

Spin2 is bundled with djay for Mac and takes full control of all of its essential features with a simplified easy to use layout. DJs can access desired parts of songs instantly with the Touch Strip control, jump to cue points, trigger loops, add effects, play samples, scratch with jog wheels, instantly sync the BPM of songs and record their mixes all from Spin2.

Spin2 supports the new multi-channel and multi-route audio features of Apple's latest iOS 6, which enables DJs to cue and output their mixes in full stereo with their iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Spin2 also supports previous iOS versions by splitting the stereo channel into two mono signals and sending each to master and cue. All songs are processed and output through the studio grade 24bit/48kHz built-in audio interface, with premium sound quality and at its true clarity.

Thanks to the new features of djay for iPad and iPhone, DJs can now browse, preview and purchase iTunes music from within the djay app while mixing with Spin2, save cue points and meta data generated with djay wirelessly to iCloud and stream their mixes wirelessly to Air-play supported devices.

Pricing and Availability:
Suggested Retail Price: $399.00
Availability: December 2012

More information:
Vestax

Mash-Up Of Malfunctions

Prime Loops releases Glitch Hop Revolution


Prime Loops has released the Glitch Hop Revolution sample pack. Their spokesperson told Sonic State,

"Stack my glitch up! We've been compiling a cutting-edge catalogue of revolting errors to bring you Glitch Hop Revolution - a refreshing take on twisted glitch goodness, colliding with a contemporary bass edge! Fresh from the Prime Loops audio lab, this imaginative mash-up of malfunctions is the definitive Glitch Hop sample pack!

We've taken a bass-heavy portion of Hip Hop attitude and put it under a big shiny knife. All the sounds in this pack have been chopped down into irregular rhythms - and then we've chopped them even more. We then left them to simmer over some analogue synth filters and mixed in some seriously fractured frequencies with an added 8-bit essence, made from pure circuit-bent concentrate.

Served up at tempos ranging from 65 to 100bpm, Glitch Hop Revolution stacks up to a mighty 630MB+, offering you an off-the-hook array of Glitch Hop samples! Available exclusively via direct download, every single sample is 100% Royalty free and arrives in stunning 24-bit clarity that will not be compromised, even if you want to stretch or squeeze any of them to your own desired tempo! Integrating these infectious frequencies into your mix could not be easier - simply drag and drop them from the downloaded folder straight into any major software!

Whether your sound is Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Post Dubstep or Electronica or you're looking to push the boundaries and break new ground, Prime Loops invite you to join the Glitch Hop Revolution!"

Pricing and Availability:
£19.95

More information:
Prime Loops

Circuit Bent Casio SK-5 Sampled

Puremagnetik releases Skatik for Ableton Live, Kontakt and Logic


Skatik is a collection of instruments, sound effects, percussion kits and looped digital freak-outs sourced from a heavily circuit bent Casio SK-5.

Puremagnetik tells us that the most interesting on-board sounds have been multi-sampled and then recorded in circuit bent variations. They say that the system sampling engine was exploited for it's lo-fi specification (8bit/9khz) and then under-powered to create exceptionally textured sound effects and percussion kits. At one point during Puremagnetik's modifications they unlocked a mysterious tweak that caused the internal SK-5 sequences to re-arrange themselves randomly and to loop irregularly. They tell us that these bizarre tonal oddities have been meticulously looped and programmed into three large instruments for endless experimentation.

Skatik Features:

• A complete circuit bent Casio SK-5 synthesizer emulation

• Hundreds of high quality samples

• Ableton Live Racks with precise incremental controls

• Kontakt KSP easy edit GUI

• Logic EXS version includes Channel Strip Settings with Logic effects

• EXS Universal file format for easy importing into any audio host

System Requirements:

• Requires Ableton Live 8.3, Kontakt 4, Logic 8 or EXS24 compatible host
• 200 MB of physical RAM
• 100 Megabytes (MB) of free hard disk space

Pricing and Availability:
See website.

More information:
www.puremagnetik.com

Equinox Sounds Releases Modern MIDI Piano Melodies

30 melodic piano loops in MIDI format


Equinox Sounds tells us that Modern MIDI Piano Melodies 3 features 30 fantastic melodic piano loops in MIDI format for creating the melodic foundations for a wide variety of modern music styles like Pop, Dance, Trance, etc.

A spokesperson told Sonic State, "As these piano melodies are supplied in MIDI format, they will provide you with as much flexibility as possible. You can edit and transpose them, assign any sound you want and get your own and original melodic lines. The editing possibilities are endless as you can play the performances at any tempo or pitch without artefacts. You can use these MIDI files as a jumping-off point to start your own track or base your production entirely around them as they are 100% royalty-free."

Features:
• 30 MIDI Piano Melodies
• Suitable for Pop, Dance, Trance and more...
• 100% Royalty-Free

Pricing and Availability:
Modern MIDI Piano Melodies 3 is currently available for $19.95 as a download.

More information:
www.equinoxsounds.com