Facelift is a removable and reusable guitar body overlay, allowing you to alter the cosmetics of your guitar on the cheap and in a jiffy. You can also quickly remove the decal if you don’t like it, and store it away for later use.

I’m surprised it took somebody so long to develop this idea. We’ve even had Fatheads, giant stickers you can put on your walls (yes, the walls of your HOUSE), for years now. There are companies that make giant decals that you can cover your car in, and let us not forget the ever exploding cell-phone customization industry. We’ve put stickers on just about everything in our worlds, so much so that we’ve virtually transported ourselves to Little Big Planet; but nobody thought to put it on a guitar?

I’m not a fan of most of the designs, they’re just not my taste. A couple of them have me “facelift-curious” though. It’s tough to tell how good they look without seeing them in person, but they must be pretty keen if they won NAMM’s “Best In Show.” They’re priced at just under $30, taking in to account the exchange rate for USD, which is a fair price to reinvent your guitar.

Kudos to Facelift for beating everybody else to the punch!

You can read more about Facelift here.

Facelift Wins NAMM 09 “Best In Show” is a post from: wax&wires

Though I’m not sure how useful the “step squencer” mode would be with just 4 pads and 4 tracks per bank, the ease of use for hooking it into your computer is a big plus. I also think that producers will be reluctant to jump on board with it simply because they want something that can operate in stand alone mode, which is where MOTU’s BPM one-ups the NI. I would say that if you’re looking for a stand alone groove box, with some added functionality, go with MOTU’s BPM. If you’re used to making loops in the computer, and you want an interface that can help you speed up your workflow, go with Maschine.

Native Instruments released some pretty funny commercials for the Maschine, which you can see on their site here.

Native Instruments Maschine is a post from: wax&wires

MOTU BPM is a post from: wax&wires

Here’s a quote from Paul Smith himself:

“I met Doug Sewell at the Dallas International Guitar Show several years ago and needed an amp for that evening’s performance, so I borrowed one of his and was floored. We started working on this series and tried every conceivable component and circuit combination. Derek Trucks, David Grissom and several other known amp tone artists are now using this new amplifier line both live and in the studio. We’re pleased to be working with Doug and to have him leading the PRS amp team.”

PRS will start its life as an amp maker with three models:

Dallas:
Reminiscent of classic 6L6 American reverb amps, our Dallas model offers sweet highs, solid lows and modest midrange. This model gives you an open 3D tone for huge sounding cleans. The Dallas amp leans toward the clean side but moderately overdrives nicely.

Blue Sierra:
Evocative of classic British and American amps – but with a distinct Texas attitude – the Blue Sierra offers gain structured for equally great cleans to medium gain overdrive tones. With the Blue Sierra it’s easy to get a big 3D sound and hard to get a bad one at any setting. Available in EL34 or 6L6.

Original Sewell:
Recalling the complex tones and harmonics of 50′s era amps, the Original Sewell brings you sweet highs and tight lows that surround a warm midrange. The Original Sewell has a smooth tone that was crafted to give an expressive, vocal quality to lead work. Notes bloom and sustain with rich harmonics enhancing your fundamental notes. Available in EL34 or 6L6.

I’m a bit surprised not to see a 6V6 or EL84 amp in the line up. I also wonder if the amps will be custom made to each owner like a smaller boutique company, or if they’ll mass distribute them through the lanes that PRS  has established through the years. My guess would be that they would develop a structure similar to Mesa/Boogie with production models that you can pick up at any local Guitar Center, and then a custom line only available at certain shops and through the company directly (like their current “Private Stock” line for guitars).

Here’s a quick video of Derek Trucks (The Allman Brothers Band) talking about why he likes his PRS amp:

One thing is for certain, they put a great skin on the amps and they really turned out beautiful.

You can see more pics, and learn more about the PRS line of amplifiers by visiting the PRS site.

PRS Unleashes Tube Amp Line Up is a post from: wax&wires

Yesterday, I wrote about the Vox AC4TV. Here’s a quick look at another one of their new amps, the Night Train.

The Night Train is a small and portable all-tube head. It looks to be about the size of a THD Univalve, and weighs less than 17 pounds. It comes with a padded carrying case for easy gigging.

Where it really makes me happy is the dual-power tube mode. You can elect to run it in 15-watt pentode mode, or 7.5 watt triode mode. That’s a great feature to let you dial in some great overdrive in smaller rooms and at practice, but flip a switch to give yourself enough headroom on stage.

You can read more about the Vox Night Train here.

Vox Is Ruling The Amp Front At NAMM 09 is a post from: wax&wires

At NAMM yesterday, Roland revealed that the now-popular neo-new-wave instrument has been reissued with some major improvements, including:

• Built-in sound engine with Roland synth voices
• Ribbon controller, D-Beam (in a usable location this time), Modulation bar, Knobs, and Display
• USB MIDI for quick connection to your computer
• V-Link button for video/visual control
• Longer battery life

So keyboard players, you’ll still look dorky and awkward, but now you can do it standing up!

You can read more about the AX-Synth here.

Roland Resurrects The Keytar is a post from: wax&wires

1) It looks better. Check it out in the picture above. It’s much sleeker than the old clunky Axiom.
2) Semi-weighted “TruTouch” keybed. I think TruTouch is just the fancy name their giving to standard semi-weighted keys.
3) HyperControl technology. This looks to be just like Novation’s AutoMap feature for automatic MIDI mapping and updating. A great addition to the keyboard, enabling users to map triggers, knobs, and faders to the appropriate control for their software synth.
4) Graphic LCD. The display will hopefully ease programming and preset creation, though I haven’t seen how intuitive it is or not.
5) ASCII Keystroke Support. You can map buttons on the Axiom Pro to send out QWERTY key commands to your DAW. So I could have a button on the Axiom Pro that would be “Cmd+C” to copy, another for “Cmd+V” to paste, another for “Cmd+S” to save etc. That’s a great convenience feature.

It’s looking to be priced a bit high for my taste at $500 for the 25-key, $600 for the 49-key, and $700 for the 61-key give or a take a bit for the difference in MSRP and MAP. That makes it about twice as expensive as the current Axiom.

All in all, it looks like a great step forward from the old Axiom, but I’m not sure if I’m jumping on one just yet if those prices are accurate. You can read more about it here.

M-Audio Introduces Axiom Pro is a post from: wax&wires

The APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller) is a dedicated controller for Ableton Live, designed by the same engineering team responsible for Akai’s iconic MPC range of products. This is a dream come true for the Ableton Live community and an exciting first step into the world of Ableton Live for new users.

The APC40 features high quality controls for real-time mixing, remixing and production. 109 buttons, 16 endless encoders with LED rings, nine 45mm faders and a replaceable crossfader give musicians and producers complete control of Live’s Session View, effect devices and virtual instruments.

Whether you’re in the studio or on stage, DJing, making beats, running backing tracks, firing MIDI loops or triggering sound effects, you can kiss your mouse goodbye.

The APC40 was co-designed by Ableton and Akai Professional.

Learn more here.

Akai APC40 For Ableton Live is a post from: wax&wires

I’m excited!

So I’m still on Live 6 since I didn’t see anything in Live 7 that made me want to make the jump. Live 8 has wooed me over, and the update definitely earns the version change from 7 to 8.

There are far too many features for me to write an in depth take on each, so I’ll list my favorites out and give some more details later:

NEW EFFECTS:
VOCODER. We won’t be stuck routing MDA Stereo and Vocoder around now, as Live 8 includes it.
MULTIBAND COMPRESSION. Select up to 3 bands to compress different frequency bands to varying degrees.
OVERDRIVE. Basic drive modeler.
FREQUENCY SHIFTER. Ring modulator and flange effects.
LIMITER. New “brick wall” limiter.

EASY LIVE LOOPING:
No more tedious session view sets or external programs to assign complex key commands to single midi notes. The new live looper auto-detects your tempo so that you no longer need a click track to loop yourself live. All features are controllable from a single footswitch.

CROSSFADES IN ARRANGEMENT VIEW:
One of the few things that slowed me down when working and editing in live (versus ProTools) was being able to comp takes together with quick crossfading. Live 8 has it. Maybe I’ll cancel my PT8 order…

TRACK GROUPING:
Again, something that held my main editing to PT. Link tracks together to preserve the relationships between them, but adjust overall parameters with ease.

SCREEN MAGNIFICATION:
Pretty self explanatory. This will help a lot when playing live.

SAMPLE SCRUBBING AND PREVIEW:
Listen through a sample without having to drag it into the session. I used to use SoundHack Instant Player for this. Now that it’s embedded in Live, working should go much faster.

SHARING!!!
Share live sets with others. Click “Share Live Set” to have your live set uploaded to the Ableton server. You can make it private or publicly accessible. It gets a dedicated webpage on the Ableton server that you can send to collaborators to give them access to the files. It only updates the files that have changed since you last worked on the session to keep upload time to a minimum. It also lets you continue working on your set while it uploads in the background. Collaborators can then download the set and upload their versions, again only having to download or upload the files that have been modified to save time. Brilliant.

MAX/MSP INTEGRATION:
I’ve been a user of PD for years, and have loved MAX/MSP for creating custom plug-ins that I couldn’t find on the market. This will be a HUGE bonus to Live 8 for me, so much so that I’ll need to create another post for it in the future.

HARDWARE INTERFACE AKAI APC40:
Think of it as a fully programmable MPC controller, custom tailored to Live. Ditch your mouse and keyboard during live sets. The APC40 makes Live use much more intuitive and natural in a live environment. More on this one to come too.

There are some great details and videos on Ableton’s site.

This has easily become the first thing I will pick up of all the things at NAMM 2009.

Ableton Live 8!!! is a post from: wax&wires

Tycoon Percussion hopes to help you ditch some of those awkward mic stands with the e-Cajon. This is the first professional cajon with a built-in pick-up, amp, and speaker. It also has an output jack and volume control allowing you to feed it to a PA. It even has an input jack to let you play long with your iPod. I think the input jack is a bit gimmicky, and the speaker too, but the output jack is very practical. Tycoon’s e-Cajon is available in a variety of really nice woods to keep it pretty on stage.

No word on the price yet, but you can keep checking their website for more.

Tycoon Percussion Displays e-Cajon is a post from: wax&wires

Universal Audio has now announced the UAD-2 SOLO/Laptop, and ExpressCard version of the UAD-2 SOLO DSP accelerator card. That means you get top of the line emulations of Neve, Roland, SPL, Moog, and other great analog products on your laptop; and all without taxing your processor! It supports VST, AU, and RTAS plugs on both Mac and PC platforms.

Expect to see it host UA’s 1176SE Compressor/Limiter, Pultec EQP-1A EQ, RealVerb Pro Room Modeler and the CS-1 Channel strip. You can also add plug-ins for an additional cost down the line.

It’s so small and portable, unlike the TC PowerCore, and you know you’re getting quality effects with UA.

We expect to see it on shelves this upcoming spring, coming in around $500.

Universal Audio Announces UAD-2 Solo/Laptop is a post from: wax&wires

Here’s the official release:

All instruments featured in SILK are multi-sampled with extreme attention to detail offering the maximum in expression. Quantum Leap SILK contains extensive articulations, interval sampling (where appropriate), round robin (alternate samples), legato scripting, and phrases to give the feeling of smooth effortless performance – like silk. Each musician recorded for SILK is a master of his instrument, providing the best and most accurate sound available. SILK also allows users to adapt the instruments using dozens of useful micro tunings in the key of their choice. This microtuning system is the first of it’s kind, and is a true breakthrough for PLAY.

“Intended as an extension of Quantum Leap RA, Quantum Leap SILK looks to give users access to rare instruments from across Asia played masterfully by renowned artists,” says QUANTUM LEAP Producer Nick Phoenix. “Extensive scripting is employed in SILK along with our PLAY 64-bit (with 32-bit capability) sample engine, offering composers a lot of control over the end result. PLAY’s scripting, microtuning and convolution reverb are a powerful combination, making it an unparalled interface for these sounds. SILK is revolutionary in that the microtuning and scales actually teach users how to employ these sounds in an authentic way.”

For more details, including the specific instruments form each country featured in Silk, check out the EastWest site.

Quantum Leap (EastWest) Debuts SILK is a post from: wax&wires

A month or so back, we had a post about Melodyne Direct Note Access (DNA). Celemony has just announced Melodyne Editor, which will be the first product to feature DNA. It’s expected to be released this Spring, and most of us have been waiting for it for the better part of a year now.

It looks like it will set you back about $349, in US and Euro bucks, which is a bit weird, as it makes the price tag significantly steeper if you’re outside the US. If you recently purchased Melodyne and are wishing you would have waited, don’t fret! Any users who registered their version of Melodyne after March 12, 2008, get a free copy of Melodyne Editor when it comes out.

Read more about Melodyne editor on the Celemony site.

Celemony Announces Melodyne Editor (Finally DNA!) is a post from: wax&wires

Our first good find is that VOX will be reissuing the AC4 amplifier. Back when I was looking for a small tube amp to use in my bedroom, I scoured the Earth for a decent enough AC4 in my price range, all to no avail. I ended up picking up a great little Fargen, that I had to let go last year when I bought my Divided by 13.

Well, now VOX may be making some of my bedroom dreams come true (I should probably rephrase that). The AC4TV is a reissue of the old 1961 AC4, with some added bells and whistles. The first thing you notice is how beautiful it is. The creme tolex with gold features really makes it stand out. The small size and simplicity of the controls make it an instant classic. The AC4TV adds a built-in power attenuator that lets you select from 4 Watts, 1 Watt or 1/4 Watt output levels. That lets you really dig in and push the tubes for that sweet natural overdrive, without needing to rattle the house and wake the baby. The AC4TV also boasts a 16 Ohm speaker output so you can run it into your favorite 4×12 for big sound, at low volume levels.

Here are the specs:
• Controls: TONE, VOLUME, OP LEVEL (4W, 1W, 1/4W)
• Input/output jacks: INPUT, External Speaker jack
• Output: 4W RMS 16-ohm
• Speaker: 1x 10 inch 16-ohm Celestion VX10 custom speaker
• Valve/tube complement: 1 x 12AX7 (pre) / 1 x EL84 (power)
• Dimensions: 13.78″(W) x 8.46″(D) x 14.76”(H)
• Weight: 19.84 lbs.
• Included items: Power cable

The new AC4TV is expected in May of this year, in both combo and head/cab arrangements. Expect it to roll in at under $500, though no official price has been released yet.

For more info and pics, check out the official VOX website.

VOX Announces AC4TV At NAMM 2009 is a post from: wax&wires