Four free EXS24 instruments have been posted at Practical Sampling. The site is provided as a companion to the Focal Press book Audio Sampling. The free instruments are a portion of the final projects of students at the University of Colorado at Denver who participated in a Sampling class last semester.

The instruments include :

- Toy Piano
- Toy Accordian
- Simple Guitar
- Bilhorn Organ

According to the site's blog, more instruments will be posted soon.

Waves has just announced that its GTR Solo software is now available for free for one full year.

GTR Solo features :

- 10 Amp Models (Fender, Marshall, Vox, etc...)
- 13 Stomp FX (distortion, wahwah, flanger, etc...)
- 10 Cabs

GTR Solo is available for Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU and RTAS plug-in formats.

The d16 Group has just released the newest plug-in from their SilverLine effects family - the Redoptor - which is a Vintage Tube Distortion emulator based on typical guitar tube amplifier. Unlike regular amplifier Redoptor has an adjustable preamp characteristic and more control over the tube distortion. It also contains a fully controllable 4-band parametric equaliser.

Features :

- Exact tube and tube's circuits emulation.
- Crossfade between tube and transistor distortion.
- Adjustable power of new harmonics.
- Tunable preamp filters.
- Fully equipped parametric equaliser.
- Presets organised into groups.
- MIDI learn function.
- 64-bit internal processing.
- Multi-mode distortion's quality adjustment.

Priced at €35, Redoptor is available now for both Mac OS X and Windows in VST and AU plug-in formats. A demo version is also available.

SAE London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Oxford are opening their doors to all this spring – everyone's invited to come and see the facilities that make SAE the "world's number one school for anyone wanting to get ahead in the fields of Audio, Film and Multimedia".

The Open Day takes place on Sunday, January 18th.

The Open Day will run from 10am to 5pm, and all are welcome to attend demonstrations for Audio and Digital Film courses in the studios and classrooms – including London's Music Business course that's geared towards those needing a solid understanding of the business side of the world's most dynamic and exciting industry.

Tours take place between 10am and 5pm, but for those who can't make it on the 18th January all colleges will be running Twilight Tours on Wednesday 21st January between 5pm and 8pm.

AKG unveils the GB 40 GuitarBug transmitter which seems to be the easiest way to turn a guitar, bass, or portable keyboard into a wireless instrument.

Described as the world's smallest switchable wireless transmitter, it operates with a single AAA battery providing more than 11 hours of operation. The frequency response is optimized for guitar and bass and can be used for keyboards and all instruments with a jack plug. The patented FlexxJack-Plug is an additional feature to allow for extended flexibility by matching all guitar outputs with an included long adapter jack.

The GB 40 GuitarBug will be available as single version and as "guitar-set" version with a stationary receiver SR 40 Flexx. Pricing TBA.