Ueberschall releases Dancehall Madness Vol. II, their latest Elastik Soundbank which features 34 Construction Kits, including vocals by three different singers (two male and one female). This library comes up with 628 smashing Dancehall loops and samples. Jam packed with club oriented drums, basses, percussions, synth sounds, vocals, chords and a massive effect section.

Dancehall Madness Vol. II has an MSRP of $119 / €99 / £69. The included Elastik Players is available for Mac OS X and Windows in AU, VST and RTAS plug-in formats.

Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS) announces the upcoming release of Strum Electric GS-1, an electric guitar software synthesizer plug-in.

Based on the latest AAS physical modeling technology, Strum Electric provides simulation of the guitar itself, with modeling of different pickup types, the strings, and the pick, of the amplifier and speaker cabinet, and several popular guitar effects. It also includes and elaborate voicing module which automatically voices chords played on the keyboard as a guitar player would on the fretboard. Strumming, palm-muting, picking action, and different guitar techniques are reproduced by special strumming keys or MIDI loops.

Strum Electric GS-1 will be available at the end of the first quarter of 2009 at a retail price of $229. Strum Electric GS-1 runs on both Mac OS X and Windows, as a standalone application as well as in host sequencers supporting the VST, Audio Units, and RTAS plug-in formats.

In cooperation with the famous pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, Modartt has constructed a Walter pianoforte add-on for Pianoteq. This particular instrument was made around 1790 and has a powerful sound strengthened by its Viennese pianoforte action. Walter's instruments were frequently used by Mozart and were also praised by Beethoven.

The add-on can be downloaded freely by all customers at the following URL :

Eventide upgrades the OS of its Eclipse. What's on the menu? The Timefactor and Modfactor presets are added while using Eclipse presets. The update will be in beta starting before the end of january.

A new Garageband blog has been launched to coincide with the release of Garageband '09

Garageband 360 keeps you up on Apple Garageband with new, tips, tools, tutorials and tunes from the Garageband gurus around the world.

Garageband360 editor, Martin Howard is a Garageband based in Brisbane, Australia explains, I've been looking for a dedicated Garageband blog for tips, news, samples etc but I haven't found one yet. So I started one. If you've got tunes or tips for Garageband 09 drop me a line"

The site contains regular reviews of music releases by current Garageband artists.