Apple has unveiled the next version of Logic Studio with major upgrades to Logic Pro, MainStage and Soundtrack Pro and more than 200 new features that simplify complex tasks.

Logic Pro 9 features new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins that provide realistic virtual guitar amps and stompbox effects to create amazing custom guitar rigs. A new set of Flex Time tools allow Logic users to manipulate the timing and tempo of audio quickly and easily. MainStage 2, Apple's live performance application, includes the new Playback and Loopback plug-ins to provide backing tracks and creative, real-time loop recording for performing on stage. Logic Studio also includes the new Soundtrack® Pro 3, with new multitrack audio tools for video production, and Compressor 3.5 for encoding in a variety of fo ...

Hal Leonard Books has published a new book called "In The Studio With Michael Jackson".

No one was closer to Michael Jackson at the height of his creative powers than Bruce Swedien, the five-time Grammy winner who, with Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, formed the trio responsible for the sound of Jackson's records.

Friend, co-creator, and colleague, Bruce Swedien was already a seasoned recording engineer — plucked from a job at legendary Universal Audio in Chicago — when he began working with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones on the soundtrack to The Wiz, and he was the master technician who gave the records their sound as the trio progressed to Jackson's greatest triumphs, Off the Wall, the iconic, history-making Thriller, and beyond,

Part technical guide, part anecdotal narrati ...

Antares has announced the availability of Harmony Engine Evo, the next generation of its tool for vocal harmony creation.

Building on the power and ease of use of the original Harmony Engine, Harmony Engine Evo incorporates Antares' Evo Voice Processing Technology for faster, more accurate pitch detection, smoother, artifact-free pitch shifting, and seamless, natural-sounding throat modeling. And with the addition of 5 channels of Antares' unique CHOIR Vocal Multiplier, Harmony Engine Evo allows the creation of huge vocal ensembles from a single vocal line.

With four independent harmony voices, a variety of powerful harmony generating modes, humanization features for natural sounding performances, and a flexible real-time preset system for harmony and vocal type, Harmony Engine Evo provides easy-to-use tools to quickly produce virtually any vocal arrangement one can imagine.

Harmony Engine Evo is available for RTAS (Mac OS X and PC), VST (Mac OS X and PC) and Audio Units (Mac OS X) at a U.S. MSRP of $249.00.

Steinberg is pleased to announce that its much-anticipated major update to The Grand is now shipping to resellers worldwide.

The Grand 3 offers the sound of three legendary concert grands, as well as leading electric and upright pianos, all recorded in outstanding quality with two microphone positions in up to 20 velocity layers. Additional features include onboard equalization tools, a full tuning editor, a range of technologies to enhance computer resource efficiency as well as a stand-alone mode.

The Grand 3 supports VST3, VST2, AU and ReWire and runs on Mac OS X, Windows XP and both Windows Vista 32- and 64-bit versions. The Grand 3 costs €349.00/£291.00. Video and audio examples are available at :

Featured by the Urbanic Series, the Finest R&B by Ueberschall is an all new massive release which includes 16 Construction Kits providing 2.7 GB of smooth high quality R&B Music. Including tempos between 61—84 BPM, you'll find primarily slow and calm Kits with applicable accents, which are perfect for creating love tunes, ballads or even melancholic/moody tracks.

All Construction Kits are filled with extraordinary samples, beatz, guitars, Rhodes, pianos, basslines, synths, pads, fx sounds and a whole bunch of Drum and Percussion sounds. Every sample on The Finest R&B is labeled with BPM information and root key (key signatures).

Furthermore, the kit contains up to 4 sub-kits and a drum single sound folder, material is organized as follows :

• Main Kit — Includes the main them ...