Les Paul, acclaimed guitar player, entertainer and inventor, passed away yesterday from complications of severe pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York, surrounded by family and loved ones. He was 94.

One of the foremost influences on 20th century sound and responsible for the world's most famous guitar, the Les Paul model, Les Paul's prestigious career in music and invention spans from the 1930s to the present. Though he's indisputably one of America's most popular, influential, and accomplished electric guitarists, Les Paul is best known as an early innovator in the development of the solid body guitar. His groundbreaking design would become the template for Gibson's best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, introduced in 1952. Today, countless musical legends still consider Paul's iconic guitar unmatched in sound and prowess. Among Paul's most enduring contributions are those in the technological realm, including ingenious developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects, and the mechanics of sound in general.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10001.

For the first time since the start of the company Toontrack Music have agreed to allow a 3rd party producer to independently produce and sell an audio expansion for a Toontrack software platform.

Platinum Samples are one of the worlds leading producers of sampled drums, and quoting Toontrack Music CEO Andreas Sundgren, "Their products are cutting edge recordings. We are excited about and are looking forward to a long term collaboration with Platinum Samples"

Platinum Samples owner, Shivaun OʼBrien says "The symbiotic relationship of our samples with Toontracksʼ drum software is very exciting and weʼre honored.

This collaboration is a natural extension of both Toontrack Music and Platinum Samplesʼ product lines, and we look forward to a long and rewarding relationship."

The first joint release, planned for Q4 2009, is the well-known title "Joe Barresi Evil Drums" as an SDX expansion pack for Superior Drummer 2.0.

After four years of intensive development and extensive real-world gig beta testing, Devine Machine is proud to announce his revolutionary looper: Cycler.

Cycler is a totally new approach to looping on computers, designed to simplify creating music, with or without your screen!

Cycler is a radical departure from hardware emulation software and contains powerful and truly unique functions, such as multiple loop length capabilities, a comprehensive battery of effects and infinite undos for each of the 16 loopers, among many other truly unique features.

It aims to ease and simplify the relationship between musician and computer.

Release date is set for early 2010, price is not yet fixed. Versions for all platforms will be included with purchase. An extensive feature list will be communicated by October 2009.

A commented video demonstrating Cycler in a live gig can be found here :

Swayzak, UK artisans of compelling electronica, have made an exclusive, free Live Set for you to download. In their own words:

"We take a fairly unstructured path to making a Live Set. Clips are grouped by type (beats, bass, percussion etc) but we don't usually split a track into stems in order to replay it. We assign key commands to mute each track plus key commands which turn the global effects on and off (on the master channel). We have two sends (reverb and delay); this provides some space and, of course, "dubbiness." It's important to really know all the sounds—we usually go through and listen to each one on solo during preparation for a gig (we also delete or transform them if they are boring).

Then it's a process of improvisation, as we build up songs using the clips. The aim ...

Vengeance Sound announces the launch of its new plug-in series dedicated to dance music with the release of the Vengeance Producer Suite - Multiband Sidechain plug-in.

Features :

• High quality 2-band EQ with smooth FFT in the background.
• Total control over 2 independent sidechain channels (Low and Hi).
• Unique GUI (exact display of the audible sidechain effect).
• Freely configurable main display with 8 predefined scenes.
• Free choice: you can trigger the sidechain with Audio signals, MIDI notes or host sync.
• 32 "powerful and pumpin'" dance presets by Manuel Schleis.
• Also includes the "VPS Transmitter" plug-in.

Vengeance Producer Suite - Multiband Sidechain is available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST and AU effect plug-in formats. It costs €99. Not that a Syncrosoft Dongle / Steinberg Key is required but of course not supplied.