American Musical Supply has a $100 rebate on Roland AC90 bringing the price down to $699 plus FREE shipping. Unbelievably, there's still some places that charge shipping on "heavy items". American Musical Supply

The quickie specs:

• Lightweight
• Neodymium speaker technology
• Stereo 2-way speaker system provides full-range performance
• Stereo acoustic sound
• 90 watts (45W+45W)
• Dual channels: Guitar input (Piezo/Magnetic) and phantom-powered Mic/Line input
• Multi-band chorus with WIDE mode, plus reverb/delay
• Anti-feedback control feature
• Onboard tilt stand; optional speaker stand available
• Carrying case included

Amazon has it's weekly 5 albums for $5. The deal usually lasts through Tuesday. Here's the run down:

• Radiohead - Best of - You get the idea. Who knows who put this together. Goes through Hail to the Thief.
• Demi Lovato - Don't Forget - Another Disney kid pop album mixed by the vocalist and the drummer.
• Keyshia Cole - Urban R&B with some pop hooks.
• Secondhand Serenade - A Twist in My Story - Senistive pony tail guy alt rock with piano ballads.
• Depeche Mode - Violator - I used to love this album in high school. Has bonus tracks. "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" still hold up.

This great gizmo is perfect if you carry your recoding studio to locations for ADR or as a nifty back up. A surge suppressor protects your sensitive gear on the go and has two USB connectors for charging your portable gear to save computer/wall wart space. A great addition to your gear bag. Buy.com

Get a nice little set up for your new studio or maybe as a gift. This pack includes AT2020 cardioid condenser mic, AT2021 small-diaphragm mic, SONAR LE recording software, stand mounts, two protective pouches. Free shipping. Abe's of Maine

Ableton continues to update and improve their DAW software with each version for usability and new features. What makes this DAW a bit different is that it includes virtual instruments and sample libraries in the package so you're getting a complete DAW and instrumentation solution. Sweetwater

Quickie specs:

• Multitrack recording up to 32-bit/192kHz
  
• Unlimited undo
  
• MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments
  
• Real-time time-stretching and warping of AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 files
  
• Host of creative delays, filters, distortions, studio compressors and EQs
  
• Simpler for creative sample-based synthesis, Impulse for sampled drums
  
• Instrument, Drum, Effect Racks
  
• VST and AU effects and instruments support
  
• Video import and export for scoring to picture or warping picture to music
  
• ReWire support
  
• Single-screen user interface
  
• Multicore and multiprocessor support

Wolfgang's Vault, those crazy guys who have licensed classic rock gear and recordings from the Bill Graham era, have decided to open up a bargain bin for their over stocks. But until February 3rd you can save up to 40% on their stock (about two pages) including clothes, Fillmore posters, photographs, and other items from Led Zeppelin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Tom Petty, a hilarious picture of Prince and more. Wolfgang's Vault

I just saw this entry on Larry Crane's blog and thought I'd post it here as well. If you have tons of studio waste like jewel cases, CD or DVDs (what engineer doesn't have two or three spindles of various mixes, master reviews, and spare jewel cases falling over?), and other studio waste, this may be a good option.

Greendisk takes just about EVERYTHING. From thos crappy Jaz and Orb drives that you can't sell on eBay to optical media to your dead workhorse computer. Full list here.


Additionally, they are a very affrodable alternative if you are envirmonetally concious and don't live in the SF Bay Area (like we do) which seems to have an eWaste parade every weekend. List of prices and services.

Pro Guitar Shop has the best price on the MI Audio Crunch Box Distortion Pedal. Free shipping. The next best price was $122. Pro Guitar Shop ha sa demo on their site. Pro Guitar Shop

If you're too lazy to click, get your Get Your Drink On Me on with Tone Factor's demo:

Seriously, I wish we were getting paid for this little piece on Photosounder.

This isn't the first time an application has been used to turn photos into sound. There was an app back in the 90's from Germany that did this on Mac OS9, but forgot the name. However, what that app lacked in in interface and easy control, Photosounder makes up for it by including real works knobs that we audio folks can recognize.

While most of the examples on the Photosounder site are a bit funny because they are trying to show utility, I know what we're all thinking: let's put animal sounds AND the pictures of the animals through this. I also know what all you newbie sound designers are thinking: let's put the Wilhelm Scream through this.

All this for $137 USD.

Alan Splet would have loved this.

Sam Ash has the lowest price for the Yamaha N12 FireWire 12 Channel Digital Mixer. Musician's Friend almost won out but charges shipping for this item.

Any audio pro knows that FireWire is the only way to be. While it doesn't have the higher burst rate of USB 2.0, it offers a steady, fast data stream which makes it reliable for audio data. Hence, audio mixers such as this one from Yamaha. Sam Ash

Quickie specs:

• 12 input channels: 8 discrete class-A microphone preamps, 2 stereo line input
• 16-in/16-out FireWire interface
• 5.1 surround monitoring capability
• 24-bit 96-kHz digital mixing and signal processing inside
• Top-performance microphone/line preamplifiers with custom capacitors and discrete class-A circuitry
• Innovative Sweet Spot Morphing Compressors on mono input channels
• 3-band channel EQ with sweepable midrange and +/-18dB control
• Digital reverb
• Bundled Cubase AI DAW software
• Software control direct from the console
• One-cable IEEE 1394 connection between console and computer

Time is almost up for American Musical Supply's January giveaway of a Les Paul. Simply follow the link and put in your info to qualify. Good luck! American Musical Supply

Urb Magazine has an elusive (and amazing) cover of TV On the Radio covering the Thin White Duke's classic "Heroes". According to the article, TV On the Radio was HUGELY influenced by Bowie where Bowie even sang on Return to Cookie Mountain.

This is for upcoming charity album to support Warchild's Heroes album that will donate proceeds to children effected by war.

The next lowest price was $1795.

Give a big finger to the recession and your bank account with this beauty. While AGD does post lower prices mics and gear that will get the job done, we firmly believe you get what you pay for - especially in audio gear.

This baby is USA hand-made has high put, very low self noise and offers all the benefits of smoothness a ribbon can provide.

Quickie specs:

•Free shipping
•Comes with shock mount
•Figure-eight polar pattern
• Enhanced proximity effect to boost thin sources
• Transformer and ribbon motor rigidly joined for lowest noise, highest output, and smoothest bass response
• Professional level electrostatic and magnetic shielding
• Solid silver contact blocks
• Stainless steel housing and rugged build quality
• Maximum SPL: 126 dB

BSW

This is a 2007 interview we tripped over with famed film sound designer Randy Thom thanks to Scene Unseen.

Having met him once and being a part of the Sound Design Yahoo! group, he is a very gracious guy who isn't afraid to teach what make great sound design. If you have ever met sound professional who is reluctant to teach you anything or divulge how they got a sound or effect, chances are they are extremely insecure about their own work and you're unlikely to learn anything from them. Not Mr. Thom.

Before you go typing into IMDB about his credits, here's the link or you.

This is a good mic for high transient/percussive recordings with it's pretty massive 140 db SPL rating and 22 dbA self-noise. Plus, it's CAD (who has been making more affordable mics for the past few years) which have always had great results and never been overly tinny in my experience. Abe's of Maine


Quickie specs:

• Frequency Response: 30Hz to 20KHz
• Sensitivity: -41dBV (8.9mV) @ 1 Pa
• Impedance: 300 ohms
• Max SPL: 140dB, 1% THD, attenuator engaged
• Self Noise:22dBA
• Hi-pass Filter: 40Hz, 85Hz and 122Hz, 6dB/oct
• Attenuator: 10dB
• Power Requirements: P24, P48, 2mA

Yup, for those of you who are tired of watching the countless YouTube videos and not waking up in time to buy tickets, Radiohead will be playing the Grammys this year along with a bunch of other artists (c'mon like you really care about Paul McCartney or Jonas brothers live? Didn't think so).

Our pals from Oxford are up for 3 nominations including Best Album. Rest assured they'll play towards the end of the show so we can't just get on with our lives.

Update: 2/8/09: Here's their performance of "15 Step" with the USC marching band from the 2009 Grammy show. Get it while it's still up.

Latest album from the female fronted synth pop band from L.A. Amazon

Livid is giving away a sweet limited edition Ohm controller with a cool t-shirt, and a copy of Union and Cell VJ software. Retail value of the package is $950.

The Ohm MIDI controller is not only beautiful, but also has simple and easy control for your audio, video, and other MIDI/USB controllable tasks for DJs and other on the fly creativity.

Livid - Enter here

In the continuing celebration of Motown's 50th birthday, Audio gear Deals will point you to way better content than we'd ever have the sources to create.

So as additional proof that the rest of the world loves Motown more than my native U.S. (I'm staring at you Rolling Stone mag). Mojo magazine has a huge list of articles for the Motown lover in all of us from interviews with Iggy Pop, TV on the Radio, and members of MC5.

One thing they did that we *could* have done was drudges through YouTube and pulls the Top 10 Motown clips. All the clips are great (I already posted #4), but I had to post the number 1 because it was so deep and funky, it's a great way to start the week.




Deep down inside, you know you ARE that kid on top of the fire escape with the red shirt.

MusicNotes.com is actually pretty nifty. Rather than sifting through magazine racks hoping they have the popular or classic music that you want to learn for your classic rock tribute band. Download the songs you want. This way, you can learn to play "Gimme Shelter" but skip atrocities as the "Waitin' On a Friend".

Use coupon code MQNJAQN. Offer good till January 28th, 2009.

MusicNotes

Classic jazz influenced rap. If you like Acid Jazz and Rhymes, here you go. Amazon