PRS Demands License Fee To Play Music To Horses

A woman in Bushton, Wilts, has been told by the Performing Rights Society (PRS for Music) that she needs to pay an annual fee in order to play classical music from the radio to the horses in her stable, something that she has been doing for the past 20 years. The PRS claims that it's not about the horses — rather, it's about her staff of over two people, which puts Mrs. Greenway in the same category as shops, bars and cafes. 'The staff are not bothered whether they have the radio on or not, in fact they don't particularly like my music and turn if off when I'm not around,' said Mrs. Greenway, 62. 'Especially on windy days I try to play it — it gives [the horses] a nice quiet atmosphere, you can only exercise one horse at a time so it helps the others to stay calm. We are right next to the RAF Lyneham air base so it dulls the noise from the aircraft as well.

MP3 HD

Thomson, the company that licenses the MP3 patent, has released a new lossless MP3 format called mp3HD. It utilises both lossless and lossy audio contained inside a single .mp3 file, and the files will play on all existing MP3 players. The idea is simple: lossless files on your desktop that can be transferred without conversion to iPods and MP3 players. The issue, it transpires, is that although the full lossless/lossy hybrid MP3 file is transferred to players, only the lossy element can be played back. A command line encoder can be found on Thomson's Web site.

17 Million People Stopped Buying CDs In 2008

NPD's annual survey found that 17 million CD customers dropped out last year. Among the good news is that streaming services such as Pandora are growing fast. "While overall music sales were up 10 percent in 2008, the year saw a drop not only in CD sales, but also in the number of customers actually purchasing music. But according to a new report, the act of listening to music is actually on the rise. ... NPD's annual Digital Music Study found that there were 17 million fewer CD customers in 2008 than in past years. CD sales have been dropping for quite some time, and while 1.5 billion songs were sold digitally last year, the number of Internet users paying for digital music only increased by 8 million in 2008."

New Musical Instruments Battle for $10K in Prizes

Jan Perschy's SGSX-H 750 is just what it looks like: a motorcycle engine with a keyboard attached.

As the teeth of the engine's gears travel at varying speeds past pick-ups that normally detect piston position, they generate tones that can be controlled with a keyboard. The third component, pictured to the left of the keyboard in the photo, is the voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) that makes up for relative discrepancies in volume.

Perschy said his goal was to play the gears in a motor the same way that a Hammond organ plays its spinning tone wheels. The VCA module wasn't working when we made the recording below, an apparent victim of rough travel, but this was still a fascinating display.

Piracy Case Could Change Canadian Web landscape

A recent Canadian court case brought against the Canadian Recording Industry Association by isoHunt Web Technologies, Inc, could drastically change the web landscape in Canada. "The question before the British Columbia Supreme Court is if a site such as isoHunt allows people to find a pirated copy of movies such as Watchmen or The Dark Knight, is it breaching Canadian copyright law? 'It's a huge can of worms," said David Fewer, acting director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa. 'I am surprised that this litigation has gone under the radar as much as it has. I do think this is the most important copyright litigation going on right now.'"

Spectrasonics Releases Stylus RMX v1.7 with 'Time Designer'

Spectrasonics has released Stylus RMX® version 1.7 ( http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/stylusrmx.html), featuring an innovative and completely new capability called 'Time Designer™' which intelligently transforms RMX audio loops into different time signatures and features the ability to "Groove Lock" the feel of any groove to another ‐ all in real time. Time Designer also lets the user create instant pattern variations with smart algorithms based on musical rules, and to 'simplify' any RMX groove in a musical manner. Version 1.7 is also the first 64‐bit native software release from Spectrasonics, includes all the new effects from Omnisphere and useful workflow enhancements to RMX, such as Suite Editing and Host Transport Sync. The new version is a free download for all registered users of Stylus RMX and is available now from the Spectrasonics website.

Eric Persing, Founder and Creative Director of Spectrasonics notes, "We received amazing reactions to our demonstrations of Stylus RMX version 1.7 at the January NAMM show. People really loved how easy it is to harness the power of Time Designer; it's a major creative boost for users with its ability to instantly Groove Lock to the feel of any groove across the entire RMX library. It's like suddenly having ten times the amount of grooves at your fingertips! Over the years, many composers and arrangers have requested the ability to have any groove in any time signature: now they can. With all of this and the ability to create pattern variations in a totall y musical way, the new version of RMX is almost a rebirth of the plug‐in and how it can be used. We are really looking forward to seeing how this inspires our users to take their groove production into brand new musical directions."

To see and hear what a few of the visitors to the Spectrasonics NAMM demo of Time Designer had to say, check out the video at: http://www.spectrasonics.net/news/namm2009.php

The new RMX version 1.7 contains a totally new way for users to browse and use their entire RMX library by offering the user the ability to Groove Lock any loop in real time to another loop or MIDI File. The user simply chooses a designated loop as the Groove Lock master, and switches one button ("Settings"): now all the loops that are played as the user browses are Groove Locked to that main feel.

RMX's Time Designer capabilities are available in any designated time signature. Once new Time Signatures are selected, the browsing experience works the same way ‐ dramatically changing the experience of groove production in time signatures other than 4/4. Working on a 6/8 ballad? Simply choose 6/8 in Time Designer and the entire RMX library is now instantly available rearranged in 6/8 patterns!

For multiple time signatures in a piece of music the user simply s ets the first time signature variation, drags and drops the MIDI file to the sequencer, then sets the time signature to a new one and repeats the process for each section of music that requires a new time signature. The MIDI Files that are dragged to the host sequencer are "imprinted" with all the Groove Lock and Time Signature changes in the MIDI data, making it easy to customize the loops further.

Time Designer's Pattern Variation section allows the user to instantly check out useful variations on a loop. Time Designer makes rearrangements of the pattern based on a series of musical rules creating useful variations, and is available for all time signatures (including 4/4 pattern variations). Best of all, Time Designer and Chaos Designer can be used together!

The Simplify function provides an easy way to instantly customize audio loops to better fit the user's music. Turning the Simplify knob takes out slices and makes more space for other musical parts. Used along with Groove Lock, Simplify allows the user to quickly layer synchronized grooves to create one‐of‐a‐kind groove combinations. The Time Designer page shows a graphic of the groove's time slices to give the user instant visual feedback along with the changing groove as the Simplify knob is turned. Anything in RMX can be used with Simplify including tonal, percussive and imported REX libraries.

All Time Designer features also work with third party RMX libraries and imported REX files, as long as the grooves are sliced properly.

All of the new effects from Spectrasonics' Omnisphere have been added to RMX v1.7 as well: Formant Filter: Adds characteristics of the human vocal tract by chaining a narrow set of bandpass filters, set at specific frequencies, which reflect the formants of the human voice. Smoke Amp: An amp/speaker simulator with a full set of amplifier controls, speaker combinations and modeled versions of several classic guitar amplifiers. Ultra Chorus: A 'lush' custom chorus, with a very dense, rich character compared with standard Chorus units. Retro‐Phaser: A vibey sounding vintage Phaser, with more features than the EZ‐Phaser and a dedicated page for tone shaping. Retro‐Flanger: A vibey sounding vintage Flanger, with more features than the original Flanger and a dedicated page for tone shaping. Chorus Echo: Inspired by the classic Roland Chorus‐Echo units from the 1970s, this unit combines both analog‐style delay and chorusing, but includes new features, like stereo width control and a dedicated 'Dirt' control for a more gritty sound.

RMX version 1.7 also sports several user‐requested features such as Suite Editing for easy customization and better 'Favorites' management of users own collections of loops, sequencer Host Transport Sync so that RMX will follow the host sequencer's tr ansport controls and song position.

The new version is also the first 64‐bit native software release from Spectrasonics, keeping pace with the industry‐wide move towards 64‐bit systems and access to more RAM. Windows 64‐bit compatibility has been released first in version 1.7, then a 64‐bit Mac version of RMX will follow.

Stylus RMX v1.7 with Time Designer is available today, March 2, 2009, and the update is FREE to all registered RMX users as a download from the Spectrasonics website at http://www.spectrasonics.net/updates/index.php

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich ‘Pirates’ His Own Album

Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica, and long time opponent of file sharing admitted to 'pirating' his own album, Death Magnetic last year. 'I sat there myself and downloaded "Death Magnetic" from the Internet just to try it,' he said. 'I was like, "Wow, this is how it works." I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download "Death Magnetic" for free, it's me.

Conflicted On Guitar Hero and Rock Band

Wired is running a story about the friction between the music industry and music-based games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Despite the fact that these games are very successful and are drawing a great deal of attention to the music represented in the games, the industry is not pleased with the licensing arrangements that allow the games to use their songs. Quoting: "Putting the brakes on music gaming would hurt everyone in the ailing music industry. Instead of demanding greater profit participation, Warner should be angling for creative participation. Thirty years ago, Hollywood took a similar threat — the VCR — and turned it into a new source of revenue, building customer loyalty in the process. The music industry could use new games the same way — but its track record suggests that it won't."