2016 She Rocks Awards Performance Lineup Announced

Nita Strauss, Malina Moye, The Command Sisters and Jenna Paone join awards honorees Jennifer Batten, Karmin, Raining Jane and more for an evening of performances, celebration and surprises

ANAHEIM, Calif. (Jan. 6, 2016) – The Women’s International Music Network (WiMN) is excited to announce the musical lineup for the 2016 She Rocks Awards, taking place Fri., Jan. 22, 2016, from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., during the 2016 Winter NAMM show. Tickets available at www.sherocksawards.com.

Featuring WiMN Founder Laura B. Whitmore and acclaimed guitarist Nita Strauss (Alice Cooper, Iron Maidens), as co-hosts, the 2016 She Rocks Awards celebration will pay tribute to trailblazing women in music and will include performances by:

• Jennifer Batten, (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck) acclaimed guitarist and Awards honoree
• Chart-topping pop duo Karmin, including Awards honoree Amy Heidemann
• Raining Jane, touring and recording band for Jason Mraz, including awards honorees Becky Gebhardt and Mona Tavakoli
• Malina Moye, acclaimed lefty guitarist and 2014 She Rocks Awards honoree
• Nita Strauss, (Alice Cooper, Iron Maidens) co-host for this year’s Awards
• The Command Sisters, talented Canadian singer/songwriter duet
• Plus the house band Rock Sugah, comprised of Divinity Roxx (Beyoncé) on bass, Kat Dyson (Prince, Sting) on guitar, Benita Lewis (Chaka Khan) on drums, and Lynette Williams (Childish Gambino, CeeLo Green) on keyboard.
  

Named one of Billboard’s “7 must-see events at NAMM,” the fourth annual She Rocks Awards offer performances and surprises, food and beverages, giveaways, a silent auction, networking opportunities, and more. The event brings together industry professionals, music icons, artists, fans, and media to celebrate women in music. A portion of the proceeds of the event will go to benefit the Girls Rock Camp Alliance and the NAMM Foundation.

This year’s honorees include: Jennifer Batten, Chaka Khan, Amy Heidemann, Becky Gebhardt and Mona Tavakoli (Rock Camp for Girls L.A. and Raining Jane), Chalise Zolezzi (Taylor Guitars), Mary Luehrsen (NAMM), Crystal Morris (Gator Cases), Mindy Abovitz (Tom Tom Magazine), Cathy Carter Duncan (Seymour Duncan), Leigh Maples and Pamela Cole (Fanny’s House of Music), Leslie Ann Jones (Skywalker Sound), and Sujata Murthy (Universal Music).

This event will take place Fri., Jan. 22, 2016, from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., during the 2016 Winter NAMM show. Tickets are available at sherocksawards.com. The She Rocks Awards have sold out for the past three years, and a NAMM badge is not required to attend. 

The 2016 She Rocks Awards is sponsored by Martin Guitar, Seymour Duncan, Roland, Boss, Gretsch, Avid, Taylor Guitars, Zildjian, Guitar Center, D'Addario, Fishman, Berklee College of Music, Tech 21, PRS Guitars, 108 Rock Star Guitars, Korg USA, Volume & Tone, Casio, Ear Trumpet Labs, Merch Cat, John Page Classic Guitars, West Coast Pedalboards, and Recording King, with additional support from these media partners: Tom Tom Magazine, Guitar Girl Magazine, Music-News.com, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Keyboard, Bass Player, Electronic Musician, Music Inc., Making Music, International Musician, Premier Guitar, LAWIM, Rock N Roll Industries, and more. For information regarding She Rocks Awards sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@thewimn.com.

Shape the Future of Audio — Sennheiser Presents AMBEO 3D Audio Technology at CES

Las Vegas, January 6, 2016 – At CES 2016, audio specialist Sennheiser is unveiling a strategic focus on 3D immersive audio, a groundbreaking technology that promises the ultimate in audio capture and reproduction. “3D audio is the new frontier of excellence, set to transform the listening experience for users across a broad range of applications, from virtual reality gaming to audio recording and broadcasting,” announced co-CEOs Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser. “We have been active in this area for some time with 9.1 mixing and recording and the audio design for high-profile exhibitions. We are now increasing our efforts considerably to introduce this amazing sound quality into new products and applications, enabling users to experience and shape the future of audio.” Sennheiser’s 3D immersive audio products and activities will bear the new AMBEO trademark.

3D immersive audio is increasingly becoming a format of choice in professional recording, mixing and listening. The composer, producer, and musician Simon Franglen, well known for his work on the films Titanic, Avatar, and most recently Spectre, commented: “Every time I do an immersive mix, I notice how much more clearly I can hear what’s going on within a track. The extra playback area allows individual voices and instruments room to breathe in a way that the flat plane of a stereo mix can never hope to accomplish. 3D audio gives a completely new experience to the listener. Not only are they inside the music, but they get the opportunity to really hear the detail and the arrangement that the musicians, arrangers and producers put into the recordings. Even as a professional, I have listened to tracks that I have thought I knew intimately to discover so much more than the stereo or mono mix was able to give me. Once you hear this, music changes forever.”

AMBEO 3D Audio Listening Experience
Show visitors will experience AMBEO 3D Audio firsthand in the booth’s dedicated 9.1 listening room. Here, Sennheiser’s expert tonmeister Gregor Zielinsky is presenting original 9.1 recordings and remixes of legacy music for the 9.1 format. To bring this experience to every day music listening, visitors are invited to bring their own stereo sound material, have it upmixed via Sennheiser’s proprietary upmix algorithm and replayed in stunning 9.1 sound quality.

EDEN VR Game
Sennheiser’s expertise in 3D audio technology is also being featured by gaming specialist, Soulpix, which has drawn on the audio specialist’s long experience in the field for its virtual-reality game, EDEN. Through a proprietary Sennheiser algorithm, the sounds in the game are easily localizable and transport the listener to an imaginary yet utterly realistic soundscape. CES visitors can experience this in the demo area. “The Sennheiser 3D sound rendering engine used in EDEN allows a smooth transition between real-life sounds and virtual audio sources,” explained Andreas Sennheiser. “Such an engine will be the future of 3D sound in augmented reality applications.”

Virtual reality mic
Another part of the 3D audio experience zone is dedicated to a virtual reality microphone. Designed with VR content producers, including VR production company Visualise, whose content will be featured, the unobtrusive mic captures high quality audio in four quadrants. The VR microphone will be a staple tool in any live action VR production and will launch in the third quarter of 2016, followed in 2017 by a bundle with the same mic and a software plug-in for post-production of VR content.

Venue Modeling
A further highlight in the 3D audio section is the Venue Modeling software. The demo version features the room characteristics of several clubs, such as Mighty in San Francisco, and the Rex Club in Paris, and enables DJs to experience their sets as if they were in the middle of their audience.

The Venue Modeling technology will be a milestone in virtual room acoustics replication. Unlike other reverb tools and plug-ins, this VST plug-in lets ambitious DJs, PA artists and EM producers experience their audio tracks in the location they want to perform in. The plug-in helps to tailor the audio to any desired room atmosphere, and a growing venue database connected to the plug-in will offer DJs an ideal source to prepare for their show. The VST plug-in will become available in mid-2016.

IK Multimedia unveils iRig BlueTurn - The first Bluetooth page turner with backlit buttons

January 5th, 2016 - IK Multimedia, the leader in mobile music creation and technology products, is pleased to announce iRig® BlueTurn, the first backlit compact Bluetooth page turning solution for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android. Portable and streamlined, it's a small foot controller with two highly visible backlit soft-touch buttons that musicians, performers and more can easily pair with their favorite device for use with a wide range of document viewing apps and software like IK's iKlip Stage app.

Designed for use on stage and on the road, iRig BlueTurn runs on two AAA batteries and features a rugged, durable enclosure. It's an ideal companion for musicians who perform from a score, guitar and bass players who practice with tablature, speakers who use notes, presenters who use slides and more.

 

Lightning in a Bottle 24-hour Flash ticket sale begins at 10am TODAY (January 4th)

Discounted tickets, including the new Early Arrival Pass and car camping options, 

are expected to go fast!

General Admission ticket sales to follow the next day on Tuesday, January 5th at 10AM. 

Get your tickets here.

IK Multimedia releases Miroslav Philharmonik 2 for Mac/PC: The new orchestra with legendary soul is now shipping

December 17, 2015 - IK Multimedia is proud to announce that Miroslav Philharmonik™ 2 for Mac and PC is now shipping. Made in conjunction with master musician, jazz legend and sampling luminary Miroslav Vitous, Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is an emotionally charged orchestral workstation that takes the groundbreaking virtual instrument used on countless classical productions, film scores and pop hits to new levels of expressiveness and realism. It provides over 2,700 instruments with over 55 GB of samples with beautiful new sounds recorded in stunning high-resolution at the prestigious Czech National Symphony Orchestra Studios in Prague.

Real symphonic emotion
Miroslav Philharmonik 2's expressive collection of sounds includes soaring strings, animated woodwinds and majestic brass as well as precision tuned percussion including a majestic 9' concert grand piano, an elegant harpsichord, stately orchestral chimes, a kinetic concert marimba, a warm and rich vibraphone and a lively glockenspiel.

The mallet instruments are all provided with perfectly placed mono and Blumlein stereo miking allowing users to place the instruments into the perfect spatial context. These instruments have been sampled to convey all the emotion and humanity of the musician behind each note. All of the samples from the original Miroslav Philharmonik are included, optimized with articulation switching and the latest effects.

Instruments in the collection blend perfectly as only the best modern symphony orchestras do.  The instruments are expertly recorded free of excessive ambience so musicians can place them into the exact recording environment using Miroslav Philharmonik 2's cutting edge ConvoRoom and classic algorithmic reverb effects.

Effortlessly expressive articulation
The string, brass and woodwind instruments all include multiple articulations performed by master musicians, and they can be played using articulation switching or as separate instruments. This lets musicians instantly switch between flowing legatos, animated pizzicatos, aggressive spiccatos, elegant staccatos, triumphant fortissimos and more. The mallet instruments have been recorded using different types of mallets giving players more tonal flexibility. The piano's soundboard has been modeled to facilitate the perfect interaction between the player and the amazingly complex mechanism of the acoustic piano providing stunning acoustic realism.

Powerful processing
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 sounds like the best audiophile symphonic recordings because of its more than 30 professional-grade studio plug-in effects from IK Multimedia's acclaimed SampleTank® 3. These fully editable effects encompass the full range of the sonic spectrum and include equalizers, dynamic processors, filters, modulation effects, reverbs, delays and more. It also includes 4 of the best analog-modeled mastering effects from IK's acclaimed T-RackS mixing and mastering suite and an updated convolution reverb effect.

Play. Mix. Edit: Advanced control
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 uses the same Play, Mix and Edit pages as SampleTank 3. These pages give musicians an extreme amount of creative flexibility and control. It includes an easy-to-use instrument browser, a 16-part DAW-style mixer and a powerful synthesizer section with 3 sample playback engines and 10 high-quality filters.

Seamless integration
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 can be used on its own as a standalone or plug-in instrument or as an additional instrument collection inside of the SampleTank 3 sound and groove workstation.

Pricing and availability
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is available now as a direct digital download from the IK store and from select music retailers worldwide, or as a boxed version with a USB flash drive.

It will be available at its current special, limited-time introductory pricing until December 31, and is offered in a number of different options:

Current owners of Miroslav Philharmonik can upgrade for as low as $/€199.99* via download or $/€229.99 for a boxed copy.

Users with qualifying IK software can crossgrade for as low as $/€299.99 via direct download or $/€329.99 for a boxed copy.

New users can get Miroslav Philharmonik 2 for as low as $/€399.99 via direct download or $/€429.99 for a boxed copy.

At the end of the introductory period, Miroslav Philharmonik 2 will have a retail price at $/€499.99 ($529.99 for the boxed version). Upgrade and crossgrade pricing will also be available.

*all prices excluding taxes

For more information, please visit: www.philharmonik.com To hear Miroslav Philharmonik 2, please visit: www.philharmonik.com/audio To watch Miroslav Philharmonik 2 in action, please visit: www.philharmonik.com/video

Vienna Dimension Strings II Released

"Join us in welcoming this highly anticipated member of Vienna's revolutionary "Dimension" family: Vienna Dimension Strings II! It's everything you love about the original Vienna Dimension Strings I with muted, "con sordino", string ensembles."

Free Sounds from SampleTraxx

"To celebrate our first year at SampleTraxx we are giving away a 600Mb of FREE SOUNDS selected from our sound packs: Doom - Voices of the Ages - Raptus plus an Extra folder of sound effects.
Just go here http://www.sampletraxx.com/freesounds/ click on the image and grab it.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas"