Line 6′s StageScape M20d mixing system is one of those ‘Oh wow, that’s so simple I can’t believe it hasn’t been done this way for 20 years’ things. A graphic interface for a mixer? Perfect!

Line 6 Wins Top Awards at Winter NAMM 2012

ProSoundNetwork, Music Inc. and ProSoundWeb honor Line 6, the StageScape M20d smart mixing system, StageSource loudspeaker series and more

CALABASAS, Calif.—February 2, 2012—Line 6, Inc. is pleased to announce that the company’s groundbreaking product introductions and participation in Winter NAMM 2012 have garnered two ProSoundNetwork Best of Show awards, as well as two Music Inc. awards. In addition, the Relay® G90 digital guitar wireless system received a ProSoundWeb Readers’ Choice Award at the show.

After several days of sweeping the show for outstanding products and services, the editors of Pro Audio Review and Pro Sound News magazines, with assistance from the editors of sister titles Audio Media andMIX, gave the new StageScape™ M20d smart mixing system a ProSoundNetwork award in the “Best in Show” products category.

In addition, a panel of six industry experts honored the StageScape M20d mixer and StageSource™ loudspeaker series with a Music Inc. “Best in Show” award during a breakfast panel discussion on the final day of NAMM. Both ProSoundNetwork and Music Inc. also named Line 6 as one of the top “Companies to Watch.”

“The team at Line 6 has been responsible for a number of game-changing innovations and now, with the introduction of the StageScape system, they’re introducing the results of an ambitious, multi-year development project aimed at giving musicians sound system control that doesn’t take them out of their creative zone,” says Frank Wells, Editor of Pro Sound News. “NAMM attendees kept the seats filled during a very effective series of demos, and StageScape was one of the most talked about product launches at NAMM. And it sounded good, even in a convention center demo room.”

“Line 6 has rethought how a mixer should operate with one of the most user-friendly and advanced products on the market,” says Stephen Fortner, Editor in Chief of Keyboard magazine. “It’s totally visually-oriented, and when coupled with the StageSource powered speakers, totally scalable. Think of it this way: If learning to use a conventional mixer is like getting through high school driver’s ed class, using the StageScape is like an episode of Top Gear.”

“Winter NAMM 2012 marked the start of an exciting new era for Line 6, as we introduced a brand-new paradigm for live sound,” says Simon Jones, Vice President of New Market Development at Line 6. “We’re so honored to be recognized for this effort, and look forward to further empowering musicians to be creative and deliver amazing performances.”

About Line 6, Inc.
Line 6 products have been at the cutting edge of digital audio development for musicians and audio professionals since the company pioneered the digital modeling guitar amplifier in 1996. Before the Line 6 brand was formed in the mid-‘90s, co-founders Marcus Ryle and Michel Doidic were principal developers for the Alesis® ADAT®, the digital multi-track recorder that revolutionized the recording industry. Today, Line 6 produces a wide variety of hardware and software products including POD® multi-effect processors, POD Farm® software plug-ins, Spider® guitar amps, a range of professional instrument and microphone digital wireless systems, digital live sound mixers, and speakers, as well as the Mobile In™ premium digital guitar interface and Mobile Keys™ keyboards for Apple iOS devices. For more information, visit line6.com.

Entry is free but numbers are limited. To register, email register@fender.com.au

Dates:
SYDNEY
SUN FEB 19
NIDA PARADE THEATRE 6-8.30PM

BRISBANE
MON FEB 20
JUDITH WRIGHT CENTRE 7-9.30PM

MELBOURNE
TUE FEB 21
THE COMIC’S LOUNGE 7-9.30PM
ADELAIDE
WED FEB 22
THE PROMETHEAN 7-9.30PM
PERTH
THU FEB 23
THE BAKERY 7-9.30PM

What happens when you take one coil from a Seymour Duncan ’59 and one from a Custom? Now you can find out! This popular ‘pickup hack’ is now available as a production pickup – the 59/Custom Hybrid.

Here’s the latest from the great Frank Gambale. It’s a really different direction for Frank and it’s great to hear him play in this very lyrical, restrained way, knowing that he’s capable of some of the most intense, impossible shredsmanship known to man.

Link: Frank Gambale

Wow, how’s this for a piece of music history? The actual 1961 Gibson Les Paul (before this shape was renamed the SG) owned and played by Mary Ford, Les Paul’s wife. This guitar was recently featured on the History Channel’s Pawn Stars program. The back of the guitar still has the remains of an old setlist taped to it. The buyer will also get Mary’s guitar strap, the original hard shell case, photos of Les and Mary, personal letters including correspondence with personal assistants, doctors, record companies etc, and even – get this a letter where Les Paul is told not to sign a contract with Gibson.
If you’d like to take home this piece of music history, the Buy It Now price is a cool $250,000.

Here’s some info from Jarrell:

“The Monte Pittman Signature Jarrell MPS is the result of the collaboration between the award winning visionary designer Phillip Jarrell and world renowned artist, writer, and guitarist Monte Pittman. Pittman plays so many different styles of music during any given performance that, until now, he required many different types of guitars to accommodate his needs. Utilizing Pittman’s feedback, Jarrell Guitars worked with MJ at the Seymour Duncan Shop to transform the finest MPS guitar at the time into something completely new – the most versatile instrument ever made. The Monte Pittman Signature Jarrell MPS boasts a mega set of Seymour Duncan pickups with a P-Rail neck, STk-S7 Vintage Hot Stack middle and a custom design SH-13 Dime Bucker Bridge. Both neck and bridge have 3 position mini switches, with custom wiring using a Super 5 way switch, and a kill switch. All together it seems Monte Pittman and Jarrell Guitars are hell bent on rocking the world – the sound of which is none other than simply amazing.”

“We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans… We have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open… We are still in the U.K. with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll… See you at Download!!!”

Y’know what? We’ve had a Sabbath ‘reunion’ with Vinnie Appice on drums. We’ve had a Sabbath reunion with Mike Bordin on drums. Those were for tours when Bill wasn’t up to it, but this is meant to be the big reunion album, probably the big Sabbath send-off, the last hurrah. Bill deserves to be there. His jazz-inflected drumming was a crucial part of the classic sound. C’mon guys, give the man what he wants! I don’t care if he wants eight jets and twelve gold plated Ferraris: give him eight jets and twelve gold plated Ferraris! If it’s a matter of everyone being recognised and compensated equally, then that means you’ll all get eight jets and twelve gold plated Ferraris. You’re Black Sabbath, you’ll be able to find the money from somewhere. C’mon, let’s just end this on the right note and let it be.

Okay, we all know that TC Electronic makes incredible effects. Their 2290 delay is legendary. Their G System, G Major and G Force: legendary. Their Nova series of pedals: legendary. But the TonePrint series of pedals is a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something that’s going to become legendary. Because TonePrint pedals allow you to dial in your own sounds, sure, but they also give you access to finely tweaked effects designed by some of the best ears in the biz, including Dream Theater’s John Petrucci, Steve Stevens, Paul Gilbert, Bumblefoot and many, many more. The Hall Of Fame Reverb is but one pedal in the series. The others are the FlashBack Delay, Corona Chorus, Shaker Vibrato, Vortex Flanger, and the new John Petrucci signature modulation station, the Dreamscape.

The Hall of Fame Reverb’s controls include rotary pots for FX Type, FX Level, Decay and Tone, as well as a toggle switch for Short or Long pre-delay times. There are stereo inputs and stereo outputs, a handy unscrewable battery compartment, 9vDC power supply jack, True Bypass stomper switch, and the same basic case shape as the company’s instant-classic PolyTune tuner pedal.

The Hall Of Fame offers ten different reverb types: Room, Hall, Spring, Plate, Church, Modulation, LoFi, Tile, Ambience and Gate, but there’s an eleventh click on the effect type control. This is where you access the TonePrint settings of your favourite players. They’re not actually on the pedal to begin with though: you need to download them either via a computer connected with a USB cable, or by using the dedicated TonePrint smartphone app. Call up the preset you wish to install, hold the phone in front of your pickups, listen for the digital chatter which carries the encoded patch, and your pedal will magically take on the settings of Brett Scallion, Soren Andersen, Troy Van Leeuwen, Paul Gilbert, or a whole bunch of TC Electronic, ProGuitarShop and Guitar Center patches.

For testing, I jacked the Hall of Fame into the effects loop of my Marshall as well as a Jet City JCA50 head and matching 2X12 cabinet. It immediately became apparent that the Hall Of Fame’s biggest strength is its ability to fade into the background for natural, unobtrusive yet once-you’ve-heard-it-you-can’t-do-without-it ambience via careful selection of FX Type and the Tone control. The Room, Plate and Church modes are especially great for this, as is of course the Ambient mode. Other settings are great for more obvious effects: the Spring setting can be cranked up for brilliant surf-type tones or more subtle vintage rock and blues, while the Tile mode is perfectly tailored for dramatic ‘check out this tiled room,’ wall-of-sound type effects. The Modulation mode is best used for more modern sounds, and it’s great for copping some of that A Perfect Circle echo/modulation vibe. The Gate mode is a little harder to get into for me. I just don’t find it as useful as the others. Your mileage may vary – I’m sure there are players out there who will really dig into this sound and fall in love with it, but I find myself returning to the Gate mode the least. What I use most is the Church mode, set with a very high FX level, Tone at about 1 o’clock, decay at about 10 o’clock and, crucially, the Pre-Delay switch set to ‘Long.’ This creates almost a warm slapback delay type sound which thickens up lead playing like nothing else out there. It’s a sound that’s so useful, so musical and so dimensional that it almost deserves its own pedal (and I’d love to tweak it further to save as a TonePrint when I some day become a famous guitarist). This sound is great for reinforcing super-fast lead work, for fattening up rhythm guitars, adding some mystery to a clean sound, thickening up overly bright single coils – I can’t think of a single musical situation that can’t be improved by this setting.

And then there are the TonePrints. They range from long, syrupy echo (Paul Gilbert’s “Otis Fieldsgood” setting) to shimmery vibrato (Troy Van Leeuwen’s “Vibrato Spring”) to more natural settings to some pretty out-there ones that take advantage of the modulation options offered to those with access to the full TonePrint parameters during the creation of their TonePrints. It’s a great idea that really extends the life of the pedal, and the musical situations you can use it in.

The Hall of Fame is probably the most versatile yet simple to use reverb stomper out there. For a minute there I thought MIDI control would be nice, but then I came to the conclusion that that would go against the truly interactive nature of this pedal. What it’s designed to do, and what it does incredibly well, is to offer you a full scope of reverb effects in an easily adjustable way, with the possibility of infinite variations via the growing TonePrint library.

LINK: TC Electronic.

The other day I recieved this press release from my buddy Mike Martin, an incredible guitarist, super-nice guy, and 20% of Agent Cooper. They’ve just snagged the support slot for T-Mac’s European tour. Nice one!

Agent Cooper (featuring former members of Fozzy and Stuck Mojo) announced as main support for guitar virtuoso Tony MacAlpine’s: “Dream Mechanism” Europe 2012 Tour.

January 25, 2012 Atlanta, GA – Tony MacAlpine “Dream Mechanism Tour – Europe 2012″ Special guest support from Atlanta, GA Southern Progressive-Rock band: Agent Cooper.

Tony will be performing a headline set featuring songs from his new solo album and a selection of his past classics – including a performance of the entire “Edge Of Insanity” album as part of the set.

Tony’s powerhouse band is:
Tony MacAlpine – Guitar / Keyboards (Steve Vai, CAB, Planet X)
Aquiles Priester – Drums (Hangar, Angra)
Bjorn Englen, Bass (Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth)
Nili Brosh – Guitar

More details on tickets and special VIP packages at:
www.tonymacalpine.com

www.agentcooper.com

DREAM MECHANISM TOUR 2012 – EUROPE
21.02.12 Moho Live – Manchester, UK

22.02.12 The Underworld – London, UK

24.02.12 Rock Temple – Kerkrade, The Netherlands

25.02.12 Het Bolwerk – Sneek, The Netherlands

26.02.12 Crystal – Berlin, Germany

27.02.12 Hirsch – Nürnberg, Germany

28.02.12 Luxor – Cologne, Germany

29.02.12 Matrix – Prague, Czech Republic

03.02.12 Lizard King – Krakow, Poland

03.03.12 Randal – Bratislava, Slovakia

04.03.12 Club 202 – Budapest, Hungary

05.03.12 Silver Church – Bucharest, Romania

06.03.12 Sofia Live Club – Sofia, Bulgaria

07.03.12 Roxy – Istanbul, Turkey

08.03.12 Eight Ball – Thessaloníki, Greece

09.03.12 Kyttaro Live – Athens, Greece

11.03.12 Bloom Club – Mezzago, Italy

12.03.12 Galery – Pratteln, Switzerland

14.03.12 Razzmatazz3 – Barcelona, Spain

15.03.12 Ritmo & Compas – Madrid, Spain

16.03.12 Stereo – Murcia, Spain
17.03.12 Fanatic – Sevilla, Spain

18.03.12 El Infierno – Vigo, Spain

19.03.12 DOKA – San Sebastián, Spain

21.03.12 Divan du Monde – Paris, France 
(with special guest Patrick Rondat)

“The Stand” – Agent Cooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtkvDF20iS8&context=C35249b8ADOEgsToPDskJgSSptapH3yS3cfxNT3Wd-

For more songs and downloads, please visit:
http://www.reverbnation.com/agentcooper

Atlanta based Agent Cooper is a Southern Prog Rock band formed in 1998 from the remnants of Atlanta progressive rock bands Salem Ash and Rain.

With two albums to their credit released on ProgRock Records in the 2000′s, most of the band spent the decade recording and touring with Fozzy and Stuck Mojo. Most notably, the band was called together to record and tour Rich Ward’s major label solo release “The Duke: My Kung Fu Is Good”.
With industry forces frustrating “the band that could have been”, guitar instrumentalist Mike Martin was added as a permanent fixture in the Agent Cooper lineup to capitalize on and advance with “the band that is”.
Agent Cooper is Doug Busbee, Eric Frampton, Sean Delson, Mike Martin and Ganesh Giri Jaya.

Visit www.AgentCooper.com for links to Twitter, Facebook and more.