MUSIC/SFX LIBRARIES
FIRSTCOM is now offering a "pick and choose" plan with their three libraries, The Digital Production Library, Maximum Impact, and Digiffects. The plan lets you pick and pay only for the disks you want. This might well be the wave of the future for companies holding large, full service libraries. See ad on page 3. (800) 858-8880.
Climax, the first production library from RICK ALLEN CREATIVE SERVICES is now available. The one CD library contains 175 sweepers, stagers, lasers, and effects, plus 30 promo beds. (212) 714-5513.
EQUIPMENT NEWS
AKAI announces the availability of the Version 2.1 Operating System for the S1000 Stereo Sampler. The upgrade features expanded hard disk support, optical disk support, and CD-ROM drive support. Akai also announces the soon-to-be-released EXM008 eight meg expansion boards for the S1000 which allow for maximum memory expansion of 32 meg. (817) 336-5114.
On the synthesizer front, YAMAHA's new SY77 looks like a hot number. This synth/sequencer features a five octave keyboard, built-in digital effects, a nice set of percussion sounds, and a 16-track/16,000 note sequencer. $3,000. (714) 522-9583.
EVENTIDE announces the HS322 Sampler, a new option for the H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer. The HS322 provides 11.8 seconds of full bandwidth stereo sampling and is expandable. (201) 641-1200.
TECHNICS has a new CD player. The SL-PS70 features a MASH 8-DAC system with eight times oversampling plus an optical digital output. Also from Technics, the RS-B965 cassette deck. This deck boasts a state-of-the-art transport system, the Advanced Precise Record-Level System (APRS), direct CD input, Dolby HX Pro and Dolby B, C, and dbx noise reduction. (201) 348-7182.
Attention copywriters! You might like PANASONIC's new KX-WL50 Laptop Word Processor. The portable unit weighs under six pounds and has a built-in dictionary and thesaurus, as well as a flip-up, 14-line by 80-character backlit LCD display. Also comes with a standard 3½-inch floppy drive. (201) 348-7130.
COMPUTER MUSIC CONSORTIUM, INC. has started shipping ScoreMaster, a MacIntosh based production music cataloguing program which sorts cuts by tempo, style, and orchestration then lets you review excerpts of selected cuts via the new CD-ROM technology. 5000 cuts from six production libraries, including FirstCom's Digital package and the Network library, are sampled on the ScoreMaster Audition CD-ROM disk which is accessed by the computer program for auditioning of segments of selected cuts. (800) 544-5449.
THE MIX
FIRSTCOM was recently acquired by Zomba Enterprises, Inc., the US music publishing division of the large European based group. Of the acquisition, Jim Long, Executive Chairman of FirstCom, says, "In addition to our offices in four US cities, we now have access to top writers and performers as well as recording studios and offices in most of the creative capitals of the world. This association with Zomba will allow us to turbocharge our products and services for the broadcast industry."
Dan Oday's second and last "Air Personality Plus+" seminar of the year is scheduled for the weekend of August 18th & 19th in Cincinnati. For more info, fax your request to (213) 471-7762, or leave a message at (213) 478-1972.
Congrats are in order for two RAP dudes for awards won at the recent 1990 International Radio Festival of New York. A gold medal goes to Peter Drew of WTIC/AM1080 in Hartford for his "The Great Connecticut Duck Race 1989" promo. This same promo also picked up a Merit Award last May from the Greater Hartford Advertising Club. Way to go, Peter! Winner number two is Jim Cutler of Jim Cutler Creative Audio. Jim picked up a bronze medal for best station promo with his "Pat Whitley/Russians" piece produced for WHDH in Boston. Listen for both winning cuts on this month's Cassette! ♦