New at Downtown Sounds
Fender American Special Morpheus Drop Tune pedal Schecter guitars
Focusrite Mic Pre, USB Interface Check us out at www.facebook.com
Fender Super-Sonic 22 Amplifier Novation Launchpad Controller
Downtown Sounds does Ukuleles:
Jim Beloff Ukulele Workshop
Jim
Beloff, author of dozens of Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele books which we sell
at Downtown Sounds, will be in Northampton on Saturday, October 2nd to
give two workshops on playing ukulele. The first will be for
beginners at 1 pm, the second will be for intermediate players.
Both will take place at the Northampton Community Music Center at 139
South St., Northampton. You don't have to know anything about
playing ukulele to take the workshop--Jim will get you playing fun
songs even if you've never touched a musical instrument before.
And it's not excuse not to have a ukulele: we will have ukes available
for all participants who need one. If you've never played ukulele
but play guitar a little, the intermediate workshop would be fine for
you. Check out our poster at: www.downtownsounds.com/beloff flyer.pdf; download a registration form at: www.downtownsounds.com/beloff regist.pdf. Or you may call the store to register at 800-564-8863.
Ukes on Main St.
And
if you can't make the workshop, check us out playing ukulele on Main
St. with teacher Frances Blasque every Saturday morning (weather
permitting) from 11 am to noon. Hope to see you there!
Fender Super-Sonic 22 Amp
Fender
has just released the Super-Sonic 22 Amp, a smaller version of the
Super-Sonic which has been available for some time. Like the
famed Deluxe Reverb (to my ears the greatest sounding guitar amp ever
made), the amp features 22 watts from two 6V6 power tubes. It's
vintage channel has the classic clean Fender tone that we all know and
love. The Burn channel has post-gain EQ and two-stage preamp
control with Gain 1 providing edgy breakup and distortion, and Gain 2
adding compression, thickness and sustain. A long-spring reverb
pan, Eminence 12" speaker, and a 4-button footswitch are also included.
This amp gives you the best of both worlds: classic and
contemporary sound. More information is available at: http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?section=search&search=super+sonic+22&sa.x=3&sa.y=9&sa=Search
Focusrite ISA-One Preamp; Sapphire USB interface
Downtown Sounds has just become a dealer for Focusrite, maker of some of the finest recording preamps in the business. The ‘ISA One’ microphone pre-amplifier delivers Focusrite's prestigious
ISA transformer-based pre-amp in a rugged and portable chassis, at a
groundbreaking price. More information is available at: http://www.focusrite.com/products/mic_pres/isa_one.
We
have also received the Sapphire-6 recording interface, which features
Focusrite's ultra-high quality mic preamps. It is ultra-reliable
and easy to set up, providing you with the simplest route to record
into, and play back from your computer. It has lower latency than any
of its rivals, and professional analogue to digital converters ensure
you get the best possible signal into your recording software. With 2
mic-pres, multiple outputs and MIDI I/O, the Saffire 6 USB can be at
the centre of your home recording set-up. However, its reliability
means that you can take it out and record on location with confidence. More information is available at: http://www.focusrite.com/products/saffire/saffire_6_usb. 
SCHECTER GUITARS NOW IN STOCK
At
the recent NAMM show in California, Downtown Sounds became a dealer for
Schecter guitars. This company imports a wide variety of high
quality electric guitars and basses from Indonesia and Korea.
They all come in looking and playing really great. Pictured
at the left are, from left to right, the Omen Extreme, the Solo
Standard and the C-1 Standard. The Omen series is Schecter's
least expensive, featuring a bolt on neck, but you still get a quilted
maple top, strings which mount through the body for more sustain, and
very nice neck inlays. The Solo is more of a Gibson style guitar
which features a set in neck. The C-1 is Schecter's classic
design with a set-in neck locking tuners, and Duncan designed pickups
and with coil tap switch. We have also received one of their baritone
guitars, and a really nice bass called the Stargazer which looks a
little like a Rickenbacker. And more models will be in next
month. More information is available at:
http://www.schecterguitars.com/domestic.asp
Fender American Special Series
Just
released at the recent NAMM show were a new affordable series of U.S.
made guitars from Fender: the American Special. The series
features telecasters, stratocasters, the latter have a '70's style
headstock and come with either a three single coil pickups or two
single-one humbucker configuration. They have a glossy finish and
come in a gig bag and are available in a variety of finishes.
Morpheus Drop Tune Guitar Pedal
We
have just received an exciting new pedal from XP Audio (a new company
opened by the founders of DOD/Digitech). It's a pedal which will
drop the pitch of your guitar by a preset amoung in half-step
increments. Unlike octave pedals, it lets you play chords when
you do so. It also has a special toggle switch which lets you
easily alternate between the regular pitch and the dropped pitch.
More information is available at: http://www.morpheusefx.com/pages/droptune.html
Novation Launchpad Controller
Do
you use Ableton Live as your recording software? If so, you
should check out Novation's cool controller for the software, the
Launchpad. With a multi-colour 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons,
Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in
Live, it also offers a totally new way of controlling Ableton Live’s
mixer. Launchpad's buttons can be used to sketch out beats with drum
racks, and they can be assigned to other functions in Live using
Ableton's 'Learn' mode.
Launchpad ships with a dedicated ‘Launchpad edition’ of Ableton Live 8,
but can control almost any other music software using Novation's
award-winning 'Automap' control software. More information is available at: http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_controller/launchpad
