Short Takes is the mix's very own bulletin board - this is the place for dealer information, recording courses, price changes and idle gossip

Syco To Hold Sampler Experience Day

Syco systems, in conjunction with Akai, E-mu Systems and Roland, is opening up its North London premises for a major demonstration day aimed at all aspects of sampling, on Wednesday March 15th.

Under the name 'The Sampler Experience', the day will help prospective sampler users make a more informed decision about future purchases. Demonstrations will include the Akai S3200, E-mu ESI-32 and EIV, and Roland S-760 samplers. Technical representatives from all three companies will be joining Syco staff for the day, and also on hand will be personnel from E-Magic and Steinberg.

The Sampler experience will run from 10.00am to 9.00pm, with refreshments provided throughout the day. The lucky winner of a prize draw held on the day will win a copy of E-Magic Logic.

More from: Syco Systems (Contact Details)

Technology For Creativity '95

Roland will be taking their latest products on the road in March and April under the banner of Technology For Creativity 95. Featuring the new MS-1 sampler, XP-50 workstation, and VG-8 V-guitar system (below), the roadshow will feature demonstrations of these exciting new products, as well as the rest of the Roland range of products. Roland are expecting a good turnout, so it's advisable to book in advance.

28 March Welsh College of Music, Cardiff
19 March Mott Theatre, University of Bristol
30 March Thames Valley University. Ealing
31 March Cambridge (Venue to be confirmed)
2 April Recital room, Birmingham Conservatoire
4 April University of Manchester
5 April City of Leeds College of Music
6 April Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow
7 April Queens University, Belfast the
8 April Ormond Multi Media Centre, Dublin

More from Ian Cullen, Roland. (Contact Details)

Sound Technology Theft

Despite extensive security improvements after two previous break-ins, Sound Technology have suffered another burglary at their warehouse in Letchworth. The theft, obviously the work of professionals, occurred on 2nd February 1995 at about 6 am. Among the various stolen goods were Alesis S4 Quadrasynth modules and Alesis Q2 effects processors (below).

Sound Technology would appreciate information from anyone being offered any Alesis products under suspicious circumstances.

More from: Sound Technology (Contact Details)

Be A Popstar!

Starting in September, The Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education is offering a two year full-time BTEC in Popular Music. As one of only two colleges in the South offering this opportunity to aspiring professional musicians, the college is opening a new music facility.

The course includes a digital 16 track recording studio, computer suite, private study area, four large rehearsal rooms, six practice rooms and a lecture theatre.

More from: Jackie Horwood (Contact Details)

Artisan correction

Last month's review of the Artisan speaker-mounted amplifiers contained the wrong phone number for distributors Michael Stevens & Partners.

The correct number is (Contact Details)

Hacienda Hosts New Talent

Manchester's famous Hacienda club is to open a night showcasing up and coming DJs, with a little help from some better known ones! It will take place on a Wednesday night, once a month, under the name 'Dry 201 at Fac 51'.

The aim of the night is to promote newer talent in this competitive business, and prove that there are better DJs around outside the lucky 'big' name clique - the 'money for nothing' elite!

The grand opening will take place on the 15th March, with Jason Vereker, DJ Dansce and David Dunne in the Hacienda, plus 'Nexus Humanoid' on the podium, and DJ Dan will be taking the Dry Bar.

On April the 19th, the Hacienda will see Nick Slater of Shades of Rhythm, plus THE MIX's very own Rob Green! Incidentally, if you feel ready for a spin at the Hacienda, or the Dry Bar, send your tape to Micky at the Hacienda, or Rob at THE MIX address. They are looking for seamlessly-mixed, quality house and garage tapes.

More from: Hacienda, (Contact Details)

Buy A Spirit And Win Your Money Back!

Your new Spirit console could be yours for free. From the beginning of March every month for six months, visit your local Spirit dealer, buy any model from the Spirit range, answer some simple questions and a tie-breaker and you could win your money back.

Entry forms are available from dealers, and these must be stamped when you buy your desk and returned to Spirit with your receipt. Six chances to win your money back - up to £5,500 for the top of the range Spirit Auto - and desirable Spirit goodie bags for runners up.

More from: Spirit By Soundcraft (Contact Details)

Spirit MTV

MTV's first European Music Awards ceremony employed a total of eleven Spirit Folio consoles. Used to mix feeds from the main stage, press conferences, DAT recorders and in some cases Mini Disc and CD players, the folios played a central role in the show's radio coverage, handled by remote radio specialists Wired for Sound.

The company had already used the Spirit Folio on a number of projects including the sound production for ITV's Spitting Image.

"We knew that the desk's sensible ergonomics and facilities would make it ideal for the MTV application" comments Dymock. "It was also great to be able to fit five Folios on the trolley at Heathrow Airport when our truck got full up!"

More from: Spirit By Soundcraft (Contact Details)

Soundcraft SM Series - Live! Awards Success

The new Soundcraft SM series monitor consoles confirmed their popularity at the 1995 Live! Awards. Held in the plush surroundings of London's Park inn International Hotel, the SM 12, SM 16, and SM 24 were jointly recognised by the readers of Live! magazine as the best new console.

The SM series' success comes hard-on-the-heels of a TEC award for the Soundcraft Vienna 2 and accolades from the American magazine, Live Sound! International, for the Soundcraft Delta and Venue 2.

More from: Soundcraft (Contact Details)

A Springboard To Success

The School of Sound Recording in Manchester, recently held an open day to allow potential students the opportunity to look at the different courses. All six studios, including the MIDI suite, 4-track, 8-track, 16-track and the newly acquired fully automated 24-track with Amek Einstein, were buzzing with activity.

Courses range from weekend dance production courses to full diplomas, but SSR constantly updates its prospectus, tailoring courses to market demand. Ex students at SSR include members of Oceanic, 808-State, Simply Red, 2 for Joy, and Candy Flip.

More from: SSR (Contact Details)

City Of Leeds College Of Music

Three courses are offered here, BTEC National Diploma In Music Technology, BTEC National Diploma In Music Media, and BTEC National Diploma In Musical Instrument Technology (Electronics in Music).

The first teaches the rudiments of recording, production, musicianship and keyboard skills, the second includes music production and video production, while the third teaches the working of electronic musical equipment, allowing you to make or repair a variety of musical instruments. A variety of artists including Simply Red, The Human League, James, and The Happy Mondays have all apparently had equipment made or repaired by the students of this course over past years.

More from: The City Of Leeds College of Music (Contact Details)

Nick Kershaw Opts For TL Audio

TL Audio are reporting very healthy sales of their expanding range of Valve products, with almost 600 Valve compressors being shipped since the unit was launched in July of last year. One recent convert to TL Audio is Nik Kershaw, who has just taken delivery of a Valve EQ and Valve Compressor.

"I was amazed at how quiet the units are. I record microphones direct to ADAT using the Valve EQ, bypassing the desk completely. The Valve Compressor is great on overall mixes, adding warmth and fattening the bottom end. To me, both these units offer unbeatable value for money.

More from: TL Audio (Contact Details)

Recent Sales Reported By Audio Toyshop

Audio Toyshop Ltd have recently supplied a complete studio package to the band Portishead for use on their forthcoming second album. The equipment includes an Amek/TAC console, Saturn multitrack and processing from Summit and Neumann. A quantity of vintage Neumann and AKG valve microphones have been sold to Lenny Kravitz in New York. A further TC M 5000 has been added to BBC Wales post production suite, making a total of 3 units in use at their digital facilities in Cardiff. And a 36 channel Amek G 2520 has been sold to Sonoblock SA, post production studios in Barcelona, Spain.

More from: Audio Toyshop (Contact Details)

SoundField For Stock

Mike Stock's new multi million-pound London studio complex have opted for the SoundField as the main studio microphone. Chief engineer Mike Picking, who was responsible for tie-lining each of the studio rooms with 12 core SoundField cabling says, "We are exploring the possibility of having a customised SoundField bargraph display added to our SSL 4000G Plus console, for more local viewing of the microphone's directional information."

More from: SoundField (Contact Details)

Corporate Hospitality

The Music Corporation will be hosting an AKAI open day on March 16th. This will be the first opportunity for UK customers to experience, first hand, all the new Akai products previewed in Frankfurt, as well as the S3000, MPC and hard disk recording range. Demonstrations will take place throughout the day in both The Music Corporation studios and showroom area. Staff from Akai will be present, as well as The Music Corporation's engineers and sales team. The event will be informal and runs from 10.30am to 6.30pm.

More from: The Music Corporation (Contact Details)

Yamaha launch XG MIDI

With the launch of its MU80 Tone Generator, Yamaha has introduced XG MIDI, a powerful extension of the General MIDI standard. While maintaining full compatibility with and support for the General MIDI standard, XG MIDI provides for full access to the enhanced performance capabilities of tone generator modules like the MU80.

General MIDI has become successfully established in more demanding applications, such as multimedia and desktop recording, titan it was originally intended to fulfil. As such it is simply not comprehensive enough to fully exploit the advantages a unit such as the MU80 is designed to offer, in response for the developing need for a higher degree of musicality and functionality within these fields.

XG offers enhanced voice editing and effects parameter control, with provision for a far greater number of effects. Again full compatability with GM standard is maintained.

On certain XG products, like the MU80, an external audio input enables a vocal, guitar, or other external sound source to be mixed and processed internally, along with the tone generator's own sounds. XG covers the level and effects parameter values for such inputs and stores them in the usual fashion with the sequencer files.

Yamaha intends that XG should be available to third party developers for use with a whole new generation of higher powered synths, keyboards, tone generator LSIs and sound cards and will provide detailed specifications on request.

More from: Yamaha (Contact Details)

New Styles For Korg i Series Interactive Music Workstations

BCK are launching six new disks for the series, each disk containing eight styles, with intros, endings, fills and so on. These are loaded into the Korg's user memory, and played either from the supplied arrangement file, or used with an arrangement made by the musician. All aspects of the style can be edited by the user in exactly the same way as the internal styles.

This series of styles are named KSD, and numbered from one to six. KSD4 features Turkish styles such as Arabesque, Oyunhava, Musemen. etc. KSD5 & 6, (jazz and pop respectively) are both written by the programmers of Heavenly Music. The price is £14.99 inc VAT, for each disk.

More from: BCK Products (Contact Details)