The Yamaha Corporation of America Technical Services Group held 2 days of Service Seminars during the 2012 Winter NAMM Show. The seminars were conducted at Yamaha’s corporate headquarters in Buena Park, CA..Some of the presentations were also broadcast LIVE over the internet to technicians in the US and Canada.
Topics presented were Clavinova service, Digital Keyboards, CP Stage Piano, the new DXR/DSX Series Loudspeaker System, and AV product. 40 technicians attended the Buena Park seminars, and 50 watched the seminars via the internet.
YCA Service provides technical support and parts to a network of 450 authorized service centers. These centers repair 16,000 units under warranty per year, in pursuit of Customer Satisfaction Excellence.

http://www.yamaha.com/servicemall/seminars/

TC Electronics Nova System guitar multi-effects board has been popular with guitarists for a number of years now. They are used by some big name rock guitarists and have a loyal user following. TC Electronics has just released a "limited" edition of this popular compact pedal unit sporting a boosted price tag. So What makes this unit a "limited" edition. That label usually implies a limited production run or window of availability of a product but no lot size or availability dates have been published. What makes it different from the standard system and justifies the premium pricing? Well the most visible difference is the new sporty red color that makes it an attractive little unit. Attractive as it may be it seems a little superfluous for a unit that sits on the stage floor visible only to the guitarist whose foot is often resting upon it.

What do you get when you take an Intel™ Xeon™ dual six core enterprise class server with slots to handle up to 192 gigabytes of triple channel memory, and package it with a full size keyboard, and a stunning array of controller inputs, including knobs sliders, pitch and mod wheels and a massive array of large backlit rubber buttons? Well if you include a built in 1024 x 576 LCD touch screen, Windows 7 operating system, DVI and HDMI outputs, built in gigabit ethernet, and built in Presonus™ Audiobox™, or Firestudio™ audio interfaces, you get the most powerful keyboard production workstation on the planet, Music Computing's StudioBLADE™ (Gen2). The combination of computing power that would be the envy of mid-sized corporations across America, Maximum parametric control, and studio class audio interfaces means that this unit can serve not only as a gargantuan keyboard workstation but as then central core of your entire music studio.

Korg has added four new products to their lineup since the first of the year. The product offerings show the wide range of diversity that has become the Korg product line. While best known for their keyboards, their tuners have become quite popular and their Wave Drum series of hand percussion have had some significant success of late. Both of these lines will receive new offerings with the arrival of the Pitchclip clip-on tuner and the Wave Drum Mini. Rounding out the offerings are a battery operated powered monitor speaker and the Monotribe ribbon synthesizer.

Expanding on the success of their DTX-900 which debuted at this years winter NAMM show in January and won the "Best in Show" award, Yamaha has released two new lines of electronic percussion featuring their DTX pads. Yamaha designed its innovative new DTX-PAD with input from the company's legendary roster of drum artists. The Textured Cellular Silicone head features a proprietary manufacturing process that introduces small air bubbles into foamed silicone to provide playability and feel unlike any pad introduced to market. Using a new numbering system based on the Drum trigger module Yamaha has launched two new lines that will allow the new technology to reach a wider range of customers.

Peavey has teamed up with Marvel Entertainment,LLC, to release a new line of guitars featuring Marvels well known super-hero characters. The likes of Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, The X-Men, Spider Man, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk will now decorate the bodies of this new line of guitars. Guitarists of all ages and skill levels will find offerings with their favorite super-hero characters. This summer's kickoff will begin with a half sized acoustic guitar followed by a 3/4 size electric and a full sized Peavey Rockmaster® guitar. They will also feature a full line of accessories including guitar picks and straps featuring the Marvel characters.

Founded in 1965, Peavey Electronics has been a leading manufacturer and supplier of musical instruments since the company revolutionized guitar making by introducing computer-aided manufacturing techniques in the 1970s to vastly improve quality and consistency. Today, the methods Peavey pioneered are the industry standard worldwide.

This is a roundup of new Roland products that have been announced since the beginning of the year. They represent a refresh of the entire Roland Line most are already available or soon to be available. Truly there is something for everyone in this grab bag of musical goodies.

May 31, 2011

Peavey Electronics® proudly announces the immediate availability of the revolutionary Peavey IPR™ 3000 power amplifier. The IPR 3000 utilizes an advanced technology that increases output power, reliability and thermal efficiency while yielding the highest audio resolution possible with dramatically light weight.

Designed with a new advanced switch-mode power supply and a high-speed class D topology, the Peavey IPR 3000 power amplifier provides 1,490 watts RMS per channel @ 2 ohms (840 watts RMS x2 @ 4 ohms) with a weight of just 7.9 lbs. The highly anticipated release of the Peavey IPR 3000 follows the IPR 1600, the award-winning power amplifier that earned rave reviews from pro audio media and turned the industry on its ear.

Peavey IPR Series power amplifiers feature two channels with independent, fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley 100 Hz crossovers—with preset selections for Hi Pass, Full Range and Subwoofer—and a variable-speed fan housed in a lightweight aluminum chassis. Inputs are combination ¼” and XLR, while outputs are combination ¼” and twist-lock connectors.

The Dante Digital network has been raising a stir in the pro-audio, broadcast sound, recording, and sound reinforcement industries capturing several major prizes and industry collaborations recently. While Dante is one of several competing standards for communicating multiple audio channels over standard Ethernet and IP networks. Dante seems to be capturing the spotlight and may have a technological edge over the competition. It has garnered numerous prestigious awards and the number of manufacturers lining up to support the technology and collaborate is impressive. Most notable among them are Yamaha Commercial Audio system, Allen&Heath, Peavey Commercial Audio, Bosch, Dobly Labs, and Electro-Voice.

To Help you understand why this technology has the potential to change our industry I present the following information straight from the Audinate web site.

Why Digital Networking?

Challenges of Analog Distribution

Alfred Music Publishing proudly releases The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook, the definitive guide to creating and recording great guitar sounds, by Bobby Oswinski and Rich Tozzoli.

For all guitarists, the quest to finding the guitar tone they hear in their heads and then recording it is a never-ending journey. The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook is the definitive guide to discovering that great, elusive guitar sound and making sure it's recorded well.

Guitarists of any level will learn a variety of subjects pertaining to guitar tone in both performance and recording, including: the factors that determine the sound of an electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and amplifier; the type of wood used to build an acoustic guitar and their differences in tone; the techniques A-list engineers use to record electric and acoustic guitars; why the wood in a speaker cabinet makes a difference; how to recreate the guitar production techniques heard on professional records; the secret to using alternate tunings on recordings; and more.

There was a time when there when both brick and mortar and correspondence schools offered courses in electronic musical instrument repair. This of course predates the days of on-line learning opportunities. There are no longer any offerings of this kind. So how does one go about learning to service the equipment used by musicians the world over. People enter this profession usually from one of two directions. Either you are a musician that wants to learn the technology or you are a electronics professional or hobbyist with an interest in music. Most of us got into the business the same way. Besides a solid understanding of basic electronics this field requires a solid understand of specific electronic technologies ranging from vacuum tube technology, that is preferred by guitar players and is used in legacy instruments like the Hammond Organ, to the latest in digital signal processing technologies. Few other industries require so diverse and far ranging technical skills.

I must first draw your attention to the fact that there is no question mark at the end of the title of this article. This article aims to give you several reasons why it is probably not a good idea attempt your own repair. Of course MITA is an organization of professionals that make their living repairing musicians equipment, you might think that number one on our list is because it takes money out of our pockets. Admittedly there are some that see it that way, but most MITA professionals know that being helpful, within reasonable bounds, and maintaining good relations with the local musicians will put far more money in our pockets than will turning away do-it-yourselfers. Also most MITA members are also musicians and gearheads and came into this business out of their dual loves of music and technology and probably started by servicing their own gear. They are therefore more concerned with how well the repair is made than they are with who made the repair. So, with those disclaimers out of the way I will now give you four good reasons to consider leaving the repair to a professional

High Voltage

I found an interesting case study on the internet. It involves the restoration of a vintage API mixing board that had been originally used in a mixing truck for live audio. The board was totally renovated for J.J. Weisler of Decibelle Recording in San Fransico by Vintage King Audio. Because the board was originally designed for live audio the automation was on the tape monitors and had to be moved to the line monitors. A description of the process can be found at http://www.vintageking.com/API-Legacy-Restored-for-JJ-Wiesler-Sold?sc=14....

It seems like digital recording and mixing is taking over the industry but there is still plenty of room for analog mixers and quality vintage mixers still have a significant following. Projects like this one are one of a kind but fun and rewarding to be a part of.

All of us have collections of music on cassette tape, vinyl or that recorded under less than ideal circumstances. It is music that we hang on to because it has special meaning or is too good to trash but doesn't satisfy our current standards of audio quality. There are a number of software products on the market that provide the tools to remove the pops, clicks, noise and even the room ambiance and to expand the the dynamic range and improve the frequency content of the sound. Much of the work is done in semi-automatic fashion using presets. Today's powerful processors and real time audio analysis software make near miraculous transformations possible starting with the poorest of source materials. What was once the domain of professional sound engineers and archivist and reserved for material of great historical significance or mass commercial appeal, is now available to users at all levels. Precious memories and personal gems of audio content can be massaged and processed to new levels of audio fidelity and cleaned of annoying noise and recording artifacts.