Today's Top Stories:

  Summer NAMM's a Wrap
If a trip to Austin, Texas was out of the question for you, don't worry! Sweetwater has the 2007 NAMM Summer Session covered in a series of exclusive reports. Get all the facts on the latest and hottest new gear announcements from the manufacturers who traveled to Austin to exhibit at this show. Our own Editorial Director, Mitch Gallagher and a number of roving reporters were all on hand to bring you all the major developments in the world of music technology. Read the full report - but without giving away too much, let's just say guitars ruled and leave it at that. What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

  UA and NEVE Launch UAD Nevana X2
Universal Audio, a manufacturer of high-quality vintage audio hardware and DSP software plug-ins for digital audio workstations and audio console/modular manufacturer AMS-Neve jointly announced one of the hottest items of '07, the new UAD-Nevana X2 for Mac OS X and Windows X64/XP/Vista. This amazing "in-the-box mixing system" includes two PCIe DSP cards and all seven of the critically acclaimed UA/Neve Classic Console Plug-ins including the 1073/1073SE EQ, 1081/1081SE EQ, 33609/33609SE Bus Compressor, and 88RS Channel Strip in AU, VST, and RTAS formats. The UAD-Nevana X2 also includes the standard 14 UA Mix-Essentials plug-ins plus (yup, there's more!) a UAD $200 voucher that can be used to acquire any UAD plug-ins.

  Updates and Upgrades
Yamaha has released version 1.1 updaters for its Pitch Fix, Final Master, Vocal Rack, and 01X Channel Module. These updates deliver full compatibility with all Mac-Intel (Universal Binary) computers.

  Guitar of the Day
There was a time when Epiphones were looked at simply as cheaper, overseas versions of famous Gibson guitars. But these days, with access to all the latest technology, Epiphone is producing guitars "like they used to," and pro players no longer ignore Epiphone instruments. A perfect example is this Epiphone Elitist Byrdland. Named after its designers, Billy Byrd and Hank Garland, two Nashville session giants, the original Gibson Byrdland was more or less patterned after the company's archtop L-5, but with a thinner body, shorter scale, and a thinner neck for fast runs and extended chord shapes, making it a perfect "jazz box" - as well as the axe of choice for rocker Ted Nugent, who took it to places its designers probably never dreamed of! Today's Epiphone version has the much rarer natural finish (most Byrdlands were sunburst) with a solid spruce top and AAA-grade flame maple back and sides. Each and every piece of wood is hand-selected, both for appearance and tone. The finishing touch is multi-ply bindings front and back. Like the Gibson version that came before it, the Elitist Byrdland's neck is precision cut at an optimum 14-degree grain orientation for extra strength and stability and then carefully fitted to the body using a hand-glued dovetail joint. The fully bound, 22-fret, 5-piece maple and rosewood set neck is topped by a premium-grade ebony fingerboard with real mother-of-pearl block inlays. As with all of Epiphone's current Elitist models, the Byrdland is equipped with a pair of custom-wound, wax-potted, "made in the USA" pickups by Gibson Musical Instruments with real 24K gold covers and vintage braided and shielded wire for superior, ultra-quiet operation. In fact, all of the Elitist Byrdland's hardware is gold-plated, including the precision Grover tuners and Imperial buttons. Epiphone uses only the finest pearl inlays, bone nuts and saddles, as well as hand-rubbed finishes. It then gets strung and goes through a meticulous set-up by a senior Epiphone luthier. There's only thing missing from this spectacular guitar, and that's a 5-figure price tag!