Today's Top Stories:

  Toontrack Music Announces New Products
With the AES Show almost here, Toontrack Music has unveiled its new Drumtracker software, which it plans to demo at the show. Drumtracker is host independent, stand-alone multitrack audio-to-MIDI converter software for sound replacement and is Toontrack's third release in a series of sampler peripheral products that started with EZplayer Free from earlier in 2007 and the announcement of Toontrack Solo this week (see below). Drumtracker offers users complete manual control over tracking and exporting and lets them select which part (or parts) of a drum track they want to export, right down to each single hit. All triggering points are graphically represented and users can set maximum/minimum velocity and threshold values for each instrument and articulation. Drumtracker allows users to export all drums as one single MIDI file or as separate MIDI files and allows users to choose between different output MIDI mappings adapted for their favorite drum sampler format. At present, Drumtracker is expected to ship in January of 2008. No price has yet been set. Toontrack Music also introduced Toontrack Solo, a host application for Toontrack Music samplers providing stand-alone operation, multi-instance operation, and support for specialist MIDI controllers. Toontrack Solo will be released as a free download before the end of this month to all registered users of EZ and Superior Drummer samplers. It is said to be optimized for real-time, low-latency operation and offers full ASIO/Core Audio/Core MIDI support, as well as being a routable mixer with support for up to 16 physical outputs. Each instance can be assigned a discrete MIDI channel. System Requirements:

• Windows XP SP2, PIII/Athlon 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM.
• Mac OS X 10.3.9, G4 1GHz with 512MB of RAM.
• Display capable of 800x600 (1024x768 recommended).
• A Toontrack Music drum sampler, dfh EZdrummer, or Superior Drummer.
• Soundcard with up-to-date ASIO or CoreAudio drivers.

  Updates and Upgrades
Digidesign has announced the release of version 7.3.1cs5 free updates for its Pro Tools HD, LE, and M-Powered systems. These CS (customer service) updates all include various bug fixes for the three Pro Tools systems. Digidesign Technical Support recommends that in general, only the Pro Tools users experiencing the specific problems listed in the documentation for each update should use the CS updates.

  Guitar of the Day
In a YouTube video presentation, Paul Reed Smith himself demos the PRS Custom 24 through Carlos Santana's old touring amp and reveals that the company has probably sold more Custom 24s than any other model in its line. Of course, the Custom 24 has been in the PRS line the longest, but still, as Paul points out, the Custom 24 delivers a wide range of tones just using the onboard controls. Add in the additional tone colors available with the amplifier of your choice plus some stompboxes and now you truly have an impressive tonal palette for any type of music you might want to play. Today's Guitar of the Day, a gorgeous PRS Custom 24 in Vintage Yellow, is a real beauty. The carved, figured maple top is lighter in color than the company's Amber finish, plus it has a nicely contrasting deep cherry mahogany back, neck, and headstock. The top, which is dubbed a "10-Top" by PRS, is a beautiful piece of flame maple and is the best you can get in a standard PRS production model. Of course, the color would be totally irrelevant if it were on an inferior guitar. With the ultra-stable PRS Tremolo, those trademark abalone birds, uncovered PRS humbuckers with coil-tapping (an HFS at the bridge and a Vintage Bass in the neck position) and superb playability thanks to its fast, wide-thin neck profile and premium rosewood fingerboard, this PRS Custom 24 is a guitar anyone could easily fall in love with!