Today's Top Stories:

  Italian Grand
Synthogy, makers of the very popular Ivory virtual piano instrument, have released the Italian Grand Expansion Pack. The new expansion set ships on DVD, and adds an additional grand piano with more than 2,000 samples totalling 19GB of data to Ivory. The piano was expertly regulated and recorded at the famed SUNY Purchase Hall in New York using top-grade equipment. Twelve velocity layers are included in this expansion pack, as well as soft pedal samples (una corda) and release samples at multiple time and velocity levels.

  PreSonus Gives You A Good Reason
Our friends at PreSonus have announced that, going forward, Propellerheads' Reason Adapted software will be included free of charge with all the company's FireWire recording interfaces.

  New In Stock At Sweetwater

• Gibson Billy Joe Armstrong Les Paul Jr. - A result of 18 months of collaboration between Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong and Gibson, this is a single-cutaway Les Paul Junior with a custom-would dual-coil (humbucking) H-90 pickup - you get all the tone of a P90 single-coil, but without the hum and noise. The guitar also features a 1950s-style Les Paul neck, and a custom-made case with faux leopard fur interior.
• Samson Rubicon 10s - With a 150-watt built-in power amp and a heavy-duty 10-inch woofer with butyl surround, the Rubicon 10s subwoofer can really pump out lowend. Other features include a variable-frequency 3-pole active crossover, volume control balanced XLR and gold-plated RCA line inputs and XLR outputs. A wireless infrared remote controls system level, sub level, dim, mute, and subwoofer mute. An 8-segment LED meter displays input level.
• Akai MPC500 - The MPC500 from Akai offers all the classic MPC feel in a portable, battery-powered unit. There are 12 MPC-style pads, built-in effects, ComplactFlash for quick, expandable data storage, USB for transferring samples and sequences to and from computer, selectable mic/line inputs, and much more. The MPC500 features up to 128MB of internal RAM using the the same EXM128 memory expander as the MPC1000 and MPC2500. Speaking of the MPC1000 and MPC2500, the MPC500 is 100% data-compatible with those units. The MPC500 provides an incredibly powerful production tool in a compact and portable package.

  Guitar Of The Day
The Gretsch Irish Falcon, like so many of the guitars built by Gretsch, has an interesting history. Six years ago, Bono (of the Irish supergroup U2) commissioned Gretsch to build ten "Irish Falcon" model 6136 hollowbody guitars. Essentially, this is a White Falcon finished in Cadillac Green rather than white. Fred Gretsch personally delivered the Irish Falcons to Bono during the Elevation 2001 tour. You can hear it on the song "Walk On" from the U2 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. An inscription on the pickguard reads "The Goal is Soul." Today, one of the other nine guitars resides in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, so you can see why this is a very special guitar in the Gretsch catalog. In fact, Gretsch builds so few of these that it's always an event when one comes in. Custom-built to Bono's specifications, this single-cutaway, laminated maple archtop guitar has two classic FilterTron pickups (the same pickups that were on George Harrison's Country Gentleman during The Beatles early years) controlled by a 3-position toggle switch. High-end features include gold-plated hardware and real mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays. There are volume controls for each of the two pickups, plus a master volume control. Rather than a tone control knob, the Irish Falcon, like most Gretsch guitars, has a 3-position master tone switch. The 22-fret, 2-piece maple neck is topped off by an ebony fingerboard and the guitar has real f-holes (most '60s Gretsch guitars had fake, painted-on f-holes) and a jewel-like gloss urethane finish. Naturally, a guitar this special comes with a plush-lined custom hardshell case.