Today's Top Stories:

  WaveMachine Lab's Free Drumagog Update
We must admit that it's a pleasure when manufacturers and developers are excited about their new products or updates and ask us to pass along the information to you, the customer. The folks at WaveMachine Labs just let us know that they've released a new Drumagog update, version 4.08. This is a free update for registered owners of this really cool plug-in. It's fully compatible with earlier saved Drumagog sessions, but unlike previous updates, there's no need to be concerned about compatibility with older sessions. Here are some of the fixes and improvements:

• Added the ability to double-click on control values for more precise input.
• Fixed the problem with stereo versions running under Pro Tools.
• Fixed the MIDI input problem with Pro Tools 7.
• Added more resolution to the pitch control for finer pitch changes.
• Fixed a rare crashing issue under Pro Tools.
• Fixed Pro Tools compatibility with sessions created using older Drumagog versions.

  Arturia's Minimoog V Gets the Universal Treatment
Lots of you have discovered how accurately Arturia's "virtual Minimoog" reproduces the classic sound of the world's first commercially available synthesizer. You're probably using it for fat bass lines and soaring solos, right? Well, Arturia has now released an update for the plug-in that adds Universal Binary support. Improvements you'll find in Version 1.6 include:

• It's VST 2.4 Cubase 4 ready.
• The factory presets have all been checked and re-tuned.
• A bug has been fixed and the oscillator does not detune anymore.

  New In Stock At Sweetwater

• Fender GDO-300 - When you first lay eyes on the GDO 300 from Fender, you'll swear you're looking at a guitar that costs at least two or three times as much! Part of the Global Design Series, the GDO 300 has an Orchestra-style body with a beautiful quilted maple top that's been finished in a sweet Transparent Amber. It also has laminated mahogany back and sides that deliver a relatively bright tone. The nato neck has a 20-fret rosewood fretboard adorned with an "F" inlay at the 12th fret, as well as ivory body and neck binding and a rich gloss finish. This is an affordable acoustic guitar that looks and sounds great and plays like a dream.
• Focusrite Saffire Pro 26i/o - This ultra-low latency FireWire 400 interface is housed in a 19-inch rackmount case and features detachable rack ears for desktop applications. The 52-channel (26 ins and 26 outs) Saffire Pro 26i/o has eight channels of onboard Focusrite Green Series premium mic preamps and eight analog outputs plus a total of 18 digital ins and outs (two S/PDIF and 16 ADAT at 48kHz). It also has 24-bit/192kHz A/D/A processing and comes bundled with SaffireControl Pro software and professional-grade compression, reverb, EQ, and amp modeling VST/AU plug-ins.
• Akai MPD24 - Here's an affordable velocity-sensitive pad controller for musicians and DJs working with sampled sounds. It features 16 MPC-style, high-end velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads plus full transport controls for interfacing with almost any DAW or sequencing applications. There are four user-selectable pad banks totaling 64 pads, plus six assignable faders and eight assignable 360-degree knobs for transmitting MIDI Control Change data, plus a backlit, easy-to-read LCD display. It can be powered via USB or an optional AC adaptor, and includes Editor Librarian software (for Mac and PC) — all for under $200 with free shipping!

  Guitar Of The Day
Way back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, before the Les Paul or the ES-335, Gibson was building a number of sophisticated hollowbody jazz guitars. Today's Guitar of the Day, the Gibson LeGrand, can trace its lineage to the company's Golden Age of "jazz boxes." It actually began as the Johnny Smith Model, named after one of the great jazz players of the 1950s. Essentially, the guitar was a combination of the legendary L-5's body with a Super 400 neck and headstock, but with one unique feature: Smith wanted a pickup added so that he could take advantage of the new, more powerful guitar amplifiers that were growing in popularity. But he didn't want to lose the guitar's resonant acoustic qualities. So Gibson turned to Seth Lover, the man who designed the original humbucking pickup. What Lover did was take one of the mini-humbuckers he had designed for the Epiphone line and mount it on the very end of the fingerboard, leaving the body free to resonate. In addition, the output jack and volume control were installed onto the guitar's pickguard, which also kept these from impacting the instrument's tone. Eventually, jazz gave way to rock and roll and the Johnny Smith model faded away. But by the mid-1990s, the guitar was reintroduced as the LeGrand, with a premium Sitka spruce top, figured maple back and sides, multi-ply binding on the top and back, bound f-holes, and an ABR-1 bridge mounted on an ebony base with a fine-tuning tailpiece. The neck is constructed of premium maple and walnut with a 20-fret ebony fingerboard and abalone split-block inlays. A custom-wound BJB floating pickup is mounted just like the original, with its volume control and output jack on the pickguard. This particular example is finished in a deep, rich Wineburst with gold-plated hardware. It comes with a Custom Shop hardshell case and certificate of authenticity.