Today's Top Stories:

  Antares Says, "Let's All Live In Perfect Harmony"
With the release of Auto-Tune 5, which adds even better pitch detection, a sleek new user interface and a whole bunch of new features, perfect harmonies are guaranteed. Well, even the lead vocal will be spot-on perfect thanks to a number of enhancements that make it even easier to get the results Auto-Tune is justly famous for. If you've used Auto-Tune yourself or have seen it in action, you know it can make the difference between an acceptable performance and one that's perfectly in tune. Antares Auto-Tune 5 is now available for TDM, RTAS, VST and AU for Mac OS X. It's Universal Binary, so it works perfectly with both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Mac systems. Anyone who purchased and registered a copy of Auto-Tune 4 (including the TDM Production Suite or AVOX AT) after September 15, 2006, will be entitled to a free upgrade to Auto-Tune 5. According to Antares, a Windows version is in the works and should be available shortly. Here are just a few of the new Auto-Tune 5 features:

• An improved pitch detection algorithm and realtime pitch tracking display.
• A sleek new interface with a larger pitch edit display.
• Consolidated Pitch Tracking control with "Humanize" function.
• Full-time correction mode (host dependent) with realtime natural vibrato adjustment.
• Multiple simultaneous Graphical Mode instances (host dependent).

  New in Stock at Sweetwater

• Fender 210 Pro Cabinet - If you need a standalone bass cabinet for club or small hall gigs or want to integrate one as part of a larger component system, the 210 Pro Cabinet would be a logical choice. After all, who knows bass tone better than the company that invented the electric bass? The 210 Pro features two Fender Special Design Eminence 10" cast-frame drivers and a Foster compression driver horn. It can handle up to 700 watts of peak power or 350 watts continuous at 8 ohms, comes with a durable carpet covering, stacking corners, a metal protective grille, removable casters, 1/4" and Speakon jacks, along with standard banana plugs.
• Fender Sonoran SCE - It seems odd that Fender California Series acoustic guitars never caught on back in the late 1960s and early '70s with acoustic players, but they were a big hit with electric guitarists. Maybe it was the bolt-on neck and six-on-a-side Strat-style headstock. The Sonoran SCE electric/acoustic brings back the California series with a few modifications, including an updated dreadnought-style body with a venetian cutaway and a Fender CE-301 active onboard preamp. It has a solid spruce top and laminated mahogany body along with a mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard and yes, the famous Strat-style headstock. It also has a checkerboard soundhole rosette, the original rosewood bridge design, and chrome die-cast tuners.
• Hammond XM-2 - If you want to add the authentic sound of a Hammond B-3 to your rig, doesn't it make sense to go with the real thing? Sure it does, But imagine cramming the unmistakable Hammond sound into a one rackspace unit, but now without the old 430-pound cabinet. The XM-2 is built upon Hammond's groundbreaking digital tonewheel generator, which captures all the nuances of the original. It features a separate controller section for remote use of the module. The XM-2 module and the XMc-2 controller (see below) with real drawbars gives you access to the incomparable sound of the legendary Hammond B-3, including an internal Leslie that actually delivers the 3-D swirl of a real rotary speaker system.
• Hammond XMc-2 - If you want the tactile response of real drawbars, the Hammond XMc-2 controller is the perfect complement to the Hammond XM-2 rackmount organ module. Just sit the XMc-2 on top of your MIDI keyboard and you can access the XM-2's features just like you would the drawbars on a real Hammond organ. It has nine drawbars, Leslie rotary speaker effect plus the classic Vibrato and Chorus settings as well as reverb and overdrive controls plus five presets.
• Microboards Quic Disc QD-125 - Here's a one-to-five CD copier that burns CDs at speeds ranging up to a blazing 52x. It's perfectly suited to organizations that need to deliver small runs on demand or need to have in-house control of their content. Superior technology allows the Quic Disc to ship without a hard drive. How's this possible? Because the duplication of CDs is done totally "on the fly." LED indicators give you the status of the duplication process. The QD-125 is perfect for pro audio, houses of worship, multimedia and educational applications.

  Guitar of the Day
Wow! Another gorgeous PRS Custom 22 just arrived! This one is in the company's stunning Emerald Green finish with a flame maple top that's awfully close to being what PRS calls a "ten-top." Check out the photos and see for yourself. If you know PRS guitars at all, you know that the Custom is at the heart of their line. It's the guitar that put the company on the map - big time! In 1985, synths like the DX7 ruled the roost. Guitars were still a big part of rock and country, but quality was at an all-time low. What Paul Reed Smith did (though it wasn't apparent at the time) was to give the industry a wake-up call. Gradually guitarists became more aware of just what a really good guitar should look, feel and sound like. Eventually, the Custom line was split in two, with 24 and 22 frets respectively. At first glance the two might appear to be the same, with the exception of the two extra frets. But they're not. The Custom 22 is equipped with Dragon II pickups with nickel or gold-plated covers. In fact, it was the PRS limited edition Dragons that inspired Paul to build a production line Dragon, but without the mind-boggling inlay work, and that's how the Custom 22 was born. Custom 24s on the other hand are voiced differently, with an HFS bridge pickup and a Vintage Bass in the neck position. Both have abalone birds as options, while most Custom 24s have the PRS tremolo. This Emerald Green Custom actually comes with two Custom 24 features: The PRS tremolo and a wide-thin neck. The 5-way rotary pickup selector lets you dial in the classic smoky humbucker sound, while two additional settings split the coils, combining them into series and parallel configurations which produce a quite credible take on the glossy "in-between" pickup settings found on a Strat. Trust us, even the online photos don't do this beauty justice. Someone will be very happy when this baby shows up at their front door!