By Daniel Fisher, Director of Soundware Engineering

Once again the leaves are falling and the fresh, cool breezes create a sense of exciting things to come. As you can probably tell, I’m a "Fall guy" and I know I probably couldn't live anywhere that didn't have Autumn as one of its seasons. But Fall is also an exciting time at Sweetwater, as its always the season that we break (destroy, actually) all of our existing sales records. I guess it’s because our customers are ready for new beginnings and new equipment as well.

This Fall I got my own Yamaha EX5 Music Synthesizer and our Soundware Development staff has been working diligently to get some of our best samples into the EX5 format. Our first result has exceeded our wildest expectations with the release of Sweetwater’s EX Premium Rhythm Section CD-ROM for the EX5 and EX7. The flagship instrument on this disc is our award-winning 13-meg, triple-strike, Stereo Virtual Grand and I can honestly attest to the fact that our EX version is now the most dynamic and powerfully musical version of this piano yet created.

And when you have a machine with 128 notes of polyphony you can stop worrying about voice-stealing and just start playing. There was so much polyphony to spare that we even created pianos that were a simultaneous mix of RAM and ROM pianos together. And the Virtual Grand with Strings will give you goose bumps!

To add even more value to this CD-ROM we've also included a Yamaha G3 Rock Piano as well as some DX-7 textures. For the bottom of your rhythm section we offer six of our best Bass Guitars from our Ultimate Guitar CD-ROM and to kick the groove forward we feature five full-stereo, full-bandwidth, full-length Drum Kits from our Total Stereo Session Drums CD-ROM.

As an added bonus, the EX Premium Rhythm Section CD-ROM includes the program data from all four EX5 Factory Disks, all four EX7 Factory Disks and all eight Demo Songs. We've even thrown in the 8 meg General MIDI set for both RAM and Flash ROM so you never need to change discs. How much for this “EXceptional” CD-ROM? How about $129! What? You don't have your EX Synth yet? Or you don't have the SCSI, RAM or Flash ROM options you want? No problem, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer today for a special package price that will get you making exciting new music for the next century!

Before I go I'd like to mention that Winter NAMM '99 is really not that far away. If you're going to be at the show or in the LA area from January 27–31, please make a point to come see us. We're always looking to hire excellent people who share our excitement about music technology. Call Sweetwater and ask for Kristine Haas to set up an appointment. See you soon!