In expectation of Super Bowl XL in Detroit, entertainers are for events throughout “Super Weekend,” including DJ AM at Groove Detroit … Art in Motion. This fundraiser, to benefit The Children’s Center The Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee has brought about the Sanctioned Event Program, on lieu of the NFL, to engage the community in Super Bowl. This form of community outreach allows local residents and visitors the opportunity to enjoy Super Bowl related programming while at the same time provides fiscal benefits to local charities. Sanctioned Events are promoted through assorted Host Committee channels including the Event Guide and Host Committee website.

Centaur Entertainment announces that DJ/Producer Junior Vasquez will make a new CD entitled Party Groove: White Party Volume 7. The mix is being presented in conjunction with Junior Vasquez Music. Centaur’s
President Nick DeBiase was very excited and said “We’re very excited to be working with Junior Vasquez
and his new CD will definitely be one of the best dance albums of the year.”

“I tried to make it edgy, uplifting, anthemic and spiritual,” says Junior.
“For many years I was criticized for playing pots-and-pans but I’m over that
sound. I love great vocals with instrumentation that’s tough-as-nails to
underpin the song.” Junior’s reported sobriety in the last year has
certainly influenced him musically.

Roland released a new sampler called the SP-404. The SP-404 replaced the SP-303. The newly released sampler, designed with the 303 as the foundation, had several new features. The new features added included increased pads, memory, and voices. Roland also added a inline microphone which made sampling easier.

American Audio Center. , a online seller of DJ and ProAudio products is receiving a lot of bad press. The store offers great prices on proaudio products but fails to note why they can offer such a great deal. It became apparent though after a bit of research why. They undercut the competition by selling lower than the lowest authorized price of the dealers.

No big deal right ? Wrong !

If you buy a product from these guys you will not have a warranty from Pioneer or Numark. Probably others as well but we haven’t verified that. Numark went to the trouble of going on forums to warn about these guys. Pioneer put out a press release about them not being an authorized dealer.

American does point this out in their info page:

American Audio Center is not an authorized dealer for any of the name brands shown on this site. Any defective products can be sent back to American Audio Center for repairs or exchange. American Audio Center will take care of all warranty needs.

Unfortunately it is in extremely small type on the info page at the absolute bottom. We did not find it anywhere else on the site.

The check out process we went through presented with the following information about the terms of service the customer had to agree with. Many of them conflicting with the promise of American Audio Center taking care of the warranty. We added the highlights to emphasize the points we take issue with. The misspellings are theirs. “[…]” indicates we left out a section we thought didn’t pertain to the issues at hand.

By purchasing, making payments, and submitting an order for our products or services, you indicate your acceptance of an agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions set fort below.

[…]

Any merchandise sold as is cannot be returned for any reason.

All return items must be in original conditions including all boxes, packing, instructions and warranty cards.

No refunds or exchanges on special orders.

[…]

All products carry manufacture warranty only.

We will ship your defective item to the manufacturer for all warranty and non warranty repairs.

In case of a return for repair, customer shall cover the shipping cost going from their end to service center or warehouse destination, no excuses.

[…]

Absolutely no cash or credit card refund We do not give store warranty.

It says quite clearly here, They do not offer a store warranty and the items are only covered under the manufacturer warranty. However on the info page they identify themselves as unauthorized dealers and that means they can’t sell items with manufacturer warranties. I don’t know about you but I interpet this as, you get no warranty, and in my opinion it shows signs that they might be intentionally confusing the issue.

Should you get to the point where you send your item back, which reading all this I am not so sure you could do, you need to meet a long list of conditions. An original receipt must be provided, but seeing that its an internet purchase I am not sure what they want for that. Also you pay for shipping, possibily a restocking fee, and you never ever get any returns on your money.

These are definitely people to be avoided but the real lesson here is to make sure you read those policies when you buy online. Make sure the dealer is an authorized dealer and double check for bad reviews.

New Toneworks Signal Processor

Toneworks released a new signal processor using Korg technology at its heart. The processor uses knobs for its manipulation and offers a wide range of preset effects.

Roland Updates 16 Track Recorder

Roland released an updated version of its BOSS BR-1600CD 16 track recorder. The new features include increased base amp models, enhanced realtime vocal-pitch correction, and the ability to synchronize playback with another BR-1600CD.

Shure Launches Grammy Camp

Shure launched a camp for educating teenage musicians. The camp includes courses on the creative process and technical aspects of performing, recording and distribution.

New Compact Amplifiers from Yamaha

Yamaha recently redesigned the XM serise of amplifiers. The press release on the Yamaha describes the amplifiers as being most appropriate for small to mid size applications. The improvements for the rack mounted amplifier include a smaller footprint ( 2u compared to the previous 3u ) and reduced weight.

Shure Mourns

Shure lost three associates in an automobile accident caused by an attempted suicide. The musicians lost were identified as Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29

Ortofon Instructs

We discovered that Ortofon has a great page on styli care an use. It answers beginner to advanced questions, such as how to use the antiskate device to correcting malfunctions with your cartridges.

Effects Processor, for concerts

Barry Manilow uses the PM1D effects processor for his Vegas performance. The setup allowed a lot of flexibility in his performance.

Behringer Releases new Mixing Consoles

Behringer released a new set of EURORACK UB series mixing boards. The onboard digital processor seems to be quite powerful

Korg releases software update

Korg relased a new operating system for its keyboard arrangers, the Pa1X and Pa1XPro. This is quite an update.. it adds plenty of new features and enhancements to the existing set of functions.

iPod DJ Station

Numark released a new mixing station for iPods. Interesting, seems a bit overkill though.

Numark Compact DJ Station

Numark released a new compact DJ station. The DJ station is specifically geard towards club owners and mobile dj’s.

Gemini CD-200 WriteUp

Gemini has a write up on there CD-200 dual deck cd player.