Dash Berlin - 'Till The Sky Falls Down (Rowald Steyn Dub Mix/Kettel Remix/Monokini Beach Remix)

"Dash Berlin is a true deejay at heart with a profound passion for the comprehensive culture of dance music. He is often described as an invigorating and charismatic newcomer, with the unique ability to leave a long-lasting impression upon his audience well after the night is over. Dash is one of those rare individuals that seems to understand the unwritten laws of the nightclub by nature. He keeps his ever expanding, nocturnal following alert, ecstatic and craving for more, with remarkable precision and skill. One could easily mistake him for a superstar deejay. However, the truth remains that Dash Berlin views the world through the same eyes as his public. "It's virtually impossible to make progress without the continuing support of the people", he humbly said.  

Dash Berlin, was born as Jeff X. Sutorius, in November 1979, in The Hague, the Netherlands. A family with wide musical tastes surrounded him and because of his late father, who was a distinguished drummer in a jazz band; Dash became acquainted with the typical marks of rhythmic music at a very young age. While still at high school, he became a devoted fan of electronic music, regularly enjoying mix tapes that his older sister brought home from the clubs she worked at as a professional dancer.

In his late teens, Dash Berlin started working at a record shop and became a dedicated vinyl collector with a fascination for melodic, synthesized house music, subsequently known as "Trance". Inspired by pioneering figures such as; Sven Väth, Oliver Lieb and Sander Kleinenberg, he slowly but surely started to develop his own innovative style of mixing and producing. His hidden work ethic seemed not to be about producing more, but rather less and differently. It is this vision that still sets him apart in a crowded and highly competitive scene.

Propelled by his passion, he literally performed everywhere, from nine-hour long gigs in shopping malls to the notorious illegal Dutch warehouse parties. During his set on the world famous Love Parade, Dash decided to incorporate the word ‘Berlin’ in his artist name. "It's an ode to a metropolis and her engaging, urban landscape," he said, "Where I have seen more then a million people dancing on the streets, in the in the spirit of an ever-evolving Europe".

In early 2006, he teamed up with fellow producers and close friends, Molijn & Kalberg, who were regular customers at his record shop. "These guys are amazing visionaries and astonishing studio wizards, they are the foundation of my sound" Dash remarked, "I still learn from them every day".

Together they designed an ambitious and unprecedented new sound of Trance, quickly labeled as the "Dash Berlin Sound". Futuristic, scintillating, but above all, moving and emotive music that relates to the universal dance floor experience, shared by innumerable music fans from multifarious cultures around the globe. Although a vigorous believer in political awareness, the message of Dash Berlin is simple; "It's all about having a good time again," he stated, "The art of celebrating life resonates inside of everyone".

In 2007, none other than Armin van Buuren revealed his newfound discovery to the world and featured Dash Berlin’s debut record "Till The Sky Falls Down" on his legendary ‘Universal Religion’ album. The track became one of the most memorable, global anthems that year and remains one of the cultivated blueprints of the new Trance renaissance. The black & white music video that complimented the radio mix was shot in the heart of Berlin proper. The clip grew to be a genuine labor of love, using the latest in digital cinematography, and successfully avoided the typical clichés of contemporary dance music videos.

In the beginning of 2009, under the mighty wings of Armada Music, plans emerged to expand the Dash Berlin universe with his very own label called ‘Aropa’. It represents an eclectic high-quality outlet for Dash Berlin’s avant-garde productions and collaborations. The label will also be a solid foundation for rising talent and established like-minded artists. "The Aropa brand holds a deeper connotation too", Dash revealed, “It also stands for the axiom of sharing art, inspiration and creativity". The first release is the monster anthem "Man On The Run", which is a prolific collaboration with fellow Armada artists Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren. The track sky rocketed to the top of the international Trance charts and received a prestigious nomination for ‘Best Trance Track’ at the annual Trance Awards.

October 2009 brought the global release of Dash Berlin’s critically acclaimed debut album: "The New Daylight". Besides being a varied collection of styles, it also features instant classics such as: "Till The Sky Falls Down", "Man On The Run", "Waiting" and "Never Cry Again". 2009 ended with a reverberating bang, when listeners voted for a large number of Dash Berlin tracks and remixes in the ‘A.S.O.T. End Of Year 250’. With "Man On The Run" standing out at number 5, the anthemic "Waiting" even went neck-and-neck with number one, ending at a respectable second place as the A.S.O.T. Tune Of The Year.

2010 promises to be another momentous year for Dash Berlin. In January, his ‘New Daylight 2010 World Tour’ kicked off in Australia and due to an overwhelming public demand, the "Flying Dutchman" is scheduled to jet to every corner of the world. From the hottest nightclubs to festivals with crowds numbering in the thousands, Dash connects with his audiences in a magical way that has spawned a worldwide following. This following is backed by a massive online presence through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking platforms. His dedicated fans actively vote for him when it matters the most. This loyal support already resulted in an astonishing number 20 DJ List position early in the year. It also gained him honorable spots on the ‘Trance.nu Future Stage’ at Trance Energy and the A.S.O.T. 450 Celebration, which are two of the largest and most essential Trance events in the world. Last years voting rewarded him with an esteemed nomination for ‘Best Break Through Artist’, this year Dash Berlin was nominated an astonishing three times at the International Dance Music Awards.

In February, Dash raised the bar with a pioneering 42-minute long 'Flashback' YouTube video mix, which received more than a hundred thousand views within a few weeks after uploading. Other ‘Dash Berlin TV’ videos are breaking records as well, with millions of views from all over the planet. With the creation and release of a free Dash Berlin iPhone app, the hard working deejay reaffirms his forward-thinking multimedia mindset.

In March 2010, after mixing various popular Armada compilations, Dash Berlin released his very first official and long-awaited mix album aptly named ‘United Destination’. This double-CD is a reflection of his recent gigs with a top selection of tracks straight from his record bag into two seamless deejay mixes." Article source: www.dashberlin.com.

Ray Isaac - You Want Or You Don't (GrooveShakerz Remix)

"Ray Isaac is Australia's first singing DJ. He has shaped himself into a brand that is sought after by producers and labels that admire his intoxicating lyrics and his insanely original performance style.
Based in Sydney, his signature style expresses pain, love and redemption that moves fiercely between fear and functional and has placed him in a position to dictate his own brand of pop-infused soul. 

His single ‘I don’t give a damn’, released through Ministry of Sound (2007), strumpets through the confines of genre and sounds like a redux lesson in all that is good about pop music. No small feat for an artist that boasts an extensive repertoire monopolising all music fields.

His 2007 follow-up track ‘Such a Fool’ (EXM Records) is an all-consuming lyrical narrative that morphs quickly into a raw disclosure of modest insight. That’s the way Ray is – all or nothing – when speaking about his infectious talent. Collaborations with Robbie Rivera (Stand By Me), Ministry of Sound (‘I don’t give a damn’), Dario Nunez (Four to the floor), WaWa (Let me Live again) and the inclusion of two new songs in the Australian feature film ‘Cedar Boys’(2010) has cemented Ray as a formidable songwriter and performer. Ray is support Act for Cascada at the Endless Summer Music Festival 2010.

With a background of study at the Actors pulse, Ray acts up to the crowd in his new re-invention of DJ by teasing his audience with pop/house remixes saturated with tribal undertones in brooding arrangements that hark back to the day of old-fashioned hands-in-the-air fanfare. His success is built on his ability to combine, as illustrated by Time Out Sydney, a brilliant ‘electro retro-funk’ vibe to ignite his audience into a frenzy.

Together with his desire to create and impress both the media and himself, Ray’s Las Vegas bravado will cement his place in an ever-changing scene in which he has an insatiable hunger for, yet still avoiding contained statements of boundaries. Soon the buzz surrounding Ray Isaac will become a roar." Article source: Ray Isaac on Facebook.

Movetown - Girl You Know It's True (Instant Move Remix)

History of the Portable Audio Player

"Most people nowadays enjoy listening to music. Some feel more relaxed, others become more energetic, but regardless the reason the fact is that music is an essential part of most peoples lives. You can see the proof in this by observing more and more people who have headphones in their years while walking, taking the subway or even during work. Portable audio players are now as popular as the Beatles were in the 60's.
But how did it all start?
Well, the audio players of today have their roots in the Sony Walkman brand. Aside from radio devices, Sony was the first to introduce a portable music player. The first Walkman devices used magnetic audio cassettes and where kind of bulky at first. Sony first advertised the series in Japan, in 1979. Walkmans where usually powered by two AA batteries and provided good music output provided the source (cassette) was of good quality. Later on came the CD Walkman. It featured the same basic concept: a portable audio player that instead of audio cassettes used CDs. The main problem of this device was that, despite being indeed considered “portable”, its size was nowhere near comfortable to use on a daily basis. The best way to carry the device was probably in a backpack.

One of its biggest problems was the fact that it used a laser beam in order to read data from the CD, and the beam orientation system was mainly mechanical, so when the device was moved it very often skipped parts of a song or sometimes fail to play at all. This problem was later solved by manufacturers by adding a buffer which was used to read ahead and store data. Thus, whenever “live” reading from the CD was not possible, the player continued to play data until the buffer was empty. An important problem related to CD players regarded limited music storage. A CD could store on average around 20 audio tracks and users would either have to limit themselves to this number or carry with them more CDs. This problem was not solved by the next wave of audio players, but rather the solution gave birth to the next generation of devices.
Enter the MP3

Karlheinz Brandenburg, along with other contributors, created the MP3 audio format. The idea behind the MP3 standard was a new compression algorithm that took advantage of a human hearing limitation called auditory masking. Brandenburg used a CD recording of Suzanne Vega's (named by some the mother of the MP3) song "Tom's Diner" in order to refine the compression algorithm.
MP3 greatly reduced the amount of data needed to store audio track information. Compared to a CD, an average-sized MP3-encoded song provides an improved compression ration of 1/10. This achievement paved the way of digital music as we know it today.

As flash storage technologies became cheaper, companies started developing portable MP3 players. One of the first companies to offer high quality products was Rio, with its PMP300. The player came with 32MB of internal memory and a SmartMedia slot for storage expansion. As far as dimensions go, the device was about as large as a deck of cards and connected to the PC using the parallel port.

Rio's success was moderate at most, since it was a bit ahead of its time. But a few years later, various companies started manufacturing en-masse USB, flash-based MP3 players. These where simple USB sticks that plugged in an USB port and allowed for any kind of file transfer, but could only play MP3 files. Most of them came with a small LCD that was designed to display the artist's name, song name and a bunch of other info. Although these devices were an immediate success, at the beginning, manufacturers also offered CD-based MP3 players, because flash modules were still a bit expensive, especially when compared to CDs. As so, most flash portable MP3 players toped at 512MB. However, over time, MP3 CD players lost the battle as the prices of flash memory continued to drop.Also, Sony still continued the MD Player brand. MD stands for Mini Disc and was introduced by Sony before MP3s were born. The device used discs whose size was just 2/3 of that of a CD and allowed music recording from the PC or from a microphone. Later on, the format was updated to store any kind of files, but the disc price was relatively high and users seemed to prefer MP3 players instead. Most USB MP3 players were very similar design-wise, the main differences between them being the casing or color. There were companies like Sony that provided some so called “deluxe” players with glossy finish and elegant design, but no manufacturer could really say that it had an innovative product.

The iPod makes its entrance - and the world of music changes forever

Everything changed when Apple announced its iPod audio player. The company's marketing was aggressive and propelled the iPod, despite its huge price compared to other players, in front of the pack. The first generation iPods were hard-drive based players (not the first of its kind as most might think, Creative was the first with the idea). The player was something new and users where intrigued by the Click-Wheel control ring (later to become touch sensitive) used for scrolling and the impressive storage capacity. The first iPods came with a 5GB hard drive, followed by a 10GB version.Another smart Apple marketing scheme was the use of its own on-line music store, the iTunes. The store provided users with the opportunity to buy single songs at very good prices, or build custom playlists that could later be synchronized with the iPod. This level of freedom made the player famous and everybody was considered cool or fashionable if spotted with an iPod.
Later on, the iPod evolved and it currently offers an impressive 160GB storage space and comes with a slim size factor and a sleek design, given by the chromed backplate.

 Apple also extended the iPod line with various derivatives like the iPod Shuffle, the Nano (a smaller flash based replica of the classic iPod with a smaller storage unit), and is now promoting the iPod touch which, might replace the original iPod design. The Touch features multi-touch user interface and a large, 3.5-inch LCD display.

Other well-respected companies involved in audio (and I say audio and not MP3 because most modern players support all kinds of audio formats) players manufacturing are iRiver, Cowon, Microsoft and Creative.

Today's portable audio players provide various features like movie playback, picture viewing, different web services and some of them (the ones with big enough screens) even allow users to play games.

I guess some are wondering why I enlisted Microsoft as a respected audio player manufacturer, but haven't mentioned anything about any of its products. Well, that's because it only has one product, called Zune. The device is meant to compete with Apple's iPod and has a large screen that allows movie watching and gaming, but, compared to its direct competitor, the device has integrated Wifi and can connect to the Zune MarketPlace for music and video downloads. The device also has a feature that allows Zune owners to exchange music and video files by using their devices' wireless capability.

Picking out an MP3 player is a tough choice these days. Users have hundreds of choices and most of them don't even know what exactly they want or where to start looking. My advice is to first decide what you really want. Do you want just a mp3 player or do you want a multimedia capable device? Do you want to take your entire music collection on the go, or will a flash device be enough? Just take a minute (or a day....or even a few days, but don't go over a month 'cause companies will announce something new and you will have to start all over again) and think about what you need/want. Everything will be a lot easier once you decide that. Next just ask a few friend about their audio players, use some Google magic and in you will have your music on the go in no time." Article source: www.gadgets.softpedia.com.

Bentu De Soli - Pearls Of Summer

The History of MP3

"The German company Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft developed MP3 technology and now licenses the patent rights to the audio compression technology - United States Patent 5,579,430 for a "digital encoding process". The inventors named on the MP3 patent are Bernhard Grill, Karl-Heinz Brandenburg, Thomas Sporer, Bernd Kurten, and Ernst Eberlein. In 1987, the prestigious Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen research center (part of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft) began researching high quality, low bit-rate audio coding, a project named EUREKA project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).

Dieter Seitzer and Karlheinz Brandenburg

Two names are mentioned most frequently in connection with the development of MP3. The Fraunhofer Institut was helped with their audio coding by Dieter Seitzer, a professor at the University of Erlangen. Dieter Seitzer had been working on the quality transfer of music over a standard phone line. The Fraunhofer research was led by Karlheinz Brandenburg often called the "father of MP3". Karlheinz Brandenburg was a specialist in mathematics and electronics and had been researching methods of compressing music since 1977. In an interview with Intel, Karlheinz Brandenburg described how MP3 took several years to fully develop and almost failed. Brandenburg stated "In 1991, the project almost died. During modification tests, the encoding simply did not want to work properly. Two days before submission of the first version of the MP3 codec, we found the compiler error."

What is MP3

MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer III and it is a standard for audio compression that makes any music file smaller with little or no loss of sound quality. MP3 is part of MPEG, an acronym for Motion Pictures Expert Group, a family of standards for displaying video and audio using lossy compression. Standards set by the Industry Standards Organization or ISO, beginning in 1992 with the MPEG-1 standard. MPEG-1 is a video compression standard with low bandwidth. The high bandwidth audio and video compression standard of MPEG-2 followed and was good enough to use with DVD technology. MPEG Layer III or MP3 involves only audio compression.

 

Timeline - History of MP3

* 1987 - The Fraunhofer Institut in Germany began research code-named EUREKA project EU147, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).

* January 1988 - Moving Picture Experts Group or MPEG was established as a subcommittee of the International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission or ISO/IEC.

* April 1989 - Fraunhofer received a German patent for MP3.

* 1992 - Fraunhofer's and Dieter Seitzer’s audio coding algorithm was integrated into MPEG-1.

* 1993 - MPEG-1 standard published.

* 1994 - MPEG-2 developed and published a year later.

* November 26, 1996 - United States patent issued for MP3.

* September 1998 - Fraunhofer started to enforce their patent rights. All developers of MP3 encoders or rippers and decoders/players now have to pay a licensing fee to Fraunhofer.

* February 1999 - A record company called SubPop is the first to distribute music tracks in the MP3 format.

* 1999 - Portable MP3 players appear.

What Can MP3 Do

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has this to say about MP3:"Without Data reduction, digital audio signals typically consist of 16 bit samples recorded at a sampling rate more than twice the actual audio bandwidth (e.g. 44.1 kHz for Compact Discs). So you end up with more than 1.400 Mbit to represent just one second of stereo music in CD quality. By using MPEG audio coding, you may shrink down the original sound data from a CD by a factor of 12, without losing sound quality."

MP3 Players

In the early 1990s, Frauenhofer developed the first, however, unsuccessful MP3 player. In 1997, developer Tomislav Uzelac of Advanced Multimedia Products invented the AMP MP3 Playback Engine, the first successful MP3 player. Two university students, Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev ported AMP to Windows and created Winamp. In 1998, Winamp became a free MP3 music player boosting the success of MP3. No licensing fees are required to use an MP3 player." Article source: www.inventors.about.com.

Lily Allen - F*ck You (Ralphi Rosario Remix)

"Lily Allen has been called all these things, and much, much more - sometimes with justification, often without. She's posh, she's common, she's sexy, she's demure, she's reticent, she's outspoken, she's sensitive, she's shameless, she's loved-up, she's distraught, often all in the same evening. Then she goes to bed, gets up and has breakfast. Then she posts her breakfast on the Internet. Then other people analyse her breakfast. And wonder why she posted it on the Internet. Contrary, contradictory, occasionally catty, always compelling, Allen, at 23, is Britain's most consistently engaged and engaging pop star, as well as one of our most successful. She first commandeered the public stage in July 2006, a fully formed phenomenon with a song that would help define that summer, the hugely infectious "Smile", her first CD single and her first UK number one. "Smile" served as an excellent primer for the Allen oeuvre, a breezy, lilting, ska-inflected slice of perfect pop distinguished by sugar-sweet vocals and unflinchingly autobiographical lyrics. It was a song of female empowerment sung by a smart-mouthed, wide-eyed, pretty post-teen in a pink prom dress and box-fresh Nike trainers, fluoro make-up and huge hoop earrings. "LDN" was, if anything, even more insidious and distinctive: a faux-naive, text-spelt, profane paean to the city of her birth in all its grimy glory. By the time of the release of "Alright, Still", her debut album, Allen's stardom was solidified and her public persona cemented: cheeky, waspish, searingly honest, sparky, spiky and satirical. Some of the stories about her were even true.

Lily Allen was born in May 1985 in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of film producer Alison Owen and actor Keith Allen. It was an unconventional childhood, but not one without its compensations, and it made Allen wise beyond her years and tremendously motivated to carve her own place in the world. Raised alongside her sister and brother in Bloomsbury, Shepherd's Bush, Primrose Hill and Islington, she attended 13 different schools in total before abandoning her formal education at 15 and embarking on a teenage odyssey of innocence and experience: clubbing in Ibiza, studying to be a florist, always hoping to break into the entertainment industry. She knocked on record company doors from the age of 16, and her first deal came in 2002, with Warners, who pushed her in an uncomfortably folky direction. It was two years later, working with producers Future Cut, when Allen began to find her feet as a songwriter. In 2005 she signed to Regal, an imprint of Parlophone, and, frustrated by the slow pace of the music industry, began to post demos on her MySpace page. Meanwhile, a series of live appearances at the Notting Hill nightclub Yo-Yo in the spring of 2006 whetted press and public appetites.

"I find it hard to write songs about nothing," says Allen. "I try to write things that are both relevant to my life - which is totally weird and surreal - and also universal. I think the record probably is a bit darker but not because I have a darker outlook on life. I actually feel happier right now than I did when I released "Alright, Still". When I was writing the first record I felt like I was really struggling. I wanted to be doing something and I felt no one was interested. Now I feel like people are very interested." " Article source: www.lilyallenmusic.com.

Neylini - Share My Love (Deepside Deejays Remix)

KORG Music History

Korg is recognized as one of the most innovative manufacturers of electronic musical instruments and accessories in the world. With its headquarters based in Tokyo, Japan, Korg maintains a network of distributors operating in countries around the world. From producing the first synthesizer in Japan, to defining the Music Workstation category, to inventing the world’s first handheld electronic tuner and more, Korg has been at the forefront of technology, and strives to bring to market products that are not only cutting edge, but also extremely user-friendly, inspirational, and of the highest quality.
Inception
The company began as many do—with the idea that something could be done better. In the early 1960s, Korg founder Tsutomu Katoh was a nightclub proprietor. Tadashi Osanai, a noted Japanese accordionist, performed regularly at Katoh’s club. Katoh told Osanai that it would be nice to have a rhythm machine to keep the beat. Osanai, an engineering graduate from Japan’s prestigious Tokyo University, was certain he could build a rhythm machine himself, and convinced Katoh to finance his efforts.
In 1962, Katoh rented a small facility alongside the Keio (pronounced K-O or Kayo) railway line, where Katoh and Osanai worked on developing a mechanical rhythm machine. The fledgling enterprise was dubbed Keio Electronic Laboratories, which later became Korg — a derivation of the words “Keio” and “ORGan”. Their first product, the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine or DoncaMatic DA-20, was released in 1963. While primitive by today’s standards, the instrument represented a major breakthrough in its day. By 1966, the company had made the transition from electro-mechanical technology to solid-state with the introduction of the DoncaMatic DE-11. Korg continued to release many “Drum Machines,” as they came to be known. The Mini-Pops (MP Series) and Korg Rhythm (KR) series were extremely popular. As sampling came into vogue in the mid 1980s, the DDD-1 and DDD-5 (Digital Dynamic Drums) became the star performers, eventually giving way to the S3 in 1990.  

Keyboard Products

During the 1960s and 1970s, the organ was a dominant product in the keyboard market, so in 1967 when Katoh was approached by Fumio Mieda, an engineer who wanted to develop keyboard products, he provided the backing for Mieda to try his hand at developing a new type of organ. In 1968, Mieda created the “Prototype I,” which was an organ with programmable voice capabilities similar to a synthesizer.

Furthering their idea and in order to produce products to bring to the public market, Katoh and Mieda created the KORGUE organ, which was completed in 1972.

During that same time, a musician friend of Katoh and Mieda visited the USA and saw a MOOG synthesizer. Upon his return to Japan, he told Katoh that the Prototype I was actually no different than a synthesizer, making the Prototype I the first “synthesizer” in Japan. This encouraged Katoh to develop the Prototype technology and to enter the new synthesizer market.

Synthesizers

In 1973, using many of the basic design concepts of the Prototype I, the company introduced their first synthesizer, the mini KORG 700 (K1 in the U.S.), a monophonic synthesizer. This was the first product to be sold under the Korg brand name. The mini KORG was soon joined by the mini KORG 700S (K2 in the U.S.), an effects-enhanced version. The mini KORG family proved popular for providing high quality sound in an easy-to-use and affordable package. Based on the enormous success of the mini KORG, the company continued to develop synthesizers.

1975 saw the introduction of the Dual-Voice Maxi-Korg 800DV (K3 in the U.S.) SyntheBass and the 900PS preset synthesizer. A year later, the Polyphonic Ensemble series (PE1000 and PE2000) was unveiled. The PE series helped to launch Korg as a full-line electronic keyboard company. By 1978, Korg had introduced two new lines of synthesizers that retained some of the patching capabilities of early modular synthesizers — the polyphonic PS series and the monophonic MS series. The MS10 and MS20 were extremely successful, and are still coveted by techno and dance artists today. Also part of this flush of products was Korg’s first vocoder, the VC-10. The PS-3100 was the first polyphonic synthesizer from Korg, and it was soon joined by the PS-3200, one of the first programmable polyphonic synthesizers ever created, allowing sounds to be recalled at the touch of a button. The PS-3300 followed in 1979, and actually contained three separate polyphonic synthesizers that could be played together from one keyboard. In 1980, Korg launched the TRIDENT, combining a polyphonic/programmable synthesizer, a string synthesizer, a brass synthesizer, and effects into one performance-oriented keyboard.

Sequential Circuits revolutionized the synthesizer industry in 1978 with the Prophet-5, the first instrument that was polyphonic, easy to use, and allowed every knob setting to be saved in a bank of user presets. Musically the instrument drew raves; however, its $4,000 price tag limited its appeal. The significance of the Prophet-5 was immediately apparent to Mr. Katoh and the engineers at Korg. They began work on a similar product, which led to the introduction of the Polysix in 1981. The Polysix featured six-voice polyphony and, like the Prophet 5, was fully programmable. However, its $1,995 retail price tag was unprecedented. In 1981, Korg also released the Mono/Poly, another coveted item today.

Korg further redefined the synthesizer market with the introduction of the Poly-800 in 1983. With a list price of $795, the Poly-800 was the first fully programmable synthesizer that cost less than $1,000! It was also Korg’s first product equipped with MIDI. The Digital Waveform series (DW6000 and DW8000) in 1984 and 1985 introduced a whole new palette of tone colors by utilizing complex digitized waveforms beyond the reach of the simple square and sawtooth waves used up until that point. 1987 found Korg breaking ground again, using FM technology in a highly intuitive way with the DS-8 and 707.

Korg acquired Sequential Circuits in 1989, forming the nucleus of a research and development center based in California’s Silicon Valley. The first product developed by Korg R&D was the Wavestation, introduced in 1990. Using technologies such as Advanced Vector Synthesis and Wave Sequencing, the Wavestation won awards and recognition for its technical achievements and innovation, and was followed by a number of related products.

Both the California-based R&D group and Korg Inc. continued to explore new technologies, delving into physical modeling and other forward-thinking forms of synthesis. One of the most unique results of these efforts was Korg’s WAVEDRUM, released in 1994. It combined the expressive playability of an acoustic drum with the dynamic power of DSP Synthesis, allowing drummers and percussionists to use all their familiar playing techniques to create and dynamically control a wide range of sounds.

Meanwhile, the R&D group worked on a new project dubbed “OASYS” – Open Architecture Synthesis. Their research yielded new technologies that Korg went on to implement in a number of products, including the OASYS PCI Card that brought unparalleled sonic excellence to the computer platform back in the late 1990s; and set the stage for the OASYS keyboard in later years.

The Prophecy Solo Synthesizer was unveiled in 1995. Using DSP synthesis first developed for the OASYS project, the monophonic Prophecy provided algorithms for producing realistic analog timbres, VPM (Variable Phase Modulation) tones similar to FM synthesis, and physically modeled brass, reed, and plucked string instruments. Korg built upon its DSP technology in 1997 to create the Z1 Physical Modeling Synthesizer. This 61-key polyphonic multitimbral instrument was equipped with a stunningly powerful synthesizer engine, a cool polyphonic arpeggiator, and an X-Y control pad. This same modeling technology is the basis for Korg’s MOSS expansion board, which is still widely used in its workstations today.

In 2000, Korg introduced the MS2000 Analog Modeling Synthesizer, as well as a rack version dubbed the MS2000R. Featuring the latest DSP-powered analog modeling system, these products pay homage to the meaty analog sounds of the original Korg MS series synthesizers. They include powerful 16-band vocoders, modeled on the classic Korg VC-10, which can use vocal or rhythm sounds as input. Revamped versions with a new sound set and color scheme - the MS2000B and MS2000BR followed. A mini-key version based on the same sound engine appeared in 2003. Dubbed the microKORG, this fun performer rapidly became one of the best selling synthesizers in the world, and stayed at the top for years. The HI (Hyper Integrated) synthesis engine that powered the famous TRITON Workstation line proved strong enough to stand on its own in the X50 and microX stage and studio synthesizers. Collectors are still searching for the rare camouflage version of the X-50, and the elusive white version of the microX.

Exhaustive research and development led to the MMT (Multi Modeling Technology) synth engine, giving rise to the knob-laden RADIAS in 2006; followed by the streamlined R3 in 2007. These two full-size key synths offer vocoding and sound engine. The RADIAS is a sound designer’s dream, adding drum parts, step-sequencing and the retro-style tilt-up panel found in certain analog classics.

Accolades

Over the years, Korg and its products have received numerous awards and honors from members of the music industry in countries around the world. Honors include product awards from industry consumer publications, POP display awards, and product/product category awards from various trade publications.

Here, There, and Everywhere

The far-reaching influence of Korg products have been seen not only in popular music spanning over 40 years, but also in projects as diverse as Korg’s product line—from recording traditional Chinese Music for a TV program, to participating in a special presentation at the famous Smithsonian museum, to aiding a research project involving interspecies animal communication, and much, much more!

The Future

Today, decades after his humble entrance into the world of musical instruments, Mr. Katoh and Korg are still dedicated to providing musicians with new and better products to help express their creativity. We are a company of musicians and music enthusiasts that see ourselves as your musical partner. Like you, we love great sounds, we love a good interface, and we love music. We’re Korg." Article source: www.korg.com.

Adrian Sana - Hold On (Original Club Mix)

A burst of creativity and extravagance at the Liberty Parade

"The beach between resorts Venus and Saturn could barely contain the 50,000 young people who gathered on Saturday at the Liberty Parade, the biggest Romanian dance music event, according to Realitatea.net. The party kicked off around 16:00, in Olimp.
Hundreds of youngsters walked from there, accompanied by three trucks bearing DJs who mixed live up to the Liberty Parade arena on the beach between Saturn and Venus. The party people danced in the streets and some of them donned original costumes. By midnight, the arena was bursting with people. “It’s great, so cool. The greatest concert of 2010. It’s not my first time here. I come here every year,” one of the young people attending the event said.

“It’s OK, it’s awesome. There’s chaos, it’s very crowded, but it’s awesome. We’re doing great,” another said. The party spirit was kept alive by 20 top DJs, who mixed until daybreak. The Liberty Parade caravan, made up of three open trucks in which the DJs mixed live, passed through the seaside resorts.

The organizers also prepared a special Michael Jackson tribute. Michael Jackson’s figure, projected on the white screen, performed alongside dancers wearing light-fitted suits. This was followed by the three members who make up Above & Beyond, the most appreciated trio in trance music. Hotel owners in Southern seaside resorts took advantage of the number of tourists pouring in just for the weekend and raised their prices by RON 50. However, most of the youngsters rented rooms in villas, where the price for a night in a flat amounts to EUR 100." Article source: www.nineoclock.ro.

The Nightmare of Duisburg (Loveparade Failure)

"A stampede killed 19 people yesterday and injured over 340, some seriously, in the techno party Loveparade , being held this year in the city of Duisburg, western Germany. The wounded included four Spanish students who have been discharged, according to diplomatic sources have confirmed to the Cadena Ser. The panic began in the access tunnel to the festival site, which had gathered hundreds of thousands of people. In the afternoon, the police banned the entry of new visitors to the former goods station where they were celebrating. Hundreds of people, angry about being out, tried jumping over fences or trying to sneak in side entrances. The tunnel of the tragedy became a funnel through which many thought they could come to the party and others tried to get away from the site following the instructions of the police.

According to several witnesses, the subway was packed for more than an hour. The shortness of breath and suffocation caused tens of fainting. Around five o'clock in the afternoon, panic ensued. The head of the cabinet crisis of Duisburg, Wolfgang Rabe, said last night on public television ARD that panic originated near an entrance to the pass. In this version, several people fell into the void while trying to sneak into the party climbing the fences. The police said, last night, these young people fell from a fire escape with trying to sneak. His fall from eight to 10 meters would have caused panic and the stampede of those who crowded into the tunnel. WDR public television also collected statements from witnesses who accused police of negligence.

While the tragedy is consummated in the tunnel, the party continued at the site. The organizers chose not to inform attendees to avoid further incidents and outbreaks of mass hysteria. Many in the Loveparade, the highest expression (number of visitors) of the nineties rave culture, illegal drugs and heavy alcohol drinking.

A cabinet crisis in the city of Duisburg decided "for security reasons" not to suspend the event after the disaster, according to City Hall spokesman, Frank Kopatschek. Mobile phones and word of mouth spread the news. Gradually, the visitors were leaving the premises by emergency exits, but at eight o'clock in the afternoon was playing techno music. 

The venue which hosted the 2010 fatal Loveparade was too small for the huge number of fans who often turn to the call of summer techno. The frustration of being left out of the party, combined with alcohol and drugs, certainly contributed to the tension that culminated in the tragedy. According to a reporter from WDR, the emergency services were immediately overwhelmed by the situation. Loveparade 1200 was in the police: one per thousand revelers, according to some estimates.

The incident occurred in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the entrance of a former railway station, where they celebrated the festival, which organizers estimate that had gone a million people. Access to the event was closed due to overcrowding, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to witnesses, police tried to prevent him getting more people to the site. Some of the people trying to access has dropped pushed by the mass and have been crushed.

Health services could barely cut through the crowd to treat the injured. According to the same newspaper, the festival has not been immediately suspended after the incident and continued to hold some performances. In the north of the site is still listening to the music minutes after the avalanche. The health service spokesman said that until that area of campus news of what happened had not yet arrived.

Organizational challenge

A celebration of this size is an organizational challenge for a city of less than half a million people as Duisburg. The turnout was massive and came to double the municipal census. So the trucks with the DJ and music is not passed through the streets of the town, as was done in all previous editions, but stayed in the room festive. The former goods station was surrounded by metal fences. Apparently there was only one access. The tragedy tunnel converged at the main entrance. The rejected trying to use it to leave, while thousands of people jostled to enter.

A witness told by phone news channel N-TV how "some were already on the ground, others tried to climb the walls to enter the premises." The masses of people "began to pass over those on the ground, ie a true mass panic."
Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed solidarity night with the victims of the incident. It said "sad and shocked by the pain and suffering" of families. The federal president, Christian Wulff, in turn asked for clarification of "all" the causes and responsibilities of the "horrible catastrophe."" Article source: www.loveparade.ro.

As a conclusion, this event is considered a big failure, gone tragically, so I've decided no music to be played on this post. Let us share a few moments of silence in memory of those trapped in a nightmare.

DJ Bigice & Outffit - Vejo Bonito (Emil Lasaria Remix)

DJ BIGICE sets the dancefloors on fire. The Passion and Love for the music reflects only one side of the coin. DJ BIGICE has to be considered one of the hardest working and most prolific Dj´s, with a good sense of the New Trend and only Hits in his pocket. He played with the biggest players around the globe. Alongside of the best producers he released his new mixes with attitude, style and like always on high emotions."Article source: www.djbigice.com.

ATB pres. Flanders - Behind (EDX Remix)

City Parade 2010

"If you’re wondering where the party’s at on 21st August, the answer to that particularly forward-thinking question would be Brussels at the tenth annual City Parade.  It’s a free event that attracts over two hundred thousand visitors each year, and though it takes a new location every year, this year takes place under the Atomium, which is one of those awe-inspiringly gigantic objects that are meant to make you sit back and reorganize your cosmic perspective.  Or, in this case, have you dance your ass off. Things kick off at 1400, then the parade gets going from 1700 to 1830, when the trucks will assume a stationary position around the Atomium and blast music until 2330.  Headliners include Thai turntablist Nakadia, as well as Mar-T, the dude who helped forge the signature sound of Ibiza’s legendary Amnesia club.

If you were at all remotely worried that this party stops at what some would consider a reasonable hour, don’t worry there’s a 25 euro after party that starts at 10:00 pm and ends at the wee small hour of 6:00 am, featuring headliner Paul Oakenfold, Dutch house master Fedde le Grand, the now-Born Again Christian Green Velvet, cheeky Swedish electro-poppers Dada Life, and eccentric Belgian Dr. Lektroluv, who’s been known to DJ with the aid of a telephone instead of the conventional set of headphones.

Again, the event takes place on 21st August under the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium. For the full line up, other important details as well as ticket info, check out their official website, which we were kind enough to find the English link for because God knows your Flemish is rusty." Article source: www.djmag.com.

Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (DJ Dark Intensity Remix)

"In 2008, Journey introduced a new singer to the world, Arnel Pineda, with the release of their 14th studio album ("Revelation") and an extraordinarily successful world tour. It was the latest chapter in a rock and roll saga that started more than 35 years ago and has produced some of the best-known rock songs of the 1970's and 80's.
Journey's story begins in Northern California with guitarist Neal Schon, a child prodigy who dropped out of high school to join Santana just prior to the San Francisco band recording its third album. Schon, while in high school, had been jamming with Santana keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who ultimately would follow Schon into Journey.
The union of Santana and Schon was short-lived, but in that time period, Schon would meet a man who believed that a band formed around his guitar work would be a viable entity. When Schon left Santana, he explored the idea of a power trio with two former members of Sly and the Family Stone, drummer Greg Errico and bassist Larry Graham. Playing funk, however, limited Schon's amount of soloing, which prompted him to look for another musical vehicle. Walter "Herbie" Herbert, a guitar tech for Santana who had added management duties to his job, approached Schon in early 1973 about forming a guitar-centric band. Herbert has said Schon was, quote, 'the quintessential guitar expressionist of the time', and to further his career, Herbert connected Schon with two members of the popular local act Frumious Bandersnatch, former Steve Miller Band bassist Ross Valory and guitarist George Tickner. They enlisted drummer Prairie Prince, a member of the Tubes, and the all-instrumental act began performing as the Golden Gate Rhythm Section.
They developed a local following, one that was strong enough for San Francisco FM station KSAN to hold a contest to see if a better name could be given to the GGRS. The contest yielded the moniker Journey. New name in place, Rolie joined the band in the summer of 1973. The first edition of Journey developed a largely instrumental progressive rock sound. The first change in personnel came in early 1974 when Aynsley Dunbar, a British drummer who spent time in the bands of Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa and John Mayall, took the place of Prince, who decided to stay with the Tubes.
CBS/Columbia Records signed that lineup in November 1974, but by the time "Journey," their debut album, was released, Tickner had left to attend medical school. Tickner, whose compositions were the backbone of Journey's earliest repertoire, was not replaced, making the band a single-guitar outfit.

The group disbanded in 1989, seemingly for good, as Schon and Cain created Bad English with John Waite while Valory, Smith and Rolie joined the Storm. In 1993, the band reunited, sans Perry, for a Bay Area concert honoring their former manager Herbert. Perry, Schon, Cain, Smith and Valory reunited one last time for 1996's Trial By Fire. The dozen songs on the album were written in just two weeks. It opened at No. 3, yielded the Adult Contemporary hit single "When You Love a Woman," which would garner the band their first Grammy nomination, and a 25-date tour was booked. Perry moved to Hawaii to get in shape, but while there he developed health problems and was eventually told he would need a hip replaced. The tour never took place and with no fanfare, the members of Journey went their separate ways.

Ultimately, Schon, Valory and Cain decided the band would forge ahead. Steve Augeri was brought in as lead singer and Dean Castronovo, a member of Bad English, replaced Smith on drums. (Steve Smith opted to continue with his solo career as a recording artist and band leader, forming the band Vital Information). Their first recording as Journey was Remember Me for the Armageddon soundtrack. Arrival, Journey's 11th studio album, was released in April 2001.

A 30th anniversary tour followed the release of Generations in 2005. The tour featured shows that were more than three hours long and included material from every phase of the bands career. A year later, Jeff Scott Soto replaced Augeri, whose time in the band was cut short due to a throat infection. Sotos tenure was short-lived and in 2007, Journey tried a variety of ways to land a new singer. After two days of watching videos on YouTube, Schon came across a video featuring Arnel Pineda performing with a Filipino cover band in the Philippines and had his management book him for an audition in the States. Within just a few songs he had secured the job. Pineda made his debut with the album Revelation, which was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart outlets and was certified platinum within several months of its release. More than 700,000 fans saw Journeys 2008 tour with Pineda as lead singer. After seven months on the road with Journey, Pineda told the media in Asia, quote, This is the best job in the world and as long as my band mates will let me rock with them, I will keep singing with Journey." Source & Full article available at www.journeymusic.com.

Inna - On & On (Ciolla Loca Remix)

Romanian Singer INNA Aims For UK

" INNA, last year’s dance music revelation, has already stormed to no.1 in ten countries including Spain (certified Platinum after surpassing 80,000 copies in sales), Holland, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey and Russia and reached the top 10 in countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia and many other, with her award-winning single, ‘Hot‘. She is also getting recognized in US after topping the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay, making INNA the dance artist with the most Airplay in the USA.  Liverpool-based label, 3 Beat Blue have signed INNA and are set to smash ‘Hot’ into the UK charts on 14th March. The release comes with remixes from Play & Win, Cahill, fresh from remixing Cheryl Cole and Pixie Lott, and Riffs & Rays – the masters of the funky floor filling sounds, and is already available for pre-order on iTunes. The song was written and produced by Play & Win, a talented dance music trio and one of the most prolific music producers in Romania. They’re also ‘guilty’ for producing the following INNA’s singles: ‘Love’, ‘Deja Vu’, ‘Amazing’ and the brand new single ‘10 minutes’; all of them are successful in European music charts proving that INNA is more than a hit. ‘Hot’ was recently added to the BBC Radio 1 playlist after heavy support on the ‘Floorfillers’ show. In the same week, it hit no.1 in the Music Week Club Chart, followed by no.1 in the Cool Cuts chart. It was quickly added to playlists on Galaxy, KISS, Juice, Gaydar and many more. Also, the gorgeous Romanian artist has topped the Shazam UK Pre-Release charts for two consecutive weeks after spending eight weeks on top five.

The video for ‘Hot’ has over 50 million views on Youtube, proving the strength and popularity of the record, and is already playlisted across Clubland TV, Flaunt, The Chart Show and MTV Dance where has topped the DanceFloor Chart in the last couple of weeks.

In UK she’s already got press attention, in a review FemaleFirst.co.uk said “Inna is a massive star on the continent, already bigger than Madonna and Lady Gaga in Eastern Europe, she needs bodyguards everywhere she goes!”

The year 2009 has been full for INNA who, in addition to international recognition, has dominated the music market in Romania and has won numerous awards including: four awards at MTV Romania Music Awards for ‘Best Dance’, ‘Best New Act’, ‘Best Show’ and ‘Best Border Breaker’, MTV Europe Music Awards for ‘Best Romanian Act “, 2nd place at Sopot International Song Festival for ‘Best International Song’ and more other.

The year 2010 seems to be even better for the young artist. The new single, ‘10 minutes’, although released one month ago, promises to be another hit brand INNA, winning position rapidly in the charts in Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria and, of course, Romania.

With a huge continuously growing fan base, more than 185.000 fans on her Facebook page, making her the most followed Romanian on Facebook, there’s only one next step for INNA: global recognition." Article source: www.musiqqueen.com.

Aisa & DJ Yaang - Ready To Go (Deepside Deejays Remix)

Dolby Virtual Surround Sound Technology

Virtual Surround Sound technology makes it possible to enjoy a 5.1-channel Dolby surround sound through a pair of headphones, or even a single speakerbar playback set-up.

Many may wonder how it is possible to pack five speakers and a subwoofer into a pair of headphones, least image into a single-speaker system! Yet, this is all possible thanks to Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker technologies.
In this article, we discuss virtual surround sound technologies - explaining the principles in the setup of a virtual soundfield around the listener while pointing out the limitations of such systems with respect to multi-channel speaker systems. It may sound somewhat contradictory - playing a 5.1-channel sound system over an ordinary pair of stereo headphones while still enjoying practically the same immersive experience generated by a multi-speaker surround sound playback system.

But when you start thinking about it, there is nothing contradictory in the whole idea; after all we only have two ears through which we capture all sound information, irrespective of the number of different sound sources present at any time.

In simple terms, this is the concept behind Dolby Headphone Technology

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In other words, getting a surround soundstage through a pair of stereo headphones should not be something unrealistic. But what about Dolby Virtual Speaker technology that enables you to enjoy 5.1 Dolby surround sound listening experience over a single speaker system?

Single speaker surround sound systems use advanced virtual surround technologies that manipulate audio signals with sonic spatial cues by applying varying delays and phase-shifts between the different channels in a 5.1 sound source. The whole process is based on extensive room-modeling technologies to reproduce the sonic spectrum and dynamics of a properly placed 5.1 multi-speaker system in a typical room environment.

Dolby Surround Virtual Speaker technology is just one of the many proprietary advanced digital processing algorithms in use today for single-speaker virtual surround.

It is important to understand here that irrespective of the digital signal processing (DSP) algorithm used to generate a virtual surround soundstage, these single speaker systems consist in reality of a speaker-bar with multiple mini-speakers mounted onto the speaker unit.

A minimum of two such speaker channels are necessary; in fact, to be more precise, Dolby Virtual Speaker technology is a 5.1 virtual surround over a 2-speaker playback setup.

It is through the use of these mini-speakers within the single speaker bar unit that it is possible to generate a virtual surround sound stage. More complex single speaker designs incorporate additional mini-speaker drivers and tweeters - all mounted into the same single speaker unit, while some units also include a woofer driver.

However, irrespective of whether a single-speaker bar includes a woofer driver or not, it is best to complement single-speaker surround sound systems with a compact powered subwoofer as their bass response is quite lacking. One such interesting option which can complement the Polk Audio Soundbar 50 featured above is the Polk Audio PSWi225 Wireless Subwoofer. Despite its compact 1 cu. ft design and 100W continuous power rating, the PSWi225 is capable of delivering exceptionally deep bass and the convenience of wireless connectivity." Source & Full article available at www.practical-home-theater-guide.com.

Loco Tribal - Kuma Ya (Raf Marchesini & Max B Remix)

Computer Sound Card Reviews

"When computing started, the computers just had to handle silence or “beep”. Then the computer games more advanced than “Ping-Pong” came, someone turned the computer into an electric piano, then 3D-sound and later surround sound became a necessary feature. Today our home computer doubles as music organizer and player, recording studio, sound system for a home movie theater and as a musical instrument. Gaming has become a sound as well as a visual experience and movie fans can choose between different versions of surround sound from an ever increasing number of speakers and channels.

The sound cards of today are almost like a computer themselves. They have a processor and own memory modules for example. That makes it capable of several different tasks; many cards today are generalists that can give you superb sound quality regardless if you play computer games, creates or record music or just use your computer as a music organizer/player. There are also more specialized cards for musicians and recording studios.

Besides deciding what main purpose your sound card should serve, you must also decide what, if any, sound devices you are going to connect to your card, what connections they require and finally what output connections you need, for example, for a movie system or recording media like a CD burner. The number of channels and type of movie sound encoding, such as Dolby or THX, is of importance for the movie fans while a gaming enthusiast must check that the card meets the specs of the game – as nowadays some games requires special hardware and/or software. The possibility to record music in various qualities is also important, sometimes you want to make a quick recording and sometimes you accept to use a little more time in order to get the ultimate sound quality.

Many manufacturers often pack their sound cards with a software pack like music organizers, recording studio software and mp3 sound improvers. Some may be useful, but some only includes light versions. Be sure to check the connection possibilities of the sound card, you should have both analog and digital connections in order to use it with other devices as music systems or instruments, for example. The more connections the better.

After deciding which sound cards to choose between, read the tests of interesting models. Check your software – and other hardware – manuals to make sure they will work together.

TIP:

As a lot of new versions of components, softwares and so on are released over time, log on regularly to the home page of the manufacturer of your sound card to check for upgrades. That will make your computer work smoother and more efficiently in the long run." Article source: www.testfreaks.com.

Cheryl Cole - Parachute (Buzz Junkies Remix)

"Cheryl Cole was born Cheryl Tweedy June 30, 1983 and raised in the northern England city of Newcastle upon Tyne. She was interested in dancing as a young child and also explored modelling. She won a number of competitions and also appeared in two British Gas advertisements. Cheryl Tweedy was working as a waitress when she auditioned for the talent competition show Popstars: The Rivals at age 19. The show ended with a public vote in November 2002 and five of the girls in the competition formed the group Girls Aloud. Cheryl Tweedy received the most votes of any of the girls and thus was the first announced to be part of the new group. Girls Aloud is the most successful of artists to come out of a Britsh TV talent competition. They have reached the UK pop top 10 with 20 different singles.

In January 2003 Cheryl Tweedy caused a tabloid sensation when she was involved in an altercation with nightclub attendant Sophie Amogbokpa. The incident went to trial and she was convicted of assault occasioning bodily harm. Cheryl Tweedy was sentenced to 120 hours community service plus a compensation to her victim and court fees.

In 2004 Cheryl Tweedy began dating English football star Ashley Cole. They were engaged in June 2005 in Dubai and married in July 2006. Later tabloid stories indicated infidelity issues in the relationship, but they have reportedly since reconciled.

June 10, 2008 Cheryl Cole was announced as the replacement judge on the phenomenally successful British TV talent show X Factor. She replaced Sharon Osbourne. As mentor on the show, Cheryl Cole was given the girls group to guide and ultimately one of her competitors, Alexandra Burke, won the competition. She returned in 2009 and is the mentor for the boys. Joe McElderry, one of the boys, has been cited as a favorite to win.

Cheryl Cole contributed vocals and danced in the video for will.i.am's top 5 UK pop hit "Heartbreaker" in 2008. The following year she began working on solo material. The first single "Fight for This Love" was released in October 2009 and became the fastest selling single of the year to that point going straight to #1 on the UK pop singles chart. The album 3 Words followed the single on to the charts and instantly topped the album chart selling over 125,000 copies in its first week." Article source: www.top40.about.com.

Shakira - Did It Again (Extesizer Remix)

Shakira explains "Did It Again" Video

"When you're an artist as, well, flexible as Shakira, every video presents a challenge: Just how do you top the last one?

Over the years, Shakira has taken the art of over-the-top gyration to new heights, so much so that, at this point, anything less than a dance sequence resulting in a full hiatal hernia would be considered a letdown. And she knew this when she teamed with director Sophie Muller for her "Did It Again" clip. The two scoured the globe to find inspiration for the video, taking cues from Moroccan dancers and 19th-century British painters, and recruiting a Florida-born dancer and an Icelandic choreographer for the project. How do we know all this? Well, we asked Shakira about the video, and she gave us the inside scoop — frame by frame.

"It was a collaboration between this friend of mine who's a dancer, and me. She showed me this contemporary dance piece that was produced in Iceland. So we said, 'Hey, maybe we could do something like this for "Did It Again," ' " Shakira said. "So we brought this choreographer from Iceland from this contemporary dance company, and we worked on this piece. "And I decided to bring a little bit of this painter, [Lawrence] Alma-Tadema, who portrays women in these bathrooms, these Turkish bathrooms, and I wanted to bring a little bit of that poetic imagery to this video," she continued. "And I remember not too long ago having watched a few women turn their heads in a trans in Morocco. So we brought all these pieces — Moroccan women twirling and turning their heads, and the poetry from Alma-Tadema's paintings, plus this Icelandic contemporary dance piece — and we mixed all these pieces together for the video."

It was a lot to cram into one video, and Shakira needed a male counterpart to pull it off. Luckily, she found a (more than) able body: Daniel "Cloud" Campos, a dancer who's worked with Madonna.

"He's sick!" Shakira enthused. "What he does is unbelievable."

But did she have any problem getting close to a guy she barely knew? Not really — as she put it, people often do more with folks they know even less.

"[We worked on the routine] for a few days," Shakira laughed. "Hey, some people just get in bed after one night."". Article source: www.mtv.com.

Ameerah - Sound Of Missing You (Dave Ramone Remix)

"Ameerah - a name that breathes royalty. The Arabic word for "princess" perfectly reflects pop singer Ameerah's Tunisian, Algerian and Belgian roots. Her new single The Sound Of Missing You is a catchy, melodic dance track with influences of urban and pop. It's one of those songs you won't be able to get out of your head for a long time.

The Sound Of Missing You is the result of a collaboration of Ameerah with the renowned Swedish production team Airborn, a.k.a. Didrik and Sebastion Thott; the same team that is responsible for numerous hits for Celine Dion, Westlife and Lindsay Lohan, to name a few. It's a song about the end of a relationship. Ameerah: “It's about missing somebody so much that you can't shake off the feeling. It's like sound: it's always there.”

For the last two years, Ameerah has travelled the world to work with the crème de la crème of international producers, such as Red One (Akon, Lady Gaga), Jorgen Elofsson (Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson), Airborn and Souldiggaz (Beyoncé, Missy Elliott). She divided her time between her home in Belgium, Sweden (the Mecca of pop music) and the U.S.A. (the 1 country of urban music) in order to develop her talent and skills. “When I started co-writing with other people, I didn't know who I was musically. It took a while to discover my own sound. Writing with internationally acclaimed producers has helped me find my strengths and musical preferences. These people believe in my talent and they have given me plenty of room to grow.” Having spent numerous hours in music studios all over the world, Ameerah has become a well-respected songwriter herself, who is often invited to co-write with other artists and producers.

Music has always been the focus of Ameerah's life. Her musical skills emerged at a very young age. As a three-year-old, she started to sing along to Walt Disney songs, did her first big performance at the age of six and has never stopped since. She went to music school and took acting classes and dance lessons. At the age of fourteen, she won a free-stage competition. She went on to become one of the most popular participants of the Belgian version of Idols 2003, got signed to a Belgian record label at twenty and released two successful singles. After that collaboration ended because of musical differences, Ameerah signed a deal with HighClazz Music Entertainment.

Ameerah has always been an ambitious girl and it's starting to pay off. “People said I was a fool when I decided to go to the US and Sweden to establish my career. But I just felt I should give it a try and went for it.” With so many fruitful songwriting sessions on her name, a great new single and her everlasting determination to succeed, it is only a matter of time before Ameerah will become a true internationally successful pop princess." Article source: Ameerah on MySpace.

Sting - Desert Rose (Mat Zo Progressive Trance / Toxication Chillout)

"Born 2 October 1951, in Wallsend, north-east England, Gordon Sumner's life started to change the evening a fellow musician in the Phoenix Jazzmen caught sight of his black and yellow striped sweater and decided to re-christen him Sting. Sting paid his early dues playing bass with local outfits The Newcastle Big Band, The Phoenix Jazzmen, Earthrise and Last Exit, the latter of which featured his first efforts at song writing. Last Exit were big in the North East, but their jazz fusion was doomed to fail when punk rock exploded onto the music scene in 1976. Stewart Copeland, drummer with Curved Air, saw Last Exit on a visit to Newcastle and while the music did nothing for him he did recognise the potential and charisma of the bass player. The two hooked up shortly afterwards and within months, Sting had left his teaching job and moved to London.

Seeing punk as flag of convenience, Copeland and Sting - together with Corsican guitarist Henri Padovani - started rehearsing and looking for gigs. Ever the businessman, Copeland took the name The Police figuring it would be good publicity, and the three started gigging round landmark punk venues like The Roxy, Marquee, Vortex and Nashville in London. Replacing Padovani with the virtuoso talents of Andy Summers the band also enrolled Stewart's elder brother Miles as manager, wowing him with a Sting song called 'Roxanne'. Within days Copeland Senior had them a record deal. But the hip London music press saw through The Police's punk camouflage and did little to disguise their contempt, and the band's early releases had no chart success. So The Police did the unthinkable - they went to America.

The early tours are the stuff of legend - bargain flights to the USA courtesy of Freddie Laker's pioneering Skytrain; driving their own van and humping their own equipment from gig to gig; and playing to miniscule audiences at the likes of CBGB's in New York and The Rat Club in Boston. Their tenacity paid off though as they slowly built a loyal following, got some all important air-play, and won over their audiences with a combination of new wave toughness and reggae rhythms.

They certainly made an odd trio: guitarist Summers had a career dating back to the mid-60s, the hyper-kinetic Copeland was a former prog-rocker, and Sting's background was in trad jazz and fusion. The sound the trio made was unique though, and Sting's pin-up looks did them no harm at all. The band returned to the UK to find the reissued 'Roxanne' single charting, and played a sell-out tour of mid-size venues. The momentum had started. The debut album 'Outlandos d'Amour' (Oct 78) delivered three sizeable hits with 'Roxanne', 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely' which in turn led to a headlining slot at the '79 Reading Festival which won the band some fine reviews, but it was with 'Reggatta de Blanc' (Oct 79) that the band stepped up a gear.

Regatta de BlancReggatta's first single, 'Message In A Bottle', streaked to number one and the album's success was consolidated further when 'Walking On The Moon' also hit the top slot. The band was big, but about to get even bigger. 1980 saw them undertake a world tour with stops on all continents - including the first rock concerts in Bombay - and the band eventually returned to the UK exhausted, for two shows in Sting's hometown of Newcastle.

Zenyatta MondattaWithin weeks of the tour finishing, the band were back in a studio in Holland to record new tracks but Sting's stock of pre-Police songs and ideas were starting to wear out. When 'Zenyatta Mondatta' was released (Oct 80) although it sold well and produced another number one single in 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and a top five hit with 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da' a rethink was required.

Ghost In The MachineChanges materialised on 1981's 'Ghost In The Machine', a rich, multilayered album which was augmented not only by Jean Roussel's keyboards and Sting's self taught saxophone playing, but by particularly strong writing contributions from both Copeland and Summers. The album still had the now expected clutch of hit singles with 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' making number one, the bleak 'Invisible Sun' reaching number two (despite a BBC ban being slapped on its video) and 'Spirits In The Material World' also charting, but it was a much darker and complex album than its predecessors and, to many, more satisfying.

A handful of concert appearances in mid 2009 disguised the fact that Sting was also recording a new solo album, and naturally, it was not what was expected. Taking the winter as it's over-arching theme, Sting instead recorded a selection of ancient hymns, carols, folk songs and re-recorded a small selection of his own songs with a hugely talented group of musicians including Dominic Miller and Kathryn Tickell. The resulting album 'If On A Winter's Night...' was release in Autumn 2009, and the songs on the album received a world premiere in the magnificent setting of Durham cathedral, in Sting's native northeast England where the two performances were also filmed for a feature length DVD/TV programme. Further shows in New York, Paris and Baden Baden followed before Christmas 2009.

The new year found Sting performing occasional live shows in places like Dubai, Venezuela and Colombia with a core band of Dominic Miller and David Sancious and one of a selection of drummers - Vinnie Colauita, Abe Laboriel Jr and Josh Freese - depending on their respective availability. The main live activity of 2010 though will be the forthcoming tour with the Royal Philaharmonic Concert Orchestra and a quartet consisting of Dominic Miller, David Cossin, Jo Lawry and Ira Coleman. The tour will see him performing his most celebrated songs re-imagined for symphonic arrangement, conducted by Steven Mercurio (Pavarotti, Bocelli). The tour plays across North America in June and July arriving in Europe in September. As ever, Sting continues to surprise..." Article source: Sting on MySpace.