Katsuhito Yamashita (born 1961) began studies classical guitar at the age of 8 years. His first teacher was his father Toru Yamashita. In the 16 years he became the first in history as youngest winner of the International Guitar Competition in Paris and two other competitions. His own arrangement of Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Bach have been varied and surprising. His performances with inimitably original playing technique in the performance of works originally written for other instruments remain a distant prospect for musicians. Katsuhito Yamashita performs works IS Bach from the time when he was a teenager, and since then, with the most usually played their own transcriptions. His first album completely devoted to Bach, he wrote in 1980.

Crossfade Loop Synth is at heart a simple sample playback synth plug-in. It plays samples in the classic sampler manner - by simply altering the playback speed according to the desired note. No fancy timestretching or pitchshifting is applied. You can control how the sample is looped as it is played. An adjustable amount of crossfade can be applied to the loop endpoints to smooth the transitions. This makes it extremely easy to produce glitch-free pad sounds. The loops can also be played backwards and alternately forwards and backwards (pendulum-style).

Further sound processing can be applied in the form of overdrive/saturation, filtering, envelopes (for amplitude and filter), pulse-width modulation, oscillator sync and LFOs (one each for filter, pitch, PWM and sync).

December 2005. Los Angeles, California. Trumpeter Chris Botti, on the heels of his break-through gold certified album "When I Fall In Love", and the record-breaking follow up "To Love Again", plays two triumphant shows at the Wilshire Theatre backed by a full orchestra and his virtuosic band. Playing repertoire mostly culled from these two hit albums, Chris is joined onstage by some of the world's most accomplished singers and musicians (in order of appearance) Sting, Jill Scott, Paula Cole, Burt Bacharach, Renee Olstead, Paul Buchanan and Gladys Knight. Filmed for the PBS Special "Chris Botti Live With Orchestra and Special Guests" and now available on Blu-ray Disc.

Rock/R&B/psychedelia superstar Jimi Hendrix was actually left-handed, obliging him to learn to play the guitar while holding the instrument upside down. An excellent student, Hendrix was nonetheless kicked out of school in the 11th grade; he would later claim that this was because he was seen holding hands with a white girl. After serving as an Air Force paratrooper, Hendrix played backup and lead electric guitar with several bands. In 1966, he formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. The release of the group's first album, 1967's Are You Experienced?, preceded its first public appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Like most of his contemporaries, Hendrix never entertained thoughts of a movie career; his big-screen appearances came by way of such concert films as Popcorn (1969) and Woodstock (1970). In 1973, audiences were treated to no fewer than three Hendrix film appearances: Jimi Plays Berkeley, Keep on Rockin': Jimi Hendrix, and Rainbow Bridge. All were released posthumously; three years earlier, 27-year-old Jimi Hendrix had died in London of a drug overdose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide