Also, Presonus was showing Firepod Studio, Dangerous Music had a monitor controller, Universal Audio announced a licensing agreement with Neve to do the 1073, and Adobe showed Audition 2.0 with more than 100 new features and a whole new mixing engine. There was news from MOTU on Ethno Instruments, from Waves with Z-Noise noise reduction, Avlex with a $60 mic ouput test signal generator, and so much more.

There will be plenty more to talk about tomorrow. In the meantime, visit the daily blog from the editors of Mix, Electronic Musician and Remix, and check out the podcast, sponsored by Roland with equipment provided by M-Audio.

FOCUSRITE SAFFIRE Pro 26 I/O
Saffire PRO 26 i/o is a Firewire interface that combines eight preamps with 16 channels of ADAT and two channels of S/PDIF (up to 192 kHz), with the company's 24-bit converters to boot. The Pro package includes the Saffire plug-in suite, along with two headphone outs and two "super channels" featuring variable mic impedance and instrument input. Dist. by American Music and Sound. 866-FOCUSRITE. www.focusrite.com.

PRESONUS INSPIRE 1394
The new PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire-based recording interface is a 4-in/2-out, 24-bit/96k unit with dual phantom-powered mic preamps and a pair of hi-Z instrument inputs. The rear panel sports line-level or RIAA-filtered phono inputs. Outputs include a stereo headphone jack, unbalanced RCA and balanced mini-TRS. To add more I/O, up to four Inspire 1394 units can be daisy-chained together via FireWire, with all inputs available simultaneously. The Inspire 1394 is compatible with ASIO, WDM and Core Audio drivers. www.presonus.com.

ADOBE AUDITION 2.0
The newest version of Audition has a revamped mixing scheme, complete with an all-new mixer and underlying mixing engine, ASIO driver support, sends, buses and inserts, all designed to be extremely low latency. There are two new punch-in modes, tape-style scrubbing, and updated effects including an analog-modeled multiband compressor. Perhaps the most unique new feature is in the Edit View, where they've taken frequency editing to the next level with the ability to select anything with a free-form lasso tool.www.adobe.com.

UNIVERSAL AUDIO
Universal Audio announced a licensing agreement with Neve to produce a plug-in for the UAD-1 platform that is modeled on Neve's legacy 1073 EQ. www.uaudio.com.

WAVES Z-NOISE
The new Wave noise reduction plug-in features an exclusive Extract mode which can create a noise profile from sources that contain signal, as well as a flexible Adaptive mode. This dynamic noise profiling delivers unparalleled results when reducing noise that changes over time. Z-Noise employs a brand new "more musical" algorithm, which is said to deliver better low-frequency resolution and improved time sensitivity. Combined with its advanced adjustable transient enhancement, Z-Noise lets you remove noise while retaining all the power and punch of your source recordings. www.waves.com.

For more new products, visit the New Products Guide.

Mac Giga?: Mac users take note: Tascam will be releasing two new virtual instruments that use the technology from GigaStudio, which will be available on the Mac later this year. The first two instruments--GVI, a sampler that can open existing Giga libaries, but has fewer editing features than the flagship; and GigaViolin, a dedicated violin instrument--will be released initially as VSTi and RTAS plug-ins for the PC. Later in the year, probably around AES time (October) our sources tell us, Mac versions will be available.
Mike Levine, EM senior editor

Focusrite i/o: The Saffire piles 26 inputs and outputs into a 1U rackmount 24-bit/192kHz FireWire bus-powered interface. Eight XLR inputs come with those delicious Focusrite preamps and 24-bit A/D and D/A conversion.
Markkus Rovito, Remix technology editor

Dramastic Compression: I'm very excited to be exhibiting for the first time with my new company, launching a new product, the CLONEWORKS SXL6000 Stereo VCA Compressor. Designed with the recording, mixing and mastering engineer in mind, it features high quality VCA's, precision stepped knobs for accurate recalls and the TXIO interface. The TXIO interface has Jensen transformers on the input and output which adds character, depth and "phatness."
John Ellis, Dramastic Audio

An Official Neve From UA:Just came back from Universal Audio, where the hot news was their announcement of a trademark licensing agreement with Neve, in which UA will develop plug-in software emulations of Neve signal processors for their UAD-1 DSP Card & Powered Plug-Ins(tm) system. First up: the 1073 Equalizer; look for more processors soon...
Sarah Jones, Mix features editor

No More Tuning!: It's true: I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. I'm talking about the Tronical PowerTune, from Synthax. The PowerTune is an electromechanical system that tunes your guitar when you press on a knob. Late gig? Can't hear yourself? Press a knob for perfect tuning, alternate tunings, whatever you need. It ain't cheap; the first model to ship is for the Les Paul, and it costs about $800. Models for the Strat, Tele and other popular models are coming soon. Bass guitar tuning is also in the works. This is gonna change things!
Geary Yelton, EM associate editor

SSL for the Rest of Us:So, we're launching two new modules for the X-Rack system here at the show - Channel EQ and Mic Amp. Both have been developed as a direct result of feedback from existing X-Rack owners. I guess you could say that the new modules take the X-Rack one step closer to delivering on the promise of an SSL console in a rack for the project studio.
Jon Jannaway, Solid State Logic

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