Allen & Heath unveils the ZED-R16 which combines an analogue recording mixer with a FireWire soundcard, MIDI controls and 'home-studio' routing so you can build tracks in the studio, record live gigs, mix-down and remix.

The ZED-R16 can be employed as a standard analogue mixer while recording multi-track via FireWire or ADAT, a traditional inline mixer recording with send and return per channel via FireWire, or as a MIDI controller via switchable channel faders. It features 16 mono inputs, 2 stereo inputs, a high quality dual mic pre-amp, 4-band fully-parametric EQ, 4 auxes, a stereo bus, 2 stereo returns, and 18+18 FireWire I/O and 8+8 ADAT I/O.

The ZED-R16 can be employed as a standard analogue mixer while recording multi-track via FireWire or ADAT, a traditional inline mixer recor ...

DUY has just announced the release of DUY Silence which is a a new noise reduction plug-in for Mac OS X.

With DUY Silence you'll be able to collect information about your noise using an analysis method, by capturing the track or portion of a track that you'd like to work on. You can visualize the noise on the user interface, in order to edit it according to your needs and criteria, using a complete and intuitive set of tools.

If you've ever tried to clean a track by removing unwanted noise, you'll know how complex and time-consuming it can be. An interview with unwanted noise, an old recorded track... With DUY Silence, simply analyse the noise on your track for a few seconds, set the attack, release and threshold values, and you're done. For further control, you can go into the "Advanced" mode, which will let you change the noise gate settings for each one of the over 1000 frequency bands created within DUY Silence.

DUY Silence is available now for Mac OS X in VST, AU, RTAS and MAS formats. It can be purchased individually or as part of any of the available native packages offered by DUY. Registered users of any of DUY's native plug-ins are entitled to purchase this plug-in at a reduced price. DUY Silence has an MSRP of €399 but is available for the introductory price of €299 until the end of June 2008.

Future Audio Workshop (FAW) has just announced the release of Circle, a new semi-modular software synthesizer, designed to be easy to use, allowing you to concentrate fully on sound design and performance.

Features :

- Ease of Use :

o Designed to be easy to use and intuitive through simple work flows.
o Large easy to see knobs and sliders.
o Connect up modulations via color coded circles in a simple and visual fashion. To preview a modulation, simple place a circle under a knob, and hear its effect.
o See all your connections at a glance, without the clutter of virtual cables.

- Interactive Control :

o Visually interactive MIDI learn. Assign your MIDI controllers in a simple, fast and familiar way.
o Attach multiple Circle controls to a single knob. Speed up an LFO, while closing a filter, while increasing a delay effect time. Experiment with control.
o Use hands on control in a creative way as part of the sound design process.

- Live Performance :

o Single view, high contrast screen, lets you see everything at a single glance.
o Organize and group your sounds for live performance using the sounds browser.
o Use Apple iRemote to change sounds from afar (Mac version only).

- Fresh Sounds :

o 4 oscillators per voice, choose between classic analog or contemporary wave generators.
o Semi-modular voice structure, giving you the freedom to pick and choose from many different sound modules.
o Unrestricted modulation - connect up modulation in an easy and free way.
o Lots of great master effects to choose from.

Circle is availabe now for $199.00 / €149.00 in VST, AU, RTAS and Standalone versions for both Mac OS X and Windows. A demo version is available.

I was among the lucky few beta tester and believe me, this synth is going to be legen, wait for it... dary !!