ESI presents the M8U XL, a new midi interface which features 8 independent MIDI inputs and 8 independent MIDI outputs, providing 128 MIDI channels - all via a single USB 2.0 (or USB 1.1) connection to your PC or Mac.

Features :

- 19" / 1 HE Case
- 8 MIDI in / 8 MIDI out - 128 MIDI channels
- high-speed connection to USB-equipped PC or Mac
- MIDI activity indicators for each port
- Plug & Play installation
- compatible with Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X
- fully class compliant, making it compatible with other operating systems

The M8U XL is priced at €227.

Ambrosia Software has updated WireTap Anywhere to version 1.0.2. WireTap Anywhere is a low latency audio tool that lets you take the audio output from any Mac application or hardware input device and bring it into your favorite audio recording application.

WireTap Anywhere 1.0.2 features the following changes:

-- The ability to mute software sources during a recording
-- Speed optimizations (loading time and overhead)
-- Additional down-mixing capabilities
-- Other fixes and enhancements

WireTap Anywhere costs $129, is a Universal Binary, and requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later. This update is free to all registered users of WireTap Anywhere 1.0.x.

ModernBeats launches a new music production site : Hit Talk.

Hit Talk is ModernBeats' new music production website devoted to answering the question "How do you produce a hit song?". There is no single answer that covers it all. That's why Hit Talk provides the answer in a multifaceted fashion including :

- Hit Reports that analyze Billboard hits from start to finish, teaching musicians each hit song's music production techniques.
- Music Production Tips that are posted weekly, providing musicians with constant music production techniques, ideas, & learning.
- Music Production Contributions that come from Hit Talk's growing music producer community.
- Music Producer Spotlight Interviews that feature unsigned and up-n-coming music producers.

Hit Reports are offered as a download and priced at $14.95.

At AES 2008 (Booth #1218), Solid State Logic will demonstrate the Duende collection, the suite of DSP powered plug-ins that deliver the legendary SSL sound to your DAW. AES will be the first demonstration of Vocalstrip, the latest addition to the plug-in collection.

Combining EQ and dynamics sections with essential vocal processors, Vocalstrip aims to bring power, character and clarity to vocal tracks from a single interface. According to SSL, Vocalstrip solves the challenges of producing great vocal recordings with four processing tools carefully selected and calibrated to deliver great results every time.

Key features include :

- 4 selected vocal processing tools with a unique SSL twist
- Comparative analysis & dynamic envelope based De-esser
- Comparative analysis & dynamic envelope based De-ploser
- 3-band SSL EQ with High-Pass, 'asymmetric notch' and 'air' bands
- Compander featuring compression, downwards expansion and output drive
- Informative visual feedback showing EQ curves and real time FFT overlay

Pricing and availability TBA.

Roger Linn and Dave Smith have announced on their website that they won't be shipping the new Linndrum II this year and they can not offer any new delivery date for now.

Here is the message found on Roger Linn's website :

"I'm sorry to report that we won't be shipping in 2008 and I can't yet offer a new estimated ship date. The good news is that it's turned into a significantly more powerful and creative product. The bad news is that we'd prefer not to release details of the new design because it's so cool that I don't want to show our cards to the competition. However, I do want to thank all those who wrote in with suggestions because this interactive design process has very much helped to change what we thought the product originally should be into what we now know you really want. So please hold your questions while we're hard at work on it, and I'll be periodically updating this page as we release new information.
[...]
For those of you who are new to LinnDrum II, its new subtitle is "Beat-Centric Digital Audio Workstation with Integrated Analog Synthesis". Inspired by how the MPC product line that I (Roger) originally created for Akai has evolved a new genre of musical instrument, LinnDrum II aspires to raise the bar beyond the current crop of high-end pad-oriented music production station products in order to enable musicians around the world to better realize the next wave of beat-oriented music."