IK Multimedia has announced their studio instrument workstation Studiophonik. This plugin station is designed to control the sound of a band in a studio and allows user to create a virtual band. Studiophonik offers a huge variety of different vintage and custom brand instruments and comes with 2 DVD of 7 GB sound sets.

Studiophonik will be be available from Spring 2005 at 399 euros.

Cycling '74 and Octiv released Octirama, a surround dynamics processor for Digidesign ProTools TDM systems. Octirama is a multi-band dynamics processor for 5.1 surround mastering for the Digidesign TDM environment. Octirama incorporates four and five band processing for each of five channels plus advanced bass management.

Octirama will be available in first quarter 2005 for $995.

Mackie has announced a new update to v2.0 of its Audio-Midi sequencer Tracktion. This new release introduces an enhanced MIDI editor, more comprehensive keyboard control and the ability to map hardware MIDI controllers to filter parameters. This version also adds a new 64-bit mix engine, improved external synchronization support, eight auxiliary sends and returns, and full integration for Mackie Control Universal and C4 controllers.

A demo version is available on Mackie web site.

Gibson is releasing a digital guitar, featuring an ethernet-connection in addition to normal analogue out. It is designed to work as a normal Gibson Les Paul, but with digital options to expand the guitarists creative canvas, including the ability to assign separate outputs for separate strings, via a claimed no-latency breakoutbox. With some agile fingers you might be able to play all six guitarparts of your new rockopera yourself, at the same time.

My little finger (well, Peter in fact…) told me that the author of the infamous (and ultimate) "A to Z of Analogue Synthesizers" is on the way to finish his book on effects. If it's on the same league as the AZAS expect: companies histories, product extensive info, advice on the value both in use and on the 2nd hand market, and unknown beasts and white elephants.

Expect the book to be out for sale on the VEMIA site before the end of the year.