Berlioz said that composing was about managing time, all the same, it's quite annoying ! Just imagine dozens of millions little European hands fingering, almost at the same time, watches, clocks, cuckoo clocks and other alarm clocks. In a word, MM reminds you that tonight, in the EEC countries, at three o'clock sharp, you will have to put the hands back an hour, and like magic, it will only be two then ! So the choice is yours : it can either be one hour sleeping , or one partying and for some of you one exchanging in the forum ...

Good night to all the MacMusicians of the night and a bright morning to all the others !

Twenty-five years after the introduction of the first Portastudio, Tascam unveils the new DP-01 and DP-01FX 8-track Digital Portastudios. They feature 8-track recording at CD quality 44.1kHz/16-bit, 2-track simultaneous recording, dedicated stereo mixdown track, controls on each channel for volume, pan, effect send, EQ high and EQ low, two 1/4" TRS mic/line inputs, two phantom powered XLR microphone inputs (DP-01FX only), guitar level input, built-in reverb and multieffects processor (DP-01FX only), effects send and stereo return, RCA line outputs, S/PDIF Digital Optical output, USB 2.0 port and Built-in 40GB hard drive.

Tascam Portastudio is priced at under $400.

Ozone by Izotope is a mastering tool. Ozone is a system of 64-bit DSP algorithms, complemented with enhanced visual meter displays, and integrated in a single interface which features : Multiband Dynamics, Paragraphic EQ, Multiband Harmonic Exciter, Multiband Stereo Imaging, Mastering Reverb, Loudness Maximizer and Dither.

More info in the macMusic Softwares section.

We announced it yesterday : Bias unveiled SoundSoap version 2, its audio cleaning software. We were waiting for the prices and we've got them now : the suggested retail price of SoundSoap full version is $99. Customers who purchased SoundSoap on or after October 1st, 2004, are entitled to a free upgrade to version 2 at no additional charge by faxing BIAS a request along with a copy of their original dated sales receipt. For customers who purchased SoundSoap before October 1st, 2004, the upgrade to SoundSoap 2 is $49.

SoundSoap Pro remains available at $599.

At AES, Presonus unveils the FireBox, a compact FireWire audio interface which can record and playback six inputs and ten outputs simultaneously at a 24-bit/96k resolution. The FireBox includes two PreSonus microphone/instrument preamplifiers, two analog line inputs, six balanced analog line outputs, headphone output as well as S/PDIF and MIDI input/output.

More info on Presonus web site.