It may the first of April… but some rumors were tickling in my ears lately and now the Waldorf website has just been updated. After 2 years in the void and darkness, Waldorf, one of the most innovative and respected names in the synth business is back. Stefan Stenzel, Frank Schneider, Michael von Garnier and Wilfried Eckl are reviving the wavetable masters. Welcome back the red button synths!

ReNOVAtor, the Algorithmix solution to clean live recording of unwanted ring tones, professional coughers and other dainties is at last available for OS X. It work in 80 bit internally, handling up to 384 kHz sampling rate, uses multiple automated tools beside your hears, multiple resynthesis and interpolation methods…

Mac G5 1,8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 1440x960 pixels resolution, ProTools HD, Mix, LE 6.0 or above for OSX, iLok USB hardware dongle is required. Price EUR 2490

Elysia presented at the Musikmesse a high end compressor the Alpha. Build from the beginning to end with top component, innovative solutions, and sound integrity and quality in mind. It goes from a luscious power supply, an all discrete circuit design, to a specific MS job for the compression: the stereo is split into its middle and side informations unlike post compressor (they mostly use a stereo link). It leads to unprecedented fidelity and some rare features like compressing adequately drums in the middle while keeping stereo information intact… interesting!

Neumann announced the return of the K49 large diaphragm capsule with the TLM 49. Used in the M49 and U47, it will certainly raise some interest… here it is set as to optimise its use for vocal performance, with a slight boost around 2 kHz and the capsule is protected only by a large mesh not interfering with sound. The circuit inside is low noise and tranformerless, it is also suspended to further prevent transmitted rumble. The TLM49 stands up to 114 dB of pression and provide 102 dB of dynamics.

The EA 3 shockmount is included. Available in April/May 2006, list price $1699

Fostex has planned to change their PM series monitor. The PM series MKII comprise now the:
- PM-2 MkII 200mm woofer / UFLC soft dome 25mm tweeter, 240 W
- PM-1 MkII 160mm woofer / UFLC soft dome 25mm tweeter, 120 W
- PM0.5 MkII 130mm woofer / UFLC soft dome 20mm tweeter, 70 W
- PM0.4 100mm woofer / UFLC soft Dome Tweeter 16mm 18 W (desktop/portable use)
- PM0.5-Sub MkII 200 woofer, 110 W
Models are bi-amplified, have "high-gloss" fronts to look classy (bring the polish!). The PM-2 mkII has separate HF gain control, overall volume control and a 0dB/-3dB/+3dB switch for the LF unit.

Price and availability TBA