Mackie has announced the Mackie Control Pro control surface series, the next generation of the Mackie Control Universal line of controllers. Comprising Mackie Control Universal Pro, Mackie Control Extender Pro and Mackie Control C4 Pro, Mackie Control Pro series controllers are designed to seamlessly work together to deliver ultimate hands-on control of mix and plug-in parameters, thereby making the user's music production software complete.

Mackie Control Universal Pro features :

- Proprietary Mackie communication protocol for seamless music production software integration
- nine 100mm touch-sensitive optical Penny + Giles motorized faders
- V-Pot control over software, plug-in effects and virtual instruments
- More than 50 dedicated push-buttons for fine control of software ...

Solid State Logic ships the XLogic Alpha Channel, a new analogue channel strip featuring a mic preamp, filter, EQ and dynamics.

Key features :

- Professional ultra clean mic preamp with line level & Hi Z instrument input switches
- 'Variable Harmonic Drive' circuit; a Time Machine of distortion characteristics
- High Pass Filter with selectable 40Hz, 80Hz or 120Hz cutoff frequency
- Built in professional quality Analogue to Digital conversion - as standard
- Auto sample rate sensing and self adjustment
- Three band SSL parametric EQ with mid freq Q control and dual LF curves
- Intelligent auto compression that maximises recording headroom and avoids DAC clipping

The XLogic Alpha Channel is available at a retail price of $1895.

IK Multimedia has announced Miroslav Philharmonik Classik Edition, an introductory version of the orchestral plug-in based on the classic Miroslav Orchestra sample collection.

Features:

- 16 part multi-timbral sample-based orchestral workstation.
- 250 sounds totaling 1.5GB of samples.
- 20 Classic DSP effects.
- 4 Insert effects instrument.
- 4 Master effects with separate sends.
- High-quality master reverb derived from CSR.
- Multiple synth engines including Stretch and Pitch-Shift/Time-Stretch.
- Zone feature for accurate single sample editing.
- Full MIDI control of performance parameters.
- Part preset and Combi preset customization features.
- 256 notes polyphony.

Miroslav Philharmonik Classik Edition will be available in February 2007 with an MSRP of $249 / €199 (tax excluded) for Mac OS X (UB) in VST, AU, RTAS and stand-alone formats.

GForce has announced Virtual String Machine, a virtual instrument which aims to capture sounds from a small mountain of classic and rare string machines.

Features :

- The sounds from 17 classic and rare string machines
- Over 2.5Gb of data
- 66 individual sample sets
- 49 notes, each individually sampled and looped
- Dual Layer & Split Keyboard capability
- Vintage style Ensemble & Phaser effects
- Filter section with Lowpass, Bandpass & Highpass modes
- Two Envelope Generators
- Pitch LFO
- Dynamic control including filter aftertouch
- 500+ Patch library

Virtual String Machine will be available in March 2007 for Mac OSX (UB) in VST, RTAS and AU formats with a price of $149.99.

Great features to discover on the Korg Site :

3 keyboards are available
• 61-key, 73-key (Korg's new keyboard, semi-weighted),
• 88-key weighted action (RH3: Real Weighted Hammer Action 3 keyboard)

A large Polyphony : 120 voices, 120 oscillators in Single Mode /
and 60 voices, 120 oscillators in Double Mode and
256 Mbyte (when converted to 16-bit linear format) with
• 1,028 Multisamples
• 1,606 Drum Samples

Effects : 5 Insert Effects (stereo in/out), 2 Master Effects (stereo in/out), 1 Total Effect (stereo in/out) are available simultaneously, 2 effect control busses, 2 effect common LFOs
• 170 types (can be used for Insert/Master/Total)

Sampling :
• 1,028 Multisamples and 1,606 Drum Samples
• 16-bit, linear, 48 kHz mono/stereo sa ...