Focusrite announces its new Saffire LE audio interface. Housed within a sleek Black and Silver casing and mirroring the original Saffire's desktop design, Saffire LE features :

- Ultra-low latency Firewire 400 interface
- 24-bit, 96kHz integrated A-D/D-A
- Six inputs; Two Focusrite preamps, two balanced Line I/Ps and SPDIF I/Ps
- Eight Outputs: Six balanced analogue outputs for creating separate headphone/monitor mixes or 5.1 surround monitoring and SPDIF Output
- Suite of saffire plug-ins; Compression, EQ, Amp modeling and Reverb
- SaffireControl LE – Comprehensive level and monitoring control
- MIDI I/O and MIDI Thru
- AC3 and DTS compatibility.

Saffire LE will be shipping at the end of May, at a price of £239 including VAT (yes..pounds sterling...so approx. 348 euros or $440 ).

Zero-G announces the release of TOTAL REX, a collection of professional REX files in a single product, featuring over 15,000 of loops selected from over 40 different Zero-G products. Over 10 Gb of groove inspiration! Over 15,000 drumloops, instrument grooves & riffs, breakbeats and awesome rhythmic inspiration for use with: Spectrasonics STYLUS RMX (Total Rex is "Stylus RMX-optimized" for fast accurate loading), Propellerheads REASON, Steinberg CUBASE, Apple LOGIC PRO, Motu MACHFIVE, Motu DIGITAL PERFORMER, NI INTAKT, NI KONTAKT, Cakewalk SONAR, Image-Line FL STUDIO, and more....Note that the REX files are accessible individually (not packed into a REFILL).

Recommended Retail Price: $169.95 or 149 Euro.

Digidesign announces that its new Pro Tools custom Keyboard is now available. It let users work faster by providing direct access to primary Pro Tools transport and editing functions. Pro Tools Custom Keyboards use the same symbols and color coding system as the keyboards on the ICON D-Control worksurface surfaces while retaining all the conventional alphanumeric labels that appear on standard computer keyboards. All three versions of Pro Tools software share most of the same key commands. However, Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered users should be aware that some key commands are available in Pro Tools HD software only.

Pro Tools Custom Keyboard is $119.00 for the Mac version. (our photo : the old version of the Digi custom Keyboard).

Myriad software announces that Melody Assistant and Harmony Assistant have both been updated :

- Melody assistant is now available as version 7.2 for PowerPC Macs, and version 7.2 for Intel-based Macs. It now features New document wizard, Unicode characters management, Concert key edit mode, Styled text, Fine adjustment of score appearance and more...

- Harmony Assistant grows to version 9.2 PowerPC and version 9.2 for MacIntel, with the same new features.

Details and downloads in our software section.

IK Multimedia announces a fully usable demo (30-day) version of AmpliTube 2. This version 2.0 adds a completely redesigned interface and enhanced DSP engine, 5 separate modules, the ability to build your own custom Amp with more than 20,000 possible amp combinations, 21 stomp effects, 11 rack effects, 2 simultaneous guitar-rigs, more flexible routing, and advanced preset management.

AmpliTube 2.0 ships for $399. The demo version is only available to users with a Syncrosoft USB dongle.