Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist and conductor, human rights activist, has died today at 80 in Moscow from a long illness.

Audio-Technica introduces two stereo shotgun microphones aimed at the high-end broadcast and production environment. The new BP4027 and BP4029 Stereo Shotgun models are based on models that A-T originally developed for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Designed for broadcasters, sound recordists and videographers, these phantom-powered models feature independent line-cardioid and figure-of-eight elements configured in an M-S (Mid-Side) arrangement. Each provides a switch-selectable internal matrixing system offering a selection of wide and narrow stereo (L/R) output or M-S output. A switchable low frequency roll-off filter helps minimize the pickup of unwanted low frequency noise. The models differ from one another primarily in length (BP4027 15" long and BP4029 9" long); they both feature a li ...

Today zplane.development announced the availability of vielklang, a plugin instrument for instant audio harmonization. vielklang generates up to four voices from a single voiced audio input. The progression of each individual voice is controlled by sophisticated harmony progression and voice leading models, resulting in musically meaningful harmonization without any configuration efforts.

Main Features :

- instant 4-voice harmonization of any single-voiced audio input
- integrated voice leading and harmony progression models, resulting in entirely natural-sounding automatic harmonization
- one-click modification of key scales and harmonies
- high quality, formant preserving, flexible pitch shifting
- audio-to-MIDI functionality for all voices
- customizable user interface

vielklang is available in AU and VST formats for Mac OSX at an introductory offer of €159 / $199 until May 31st, 2007. After that vielklang retails for €179 / $249.

Solid State Logic has also released version 2.0 of the Duende software.

New Features :

- Time limited trial version of Drumstrip included in installer.
- Mouse Wheel control of all Duende plug-in parameters.
- Duende DSP resources are released following a freeze command in Cubase and Nuendo.
- Multiple Duende GUIs now use shared host memory. This will improve host performance in some cases.
- RTAS installer is now separate from VST/AU/Driver in Mac OS. This simplifies the installation procedure.

Solid State Logic has released Drumstrip, the first optional plug-in for the Duende platform which is basically a drum processing plug-in.

Key features :

- Carefully selected collection of five audio processing tools.
- Transient shaper with Transient Invert to bring the attack phase of your drums to life.
- Transient Shaper Audition enables you to isolate and monitor the effect of the Transient Shaper.
- "Over-Easy" soft ratio compression characteristic for smooth transitions.
- Dedicated drum Gate with range and independent open and close threshold con.
- High Frequency Enhancer to invigorate top end.
- Low Frequency Enhancer to improve bass frequencies.
- The classic SSL Listen Mic Compressor with additional bypass function to alter the legendary band-limited compression to ...