AudioWarrior has just released TRON 'Mello-Rack', a sample library for Kontakt 2 produced by Greg Giametta and based upon the famous Mellotron.

The original hardware version of the Mellotron was an electromechanical polyphonic keyboard musical instrument that was originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It was used on countless hits including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, etc... Unlike the original Mellotron the 8 second samples in TRON 'Mello-Rack' have been perfectly looped for the modern world however the loops may be turned off to recapture the vintage effect of certain voices ending at variable times.

TRON 'Mello-Rack' for Kontakt is available now for Windows XP | Vista and Mac OS X. Note that it requires Kontakt 2 or higher from Native Intruments.

Steinberg has issued an installer patch for the 4.0 versions of Cubase and Cubase Studio (and also for Sequel). The patch enables Cubase and Cubase Studio owners running Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" to install their version of Cubase from the installer DVD. Steinberg product specialists recommend then additionally installing the existing free update to 4.1.

While this installer patch allows Cubase 4 and Cubase Studio 4 to be installed on Leopard, it does not offer full and official compatibility with this Mac OS X version. Leopard will be fully and officially supported by Cubase and Cubase Studio with a later update to both products, which is planned for release in Q1 2008.

Steinberg has also released a version 4.1.1.749 update for Cubase Studio. This new update adds the missing UV22HR dither plug-in and fixes an issue with the MIDI loops not being able to be imported or previewed.

SM Pro Audio is proud to announce the immediate availability of their portable multi-purpose acoustic treatment panel The Mic Thing in white. Designed for minimizing room artifacts and improving separation during microphone recording sessions, The Mic Thing is great for a range of applications including helping to control room ambience, minimizing spill from instrument amplifiers, or even creating temporary control rooms.

It can be mounted on just about any microphone, drum, or speaker stand up to 1" (25mm) in diameter. Its two winged panels can also be adjusted to create anything from a flat planar absorber to a tight semi circle enclosing the microphone. This way, the amount of separation and absorption can be easily be manipulated to suit requirements.

Like the black edition the Mic Thing white is shipping with the Mic Stand for a limited time.

This week, Greg Paxton and our partner audioMIDI present a full review of Steinberg's Sequel, entry-level DAW.
That "entry-level" statement could be put into perspective, as says the author : "Sequel offers a feature-rich program for anyone getting started - on both a PC and a Mac. The instrument library provides a versatile palette of sounds[...]. The loop library and editing capabilities are more than impressive. Other features [...] make Sequel anything but "entry level"."

Sims Audio has announced the Primus A25 Midi/USB controller. Basically it's a 25 key MIDI/USB keyboard controller featuring both line and microphone level inputs so it can also function as a USB interface.

Features :

● 25-key MIDI keyboard controller with 16 channel MIDI I/O
● 24-bit / 96 kHz Audio interface
● 8 assignable MIDI controller knobs and encoders
● Function keypads and a data wheel with 3 digit 7-segment LED display
● 5 fully-editable internal user banks
● 4 presets optimized for bundled demo software and 1 useful preset
● Pitch bend and modulation wheels
● Sustain pedal jack
● 2 line inputs (1/4" TS), 1 MIC input (1/4" TRS) and 1 Hi-Z input (1/4" TS)
● 2 line outputs (1/4" TS) / Headphone output with level control
● Direct monitor switch for zero-latency monitoring
● USB 2.0 bus powered
● Additional 9V DC power socket
● Supports WDM, ASIO, DirectSound and Core Audio driver with low latency
● Native Instruments Pro53 DEMO, FM8 DEMO, B4II DEMO and Battery 3 DEMO software included

The Primus A25 has an MSRP of $270 USD, and will be available in the first quarter of 2008.