Avlex Corporation has announced that the Superlux S241/U3 Condenser Microphone is now shipping. As a true capacitor condenser microphone with a half-inch gold evaporated diaphragm, a 3-position attenuation pad switch, a 3-position lo-cut filter switch, and a slight high-end elevation in frequency response the Superlux S241/U3 is an excellent choice for capturing acoustic guitar, snare drums, hi-hat, and other instruments whose transient frequency characteristics are often difficult to faithfully record.
The new Superlux S241/U3 carries a MSRP of $250 and it ships with the HM-40 shock mount clip, S-09 foam windscreen, and the HM-43 anti-POP screen. For protection and storage, the S241/U3 is housed in a sturdy, foam-lined plastic carrying case.

Ueberschall has released two new plug-in instruments - Dancehall Madness and Electro ID - both based on Ueberschall's Elastik Engine technology.
Dancehall Madness includes over 40 construction kits - nu skool riddims, Reggaeton and Dancehall club bangers - drums, guitars, percussions, basses, chords, vocals and sound fx, etc.
Electro ID features selected Construction Kits produced by the Elektro Artist Asem Shama (Techno ID / Ghostline / Franko Zeiger). It includes 1 Gb of exclusive Drum Loops, Patterns, Synth, Bass Lines, FX, Single Sounds:

* 100 construction kits
* 250 instrument loops
* 100 drum construction kits
* 300 single drum loops
* 700 single sounds.

Both instruments are available for Windows and Mac OS X (Universal Binary) in VST, AU, RTAS and stand-alone formats. They cost €99 each.

XLN Audio has unveiled Addictive Drums, a "Complete Drum Production Studio" plug-in for Windows and Mac OS X.
Addictive Drums ships with 3 complete kits, and lots of extra drums and cymbals. The samples include every nuance from the softest to the hardest hits, many stroke variations (hihat has 12 variations, snare has 6 for example) with alternating samples through-out. All sampled drum/cymbal sounds are recorded with a multi channel mic setup, just as you would record a real drum kit.

The Kits:

* Sonor Designer (Kick, Snare, 5 toms).
* DW Collector's Series (Kick, Snare, 5 toms).
* Tama Starclassic (Kick, Snare, 3 toms).
* Extras: Pearl Signature Ferrrone snare, Pearl Masterworks Piccolo snare, Pearl Masterworks kick.
* Cymbals (Sabian & Paiste): 3 Hihats, 9 Crashes, 3 Sp ...

SE Electronics is now shipping the USB2200a mic, which they announced back in January 2006 at the Winter NAMM show in California.
The USB2200a is a USB2 microphone based on the studio standard sE2200a capsule, it records CD quality audio (record path16 bit 48K, output 24 bit 48K) via USB directly to your DAW. The mic has several features unique from USB mics currently on the market including, ultra-low latency headphone monitoring (less than 1ms) with mix control to allow the user to set playback versus record path levels to monitor live takes, 10dB pad, Bass cut and an 'analogue switch' which enables the user to use the mic via an XLR connector with 48v phantom power where required.

The USB2200a will ship in early January 2007 and will retail at £222 inc vat.

Linplug has released an update for Octopus fixing the performance problem on PowerPC Macs. Version 1.22 is a recommended update for all Octopus users on a Mac with G4 or G5 processor.