Vestax has quietly unveiled the VCI-100, a new USB DJ controller. The VCI-100 has two special jog wheels that contain sensor and control technology utilized in their turntables. The VCI-100 also features a variable curve generator that controls the crossfader curve from the hardware with the track faders.

Main features :

- jog wheel "constructed with a high-resolution pulse sensor; touch sensor and acrylic platter mechanism". Have to actually try that out to know what that feels like. Jog wheels have built-in "sensor LED."
- hardware-adjustable crossfader controls
- USB MIDI connection, bus-powered
- 90 assignable parameters
- plug and play (class-compliant)
- Bundled with Traktor LE

No pricing or availablity has been announced. For more details see Vestax web site.

Audio Damage has just released Replicant, a delay-based effect in the "beat slicer/looper" vein with panning effect, programmable stuttering buffers and filter drops, and of course randomization features.

Replicant is available for Mac OSX (UB) in AU and VST formats at a retail price of $49. For more information, visit Audio Damage web site.

So far it's nothing more than a picture on a MySpace page, but this is the new thing from M-Audio. Concensus of opinion seems to think it's a dedicated controller for Ableton Live - with what looks like 10 clip launch buttons (maybe in four banks?) and it would make sense, as M-Audio own Ableton (and they're both part of the Avid empire, along with Digidesign/Pro Tools and Sibelius). Presumably we'll know everything on January 18th, when NAMM opens.

Wave Arts has announced the Master Restoration Suite, a comprehensive set of restoration plug-ins for cleaning up tape, vinyl, and acoustic recordings.

The MR Suite consists of 5 plug-ins :

- Master Restoration - all-in-one plug-in
- MR Hum - hum removal, buzz removal, and brickwall filters
- MR Click - click/pop removal and crackle removal
- MR Noise - broadband noise reduction
- MR Gate - noise gate

Main Features :

- All sections can be monitored to hear signal that is removed.
- Comprehensive displays for all processors.
- Onset detector in crackle processor keeps onsets bright and crisp.
- Extremely low latency (under 20 msec) noise reduction can be used in live situations.
- Fast noise floor learning time (down to 50 msec).
- Auto dynamics mode in nois ...

Novation has announced that the XioSynth 49 is now shipping. So the XioSynth now has a big brother for anyone wanting the awesome sound and unrivalled feature set but with more freedom for hands to roam. The 49-key XioSynth provides Novation-class synthesis with seamless audio interfacing and MIDI controlling capabilities to boot.

For more information, visit their web.