After the announcement in March, Antares has finally released AVOX 2 - the second generation of the Antares Vocal Toolkit.

AVOX 2 is available for native plug-in formats including RTAS (Mac and PC), VST (Mac and PC) and Audio Units (Mac) at a retail price of $599. It will be available shortly at your local Antares dealer and you can already purchase a copy from Antares' online store. Note that a fully functional 10 day trial version is also available. Upgrades to AVOX 2 are available for purchase and download by current owners of the original AVOX, AVOX AT, and Harmony Engine. See the Antares Software Upgrade page for details.

Last but not least, if you purchased and registered a copy of AVOX or AVOX AT after March 12, 2008, you are entitled to a free upgrade to AVOX 2.

Sound Devices is about to unveil the 788T eight-track recorder at this year NAB Show.

Designed specifically for multi-track on-location productions, the eight-track 788T features a significant expansion of input and output capability — eight full-featured microphone inputs and eight tracks of recording. In a stainless-steel and aluminum chassis weighing less than 4 pounds and roughly the size of a hard-backed mystery novel, this unit accommodates individual controls and connectors for each of its eight inputs, plus numerous additional I/O and data connections.

The 788T comes equipped with a 160 GB 2.5-in. internal SATA hard disk drive. This on-board storage provides up to 30 hours of 8-track, uncompressed 24-bit audio recording of industry-standard Broadcast Wave files. Additionally, CompactFlash cards with UDMA support and external FireWire mass storage volumes can be used for recording and playback. All three storage mediums can be selected for simultaneous, redundant recording.

The 788T is powered by 7.2 V Li-ion batteries or external DC (10-18 V) and offers an on-board Li-ion battery charger.

Apple has released Pro Applications Update 2008-01. This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, Logic Studio, and Shake.

Synthogy unveils Ivory Upright Pianos. a new virtual instrument which presents the unique, intimate sound of upright pianos using Synthogy's technology and piano-building expertise.

This all new collection of Vertical Pianos consists of four complete instruments. Each piano was carefully chosen, and the vintage instruments selected after an exhaustive search among hundreds of vintage uprights. Each of these authentic pianos was recorded with Synthogy's usual meticulous attention to detail to capture the unique personalities of these instruments.

Features :

- 4 hand selected Upright Pianos including :

. Yamaha U5 Modern Upright
. 1914 A.M. Hume Vintage Upright
. Honky Tonk, Barroom Upright
. Real Tack Piano

- Comes with Ivory piano engine
- More than 50 GB Core Library
- Over 5000 Samples
- Up to 10 Velocity Layers
- Custom Upright Soundboard Emulation DSP
- Separate, selectable "creaks and clunks" layer, for added funk
- Release samples triggered by velocity and duration
- Full EQ and Effects section
- All of Ivory's Piano Specific features and controls
- Dozens of new programs and effects presets

Note that Ivory's "unified interface" feature enables you to use just a single instance, and one interface, to play and control all of Ivory's pianos, no matter how many pianos you install.

Ivory Upright Pianos will be available soon for Mac OS X and Windows in VST, AU, RTAS and Standalone versions at a retail price of $299.

Sinevibes announces the immediate availability of vastly-anticipated 5th edition of the Fantom Tweakbook, the sound design and music post-production guide for Roland Fantom-S, Fantom-X, Juno-G and SonicCell synthesizers.

This new edition is the biggest update to the Tweakbook ever: there are now 62 illustrated articles explaining the capabilities of these amazing instruments even deeper. The look and layout has been totally reworked from scratch and, in addition to the helpful synthesizer and effects parameter map, there is a little dictionary which makes it even easier to navigate and understand the book.

The Fantom Tweakbook now covers an overwhelming amount of topics, including subtractive, additive and vector synthesis, ring modulation, analog sound replication, creating complex effects on patch level, envelope, LFO and matrix modulation, using effects processors as synthesis blocks, sampling and re-sampling, advanced processing of internal and external sounds, using in conjunction with other gear and much beyond. The 5th edition comes with over 220 example patches and templates, as well as a new collection of raw sample material and rhythm kits — so you can instantly start making your own sounds and music.

The Fantom Tweakbook 5th edition is available online from our partner DontCrac[k] for $19.