Pearlman Microphones is proud to announce the worldwide launch of its "Church" mic at the 125th AES Convention in San Francisco. A meticulously faithful remake of the revered microphone initially created by Stanley Church for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the mid-'50s, the Pearlman model is the only replica truly adhering to the original schematics, including the use of the authentic Triad transformer that has been out of production for nearly half a century.

Church, who served as the famed studio's chief sound engineer during that era, produced no more than 200 of his custom vacuum tube condenser microphones strictly for in-house use at MGM. However, over the years, the rare mic's reputation and resale value have skyrocketed, with originals in decent condition fetching up to $20,000 on the vintage market.

Like its venerable predecessor, the Pearlman Church mic employs a Neumann M7 (or optional K47) capsule, hand selected GE five-star 6072 dual triode (12AY7) vacuum tube, and "new old stock" Triad transformer, which is currently exclusively being made available to Pearlman.

Built into the same housing as Pearlman's TM-1, the Church microphone is equipped with a handmade power supply, custom Mogami/Neutrik tube microphone cable, heavy-duty shockmount and aluminum shipping case.

U.S. list pricing for the Pearlman Church mic is set at $4,500.00, and orders are currently being taken for these truly limited edition products, which are being hand-built by Dave Pearlman himself one at a time.

SSL has just launched a special promotion on most of their pluggins for the Duende platform . And needless to say that this is a real good offer:

- Drumstrip 110€ instead of 299€
- X-Comp 130€ instead of 349€
- X-EQ 160€ instead of 449€
- Stereo Bus Compressor 110€ instead of 249€

Really cool isn't it ? But hurry up, this special offer is only available until October 1st...

ESI presents the M8U XL, a new midi interface which features 8 independent MIDI inputs and 8 independent MIDI outputs, providing 128 MIDI channels - all via a single USB 2.0 (or USB 1.1) connection to your PC or Mac.

Features :

- 19" / 1 HE Case
- 8 MIDI in / 8 MIDI out - 128 MIDI channels
- high-speed connection to USB-equipped PC or Mac
- MIDI activity indicators for each port
- Plug & Play installation
- compatible with Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X
- fully class compliant, making it compatible with other operating systems

The M8U XL is priced at €227.

Ambrosia Software has updated WireTap Anywhere to version 1.0.2. WireTap Anywhere is a low latency audio tool that lets you take the audio output from any Mac application or hardware input device and bring it into your favorite audio recording application.

WireTap Anywhere 1.0.2 features the following changes:

-- The ability to mute software sources during a recording
-- Speed optimizations (loading time and overhead)
-- Additional down-mixing capabilities
-- Other fixes and enhancements

WireTap Anywhere costs $129, is a Universal Binary, and requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later. This update is free to all registered users of WireTap Anywhere 1.0.x.

ModernBeats launches a new music production site : Hit Talk.

Hit Talk is ModernBeats' new music production website devoted to answering the question "How do you produce a hit song?". There is no single answer that covers it all. That's why Hit Talk provides the answer in a multifaceted fashion including :

- Hit Reports that analyze Billboard hits from start to finish, teaching musicians each hit song's music production techniques.
- Music Production Tips that are posted weekly, providing musicians with constant music production techniques, ideas, & learning.
- Music Production Contributions that come from Hit Talk's growing music producer community.
- Music Producer Spotlight Interviews that feature unsigned and up-n-coming music producers.

Hit Reports are offered as a download and priced at $14.95.