Cakewalk announces the launch of the FA-66 FireWire Audio Interface for Mac and PC.

The FA-66 is a compact, portable 6-in/6-out FireWire 400/800 audio interface designed for mobile recording and performance professionals. The unit has two XLR/TRS combo inputs with phantom powered mic preamps, with one offering Hi-Z for recording electric guitar or bass, plus two RCA inputs – all with zero latency direct monitoring. The FA-66 delivers 4x4 simultaneous performance at up to 24-bit/192kHz sound quality, or 6x6 simultaneous performance at up to 24-bit/96 kHz.

The FA-66 also features MIDI in/out ports, optical S/PDIF I/O, a built-in analog limiter and indicator, and FireWire bus power. Combining premium audio components and solid, compact construction with support for the latest operating ...

The Bridge spans the gap between music production and DJing, creating a natural link between Ableton Live and Serato Scratch Live or ITCH. The Bridge provides a powerful fusion of DJ and production tools, opening a world of opportunities for DJing, remixing and live performance.

You can cross the Bridge in either direction:

Ableton to Serato
The Bridge provides Ableton Transport Control (ATC), giving you turntable-style control of your own multitrack productions. Simply drag an Ableton Live Set to a deck in Scratch Live or ITCH and use your turntables, CDJ or ITCH controller to control the transport.

The Marchin' library by AcousticsampleS is a military marching band set made of :

• two 24' bassdrums
• 8 16' toms pitched differently
• 6 15' snares
• one 18' cymbal
• 2,16Go of samples recorded at 24 bits, 44.1khz.
• Custom mapping, you can assign every element to any key from the interface in two different ways.You can even assign multiple elements to the same key.
• Mapping preset that helps you play multiple elements at the same time.
• Variable mapping repetition to play it with both hands.
• Multiple microphone positions and custom mixing of each element, we recorded each one with one stereo pair around 3 meters away plus one for the up side and one on the down side.
• Advanced cymbal action : releasing the cymbal key wil ...

Audio Ease has unveiled some of the new features that will come with Altiverb 7. Check it out :


Pricing and availability TBA.

Universal Audio has announced new partnerships with Harman Pro Group, Ampex Corporation and Dunlop.

Each company in the Harman Pro Group has a near-mythic status in the professional audio world - ranging from reverb (Lexicon), to compression and other processing (dbx), tape machines (Studer), and spring reverb (AKG). Under the terms of this agreement, Universal Audio will develop, market and sell plug-in emulations of select Lexicon, Studer, dbx, and AKG equipment for the UAD-2 Powered Plug-In Platform.

Ampex is famous in the professional audio world as innovators of magnetic tape and tape recorder technology - widely praised for its rich, almost magical sound quality. For the first time ever, Universal Audio's renowned team of DSP engineers will exhaustively and faithfully model these complex devices and media, bringing accurate emulations of Ampex magnetic recording tape to the UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins platform.

Dunlop is a leading manufacturer of guitar stompboxes and studio-oriented effects under the Dunlop and MXR brands. Under this partnership, Universal Audio will deliver a range of unique and classic effects to the ever-growing family of plug-ins available on the UAD-2 platform.

On top of that, Universal Audio has also announced the upcoming release of the highly anticipated Manley Labs Massive Passive EQ plug-ins in Q1 2010.

Working with Manley Labs, Universal Audio's Massive Passive EQ plug-ins represent their most ambitious EQ modeling project to date, bringing UAD-2 users both the standard and mastering versions of this world-renowned hardware EQ. Specifically, the two-channel, four-band Manley Massive Passive EQ utilizes design strengths from choice console, graphic, parametric and Pultec EQs - delivering a fundamentally different type of EQ. The Massive Passive's natural treatment of a signal lends itself to both radical tonal shaping as well as delicate vocal shading or subtle mastering enhancement.