EastWest has given one of its most popular collections, the EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, a turbo boost by upgrading the line (Platinum and Gold) to the company's Play 64-bit sampling engine.
Play-upgraded versions of Symphonic Orchestra will be introduced at NAMM 2008.

ESI will exhibit their new keyboard controller K.ON at the upcoming NAMM show. K.ON is ESI's new expandable USB controller keyboard with 88 hammer action keys.

Features :

- 3 digit LED display
- 9 endles dials
- 9 faders
- modulation wheel / pitch bend
- numeric keypad
- transport control buttons
- various editing functions for programming
- power supplied via USB or optional external power supply
- expandable via 4 expansion slots on backside
- Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Mac OS X 10.3 (and higher) compatible
- bundled with Steinberg Cubase LE 4.0 for PC and Mac

K.ON is already available and costs €599.

Nomad Factory has also announced the Analog Mastering Tools (A.M.T.) bundle which consists in three plug-ins : the A.M.T Amp Leveling, the A.M.T Max Warm and the Multi Max.

The A.M.T Amp Leveling is a highly optimized look-ahead Brickwall Limiter and Level Maximization. Designed to be used for Mixing, Mastering, Tracking and Live use, it uses a new proprietary algorithm ensuring a very smooth-warm sounding with maximum loudness and no digital-over-clipping as well as low CPU consumption for lightening-fast processing

The A.M.T Max Warm is a highly optimized look-ahead Brickwall Limiter, Equalizer and Level Maximizer. What makes the A.M.T Max Warm process unique is the approach used for its dynamic signal analysis. Internally, it uses a special processing algorithm to accurately maximize the incoming signal level while limiting the ceiling peak levels. This approach tends to produce a more natural warm-sound, the A.M.T Max Warm also includes a two-band equalizer (Shelving/Peaking) with adjustable frequencies.

The A.M.T Multi Max multiband peak limiter is a highly optimized 3 band look-ahead Brickwall Limiter, and Level Maximizer. It uses a special processing algorithm to accurately spilt and maximize the incoming signal level while limiting the ceiling peak levels. This approach tends to produce a loud and clear natural warm-sound. The A.M.T Multi Max 3 band crossover with adjustable frequencies delivers sweet highs and punchy lows.

The Analog Mastering Tools will be available for Mac and PC in VST, AU and RTAS formats at a retail price of $249.

Access Music unveils Virus TI Snow, their new table-top synthesizer based on the Virus TI series of synthesizers.
Over a thousand sounds can be accessed with a maximum of 4 button pushes. With 3 programmable hardware knobs per patch and additional ones for filter and envelope control, performers can control the core of the sound without having to dive into an edit menu.
The TI Snow is 100% compatible with all patches for the TI series and plays back a maximum of 50 voices with 4 multi-timbral parts (64 multi performances, 512 RAM and 512 ROM patches). The oscillator models include virtual analog, hypersaw, wavetable and graintable types. The filter section features a Moog cascade filter emulation with 1-4 poles and self-oscillation among others. The FX section includes simultaneous rever ...

TC Electronic has finally released their new member in the PowerCore family, the PowerCore X8. Boosted with 8 Motorola DSP processors, the new PowerCore X8 comes with 14 plug-ins and a 500$ voucher for additional plug-ins.

PowerCore X8 is available now at a retail price of €1499. For more information, please visit the link below:

Just days before the 2008 NAMM show, ESI Audiotechnik GmbH finally announces the availability of the new external recording interface ESU1808.

This USB 2.0 Hi-Speed recording interface features 18 input channels and 8 output channels which can all be used simultaneously. The 1U rack unit features 2 microphone preamps with balanced XLR inputs, 2 direct instrument inputs (Hi-Z), and not less than 12 balanced/unbalanced line level inputs. There is also a digital input in S/PDIF format. In addition, there are 8 balanced analog line level outputs and a digital S/PDIF output as well as a MIDI I/O interface. ESU1808 works under Mac OS X as well as Windows XP & Vista. The interface is bundled with Cubase LE 4.0 from Steinberg.

The ESU1808 USB 2.0 audio interface will be priced at €499.