PC and Music News

The Arabella is the latest in the BeesNeez Microphones "Studio Series", featuring a K47b Hand made Capsule, Telefunken EF12 Tube, huge Cinemag 2461NICO transformer, Multiple Patterns (9), 10db Pad and top end roll off.

This mic has been designed from the ground up not to be a clone microphone. It does share lineage with a few classics namely the Neumann U47 and M49 and has been designed to take the best of each and combine them together to make an extremely versatile microphone.

The Arabella is available now at a price of $1350 with Road Case, Power Supply, Elastic Suspension Mount and Lead.

RNDigital has released 2 new plug-ins : FIREQ and FIREQ LE.

FIREQ is a 1/6th octave (62 band) stereo finite impulse response (FIR) mastering equalizer with linear phase characteristics. With the built in frequency analyzer you can view the energy levels of your incoming audio, and observe real time changes as you adjust the filters. With FIREQ's Match function you can learn the spectral characteristics of one audio source and apply it to another. Matching creates continuity between individual tracks, or entire mixes. Using FIREQ's States, 50 different EQ snapshots can be stored, copied, moved, deleted, recalled and saved for automation.

FIREQ LE is a 1/3rd octave stereo finite impulse response (FIR) mastering equalizer with linear phase characteristics. It incorporates the same filter characteristics of FIREQ, but does not allow for spectral matching or the use of states. The layout of the FIREQ LE includes 31eq bands with gain/reduction of +/- 27 Db per band, freehand curve drawing, extensive history, left/right channel linking and editing, a detailed customizable spectral display, two workspaces and an overall output gain/reduction range of +/- 24Db.

Both products are available now for Mac and PC in VST, AU and RTAS formats. FIREQ costs $249 while FIREQ LE $129. Owners of Frequal-izer get FIREQ for free.

TC Electronic is proud to announce three new plug-in bundles, which offer registered Pro Tools|HD owners significant savings on nine of the most popular plug-ins from TC Electronic, TC-Helicon and Tube-Tech.

The Mastering bundle includes the following plug-ins : Master X3, MD3, Brickwall Limiter and UnWrap.

The Production bundle features NonLin 2, DVR2, VSS3, MD3, Brickwall Limiter, the Tube-Tech CL 1B and TC Helicon Harmony4.

Finally, the Studio Complete bundle contains all nine of these plug-ins.

The Mastering bundle retails at €1680, the Production bundle retails at €2100 and the Studio Complete bundle retails at €2950. These bundles will be available in February 2009. Added to this, TC Electronic rewards its dedicated installed user base who previously purchased TC Electronic plug-in bundles with a discount through a simple upgrade program.

This is your chance ! Get all the add-ons you've ever wanted to max out your Line 6 gear -- additional amps and effects models, plug-ins, and recording software.

+ POD FarmTM Plug-in Download $49 - The hot new plug-in for GuitarPort(R), any TonePort(R), and any POD(R)xt.
+ Triple Model Pack Offer for PODxt Live $69.95 - this unique bundle includes Bass Expansion pack.
+ Triple Model Pack Sale for $69.95 - Metal, Classics, and FX Junkie (but not Bass Expansion).
+ 2 Pack Offer $39.95 - that's two model packs for an unbelievable price.

Prices good only thru 1/31/09. Visit the Line 6 Online Store and select your Line 6 hardware to see all the compatible add-ons.

Bootsie announces the upcoming release of the successor of its BootEQ equalizer plug-in.

Beside some enhancements in the EQ department BootEQ mkII features a detailed modelled pre-amp section including finest transformer and tube style saturation emulation and audio coloring capabilities.

New EQ improvements are affecting the LF frequency range where now more control is given due to selectable frequencies and a switchable low-cut or peak mode. All other filters and curves remain unchanged.

The soundengine was developed around a further improved and reworked TesslaSE transformer algorithm, runs now in 4x oversampling mode and also contains massive SSE and assembler optimizations.

This free plug-in will be available in VST format for SSE compatible PC's and the release is targeted to the first half of february. Supported sampling rates are 44.1 and 48kHz.

Fostex is proud to announce the new LR16 Live Recording Mixer which is a 16/4/2 live mixer with built-in 16-track recorder.

Main Features :

- Connector Box (recorder + I/O) and Controller (mixer section) can be flexibly separated via off-the-shelf CAT5 cable up to 50m. Just one cable from I/O box on the stage to the F.O.H. mixer controller instead of heavy and expensive snake cable.
- Intuitive analog-like mixer operation in digital domain with 16 inputs faders + 4 bus faders + master fader.
- Built-in 80GB HD for approx. 16 hours of 16-track uncompressed digital recording (16bit/44.1kHz) or 9 hours at superior digital quality of 24bit/48kHz.
- One hit of "REC" button starts 16-track recording immediately.
- Multitrack and Stereo Mix can be recorded simultaneously creating 16 x mono wave files plus 1 x Stereo wave file on the HD.
- Choice of MTR-like stand-alone integration or separated rack mounting.
- FAT 32 formatted HD can be mounted on PC or Mac via USB.
- Digitally controlled TRIM with LIMITER on all the 16 channels.
- 3-band EQ on all the 16 channels.
- Built-in Master Effects (Reverb/Delay)
- USB Host connector to dump recorded data to USB flash memory for easy data transfer to PC or Mac.
- 10 keys on the recorder panel for instant playback.

The LR16 will carry an MSRP of $2199.