PC and Music News

Focusrite proudly launches the new Saffire PRO 24 DSP, a 16 Input / 8 Output FireWire audio interface that features VRM, a breakthrough monitoring technology, in addition to real-time DSP-powered tracking plug-ins, all tailor-made for the modern recording environment.

Alongside DSP-powered Compression and EQ for latency-free tracking, there's also a 'Comfort' Reverb and Focusrite's patented VRM – Virtual Reference Monitoring – technology that lets you hear your mix in different acoustic environments, through different speakers and from different positions – all just using standard monitoring headphones

All DSP-based signal processing and effects are derived from the 'Focusrite Plug-in Suite' (also included as VST/AU plug-ins) and are integrated within the Saffire Mix Control software ...

SPL unveils a new design for their channel strips Track One and Channel One.

The new design features include a horizontally brushed aluminium front panel with the controls seated into new smooth milled rounded openings, the brushed aluminium also has the practical advantage of retaining its classic look for longer as it will repel marks such as finger prints. The control knobs are sculpted from massive aluminium giving them a quality look along with much improved haptics.

Note that technically nothing has changed and the recommended retail prices remain unchanged, too :

• Track One - €699
• Channel One - €1099

Rob Papen is one of the world's leading sound designers. He started off with a number one hit in Benelux aged just 18 and has subsequently created patches for the Access Virus and EMU.

Now Rob has a whole range of software instruments which are used by some of the biggest names in contemporary music production, including Armin Van Buuren, Junkie XL and Teddy Riley to name but a few. They are truly unique because of the concepts, sound quality and most of all, the musical and usable nature of the presets. Rob Papen's very first virtual instrument 'Albino' was released in 2002 and quickly became a massive hit with many leading producers.

Since then, other award winning virtual synths have been added to the Rob Papen line including 'Blue', 'Predator', 'RG' and most recently, 'SubBoomBas ...

A new page dedicated to tutorial movies for XILS 3 is available on the XILS-lab web site.

XILS 3 is an exciting new matrix style virtual modular synthesizer. Based on the architecture of the legendary EMS VCS3 synth, the XILS 3 is capable of creating both 'classic' sounds and totally new ones.

Features :

• Three aliasing-free oscillators: sine, ramp, square, triangle.
• One 2/4 poles low pass filter (a 3 pole self-oscillating mode is also planned).
• One envelope, based on two different designs, trapezoid and ADSR.
• One spring reverb.
• One ring modulator.
• One 128 steps sequencer.
• Two output static filters.
• One joy-stick.
• Three connection matrix.
• One input gate.
• One input envelope follower. ...

It's been nearly one year since the launch of 440tv, our new video broadcast site exclusively geared to musicians, and pro audio enthusiasts. And what a year ! 440tv is now offering more than 2500 videos including hundreds of useful gear reviews, tutorials, e-lessons, interviews of renown professionals as well as hot tips & tricks and much more.

Up to now, only YouTube videos were supported. Today we are proud to announce that 440tv also supports videos from Vimeo !

By the way, you will certainly notice that our video player now offers a higher quality. What a wonderful world, isn't it ?

You can now submit videos from YouTube and Viemo by visiting the "Add" section of :

For the whole of the month of July 2009, Universal Audio is offering a free UAD2 Solo DSP card ($499 Value) to anyone who buys an LA610 MkII preamplifier/compressor.

Customers purchasing the LA610 MkII simply need to download and complete the promo form and return it to the local distributor in order to claim their free UAD.