Applied Acoustics Systems is proud to release Strum Acoustic GS-1, a new acoustic guitar software synthesizer which brings a fresh solution to music producers and composers for the creation of acoustic guitar tracks.

Univers Sons introduces UVI Workstation: a FREE, advanced universal software instrument workstation, and UVISoundsource.com: a NEW sound download website dedicated to the UVI community.

Responding to many user requests, the Vienna Symphonic Library team releases a sequel to their successful small strings ensembles. The new Vienna Instruments Collection CHAMBER STRINGS II, featuring the small muted sections of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses, is now available from Vienna’s worldwide network of distributors and dealers.

Toontrack releases updates for all existing EZdrummer EZX's with more MIDI files and the addition of copy protection on the DFH, Vintage Rock and Latin Percussion EZX's.

Blue Cat Audio has released a new version of its multiple instances analysis plugins in VST and DirectX formats. These new versions mainly bring the ability to measure the difference between several curves (spectrum or stereo image): this makes the comparison between several tracks more convenient and it is now possible to visualize the difference with one or several references for EQ or stereo distribution matching.

This review is covering a vast series of plugins that if “covered” in my usual fashion would encompass an article that would equal something akin to Homer’s Odyssey or be at least as long as ULYSSES by James Joyce! ... Check out this new review from Glen Heffner!

Blue Cat Audio ( www.bluecataudio.com (http://www.bluecataudio.com) ) has announced the enlargement of its audio analysis plugins offer with the release of the Blue Cat's Oscilloscope Multi plugin and a new bundle, Blue Cat's Multi Pack. This new VST and directX compatible plugin for Windows is able to display, measure and compare waveforms from multiple tracks on a single screen. It includes both a multiple waveforms display and an XY phase scope view to compare the waveforms of several instances in real time. The new bundle includes Blue Cat Audio's multiple instances audio analysis plugins which let you perform multitracks spectrum, stereo field and waveform analysis.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce that the highly anticipated AmpliTube Metal is now shipping! Based on IK’s award-winning AmpliTube 2 software, AmpliTube Metal is the first guitar amp and FX modeling software dedicated entirely to heavy metal gear, with an arsenal of 48 highly acclaimed models of modern and vintage amps, cabinets, stompboxes and rack effects.

Native Instruments today released KONTAKT RETRO MACHINES, the latest addition to its KORE SOUNDPACK range of high-quality sound libraries for KORE 2 and the free KORE PLAYER. Based on material from the acclaimed KONTAKT 3 factory library, KONTAKT RETRO MACHINES offers an essential collection of charismatic vintage instruments that were formative for many electronic music genres of the past decades. This includes various classic synthesizers as well as several sought-after drum machines, with their creative potential maximized through the powerful capabilities of the KORE platform.

We are happy to announce the release of Voxengo Crunchessor 2.0 - our general-purpose track compressor for professional audio production applications. Version 2.0 features a wide range of enhancements over the previous version: namely, multi-platform support, multi-channel operation, mid-side processing, preset manager, and other additions.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce that AmpliTube X-GEAR has been made available as a free download for all AmpliTube 2 Live users and StealthPlug users. AmpliTube X-GEAR is the first completely expandable guitar amp and effects modeling software system, available as a plug-in and standalone version for Mac/PC, that allows mixing and matching between all the gear models from all current and future “Powered by AmpliTube” products in a single host interface; providing seamless control over every parameter directly from IK’s StompIO revolutionary USB floor controller and audio interface. X-GEAR gives users the ability to build the ultimate mega-rig of truly custom guitar and bass tones, live and in the studio.

Having introduced the free mixing and host software Vienna Ensemble 2 in November 2007, the Vienna Symphonic Library team follows up with a true software innovation. Vienna Ensemble 3 is the first MIDI and audio LAN solution that enables users to set up a cross-platform network of Macs and PCs using a simple Ethernet cable, without any additional audio hardware. Registered users of Vienna Instruments are invited to download the free demo license to test drive Vienna Ensemble 3 on their computers for 30 days. A video tutorial on Vienna’s website demonstrates how easy it is to set up the system. The full version is available as a download at the company’s website for EUR 95.

In response to user feedback, EASTWEST, the industry leader in soundware development and distribution, announces RTAS® support for Mac and PC versions of all PLAY products. Current PLAY-powered collections can be upgraded to include RTAS support through a free update posted on the company’s website (http://www.soundsonline.com/updates.php (http://www.soundsonline.com/updates.php)). The software updates (PLAY v1.0.056) are available for both Mac and PC platforms in both standalone and plug-in versions, with PC updates being offered for both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.

Hip Hop and R B producers can now add some fresh beats to their tracks with Zero-G’s Urban Ammunition. With the help of EASTWEST, exclusive U.S. distributor of Zero-G products, users will be livin’ large with construction kits from the professionals.

Native Instruments today announced GUITAR RIG SESSION, a new recording solution for guitarists, bass players and songwriters that provides studio-quality results at an entry-level price. Offering the acclaimed sonic power and ease-of-use of the award-winning GUITAR RIG platform, and equipped with a specially designed audio interface and additional recording software, GUITAR RIG SESSION is a versatile toolkit to create guitar-driven music of any style.

Native Instruments today announced GUITAR RIG 3 XE, a new version of its award-winning GUITAR RIG software that marks the ideal entry into computer-based guitar recording. Offering an essential arsenal of emulated gear at an especially affordable price, GUITAR RIG 3 XE is specifically designed for modern guitarists who want to perform and record with uncompromising audio quality regardless of their budget.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce the official launch of the worldwide “Stomp onto a Revolution” Tour! StompIO, the revolutionary hardware-software guitar and bass multi FX system, will be featured in open clinics and special events dedicated to change the way musicians gig live and record in the studio forever. Kicking off in May and lasting through Summer 2008, “Stomp onto a Revolution” Tour dates will be held in the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy and the UK, with more to be announced. These special events are free to attend, featuring famous and expert musicians that already use StompIO live on stage and in the studio.

Reviewer Rick Paul takes a look at Sample Modeling's new The Trumpet virtual instrument, the initial collaboration between Giorgio Tommasini and Peter Siedlaczek.

BFD Big Orchestral Marching Band is a spectacular new expansion pack for BFD 1.5 and BFD2, delivering a heavy payload of orchestral and marching drum instruments to your percussive arsenal.

Spectrasonics announced today the beginning of their 10-week “Omnisphere Preview Remix Contest” where registered virtual instrument users can create music using special loops that Spectrasonics has created from the eagerly anticipated Omnisphere Power Synth. Three winners will be chosen in July to receive a free copy of Omnisphere when it is released on September 15, 2008. The contest soundset of 45 new loops were created using only Omnisphere and demonstrate a little ‘taste’ of some of the unique sounds and rhythmic capabilities of the highly-anticipated new virtual instrument. The contest soundset is a free download and is available in Stylus RMX, REX2 and WAV file formats. All Spectrasonics registered users can download the soundset, enter the contest and submit their tracks at the contest webpage: http://contest.spectrasonics.net/ (http://contest.spectrasonics.net/)

IK Multimedia is proud to announce that SampleTron, the second virtual instrument to be released from the Sonik Instruments’ range, is now shipping! Done in cooperation with Sonic Reality, SampleTron is a virtual instrument workstation featuring the most complete collection of authentic “Tron” and other vintage keyboards instrument samples ever released in one product. These were ingenious instruments; precursors of today’s samplers that used tapes to play back prerecorded sounds from the touch of the keys.

EASTWEST (www.soundsonline.com (http://www.soundsonline.com/)), the industry leader in soundware development and distribution, is putting its users’ creativity to the test while offering a chance to win all seven PLAY products with its “Score This Movie” contest.

As the dollar continues its gradual fall against the Euro, the Vienna Symphonic Library has announced that it will raise U.S. dollar prices to customers in North America by approximately 10% on May 15, 2008. The company will also replace their long-running VIP Upgrade program this summer. Upgrade discounts from Vienna’s sample libraries to the Vienna Instruments Collections will expire on July 15, 2008, but new upgrade paths from the Vienna Special Editions to the upcoming new Single Instrument Downloads and to the “big” DVD Collections will give customers many flexible options to expand their orchestras, step by step, while enjoying considerable upgrade discounts. In addition, a special offer to receive free Extended Libraries is effective through July 15, 2008.

Precisionsound releases Chimes Collection, WAV 24bit mapped for HALion, Kontakt Gigastudio.

Antares Audio Technologies, the worldwide leader in vocal processing technology for the professional audio recording industry, has announced the release of AVOX 2, the second generation of the Antares Vocal Toolkit.

Tech Producer DSP (Definitive Studio Pack) is a multi-format sound library designed for DJs, musicians, sound designers and any type of 4/4 and Electronic production. Thanks to its 12 GIGABYTES of sound innovation, it guarantees infinite musical combinations that range from Minimal to House, Trance and Electro. Tech Producer DSP is compatible with all audio softwares and with the best soft-samplers and consists of of thousands of construction loops, samples, drum kits, Rex2 loops, multi-sample instruments, MIDI files and much more.

Blue Cat Audio has announced a new version of Blue Cat's Triple EQ series, a set of three hybrid parametric EQ / shapeable filters plugins, as well as prices drop on their entire catalog, to follow the fall of USD exchange rate. The new version of these plugins brings a complete user interface redesign and many new functionalities such as undo/redo, presets import/export.

BTE Audio has extended its line of Equalization Algorithms with the PEQ3, a high performance digital equalization algorithm that simulates the sound and feel of the extremely rare program equalizers of the mid 1990s.

Pro-Sounds has announced the immediate availability of Sanford Signature for the PS-1 VSTi Synthesizer.

Modular Dreams is a collection of 200 high-quality presets for your Arturia Moog Modular V.

To celebrate the release of Synful Orchestra 2.4.4 we have created 14 new sound examples using the new string playing modes. Some of these examples sound absolutely realistic. Others use the Synful Orchestra controls to modify the sounds and create imaginary musical instruments. Check out the new Night Ring.mp3. This is a latin-chinese-funk piece for strings only - but you've never heard string like these!

IK Multimedia is proud to announce that the new AmpliTube X-GEAR 1.1 has been released as a free download for a limited time to all registered StompIO™ users and all registered owners of at least one “powered by AmpliTube” product including: Ampeg® SVX, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix ™, AmpliTube® 2 and AmpliTube Metal™. AmpliTube X-GEAR is the first completely expandable guitar amp and effects modeling software system, available as a plug-in and standalone version for Mac/PC.

Celemony announces Version 2 of Melodyne plugin at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. The update of the popular audio correction tool will appear in late summer, offering as its most important new feature Direct Note Access. This pioneering technology makes it possible for the first time to detect and edit individual notes within polyphonic audio material. Melodyne plugin 2 will be the first product in the Melodyne family to use Direct Note Access. Customers purchasing Melodyne plugin after the 12th March 2008 will receive the update free of charge.

Hot on the heels of the portable Solid State Logic Duende Mini unit (launched in January 2008 and showing for the first time in Europe), Musikmesse sees the launch of Duende PCIe. Duende puts the legendary SSL sound inside your workstation hardware and makes harnessing the power of the renowned Duende Plug-Ins more integrated than ever. PCIe is a high bandwidth, half length, full height slot-in PCIe card that works in both PCs and Macs. This card is ideal for those who work with lots of external firewire equipment, or those who want to integrate their SSL processing and workstation into a single case unit. Duende PCIe will be demonstrated in Hall 5.1 on Stand# B.75.

VariSaturator is an audio effect plug-in designed to apply saturation effects over audio material. VariSaturator can be used both to boost the loudness of the audio tracks without increasing their peak levels proportionally, and to apply subtle harmonic coloration that makes tracks sound more pronounced and polished.

EZPlayer pro is the much expanded version of Toontrack Musics EZPlayer FREE. It is also the next release in the Toontrack Software Tools series.

Nomad Factory is proud to introduce the Analog Mastering Tools (A.M.T.) - high-resolution limiter and multi-band dynamics processor that sets a new standard for mixing and mastering your music with a subtlety and musical character reminiscent of tube systems.

The Ace Tone ACE 3000 is probably one of the last organs before Ace Tone became Roland Corporation . It's a furniture piece, a grandma's organ. with 2 manuals, a drum machine and a one octave bass pedal section that goes deeper than deep.

The Vienna Symphonic Library announces the release of seven Extended Libraries complementing its already existing Vienna Special Edition download products.

As soon as I received the attractive box from IK Multimedia for review, the first thing that hit me were the words “the Moog Synth Anthology”. Further viewing of the box claimed that they had “16 rare, collectable Moog synths in one product”. I was immediately intrigued by the fact that IK Multimedia was essentially claiming that they had a “historic collection” of Moog Synthesizers, all in one box. How cool would that be? ... Check out this new review from Glen Heffner!

Nomad Factory digitaly recreated the Equalizer and Presence Filter which were part of a well known 'British' mastering console. Designed to improve the quality of digital sound recordings, this plug-ins provide a simple and functional “vintage-style” interface, as well as low CPU consumption for lightening-fast processing.

Designed to improve the quality of digital sound recordings. This plug-ins recreates the warm sound qualities of legendary analog hardware passive equalizers used by Motown engineers. The plug-ins provide a simple and functional “Vintage/Retro-Style” interface, as well as low CPU consumption for lightening-fast processing.

BBE is proud to announce the release of the all-new D82 Sonic Maximizer® Plugin. The world-renowned Sonic Maximizer processor is the secret weapon of performers, producers, DJs and engineers. The Sonic Maximizer restores the high frequency definition and detail while focusing bass frequencies for any sound source. The new D82 Sonic Maximizer delivers the full capabilities of BBE’s 882i and 482i hardware Sonic Maximizer processors with the convenience of digital.

In the first of a series of Studio Specialist plug-ins, db audioware has released a new Vocal Intensifier plug-in. Vocal Intensifier gives vocal tracks added punch and presence, to make them stand out in the final mix. It uses an advanced studio technique called parallel compression (also known as New York compression ), often used for drum tracks but here specially tuned for vocals. The advantage of this technique is that it boosts the loudness and presence of the vocals without destroying the dynamics of the original performance.

Syntheway Percussion Kit is a collection of percussion instruments designed for creating orchestral percussion, as well as auxiliary, latin, african and mallet percussion.

Magic Vox uses the beautiful sonic qualities of guitar harmonics (flageolets), as a basis for the creation of a totally new playable and expressive musical instrument, with a distinctive sound.

Nine Volt Audio continues its free online video series with a tutorial titled Morphing the Mix with Stylus RMX . The video is a 10-minute step-by-step tutorial showing Stylus RMX users how to combine a few simple techniques to create dramatic sounding affects, all of which can be controlled in real-time.

Blue Cat Audio ( www.bluecataudio.com ) have released Blue Cat's Remote Control 2.0, a new version of their virtual control surface. It is a set of VST and DirectX plugins for Windows which let you control and monitor in real time several MIDI controllable plug-ins or hardware devices from a single customizable user interface. The new version introduces many user interface changes and new features such as window opacity control and undo/redo.

CakewalkNet editor Rick Paul recently stopped by the NAMM Show 2008 in Anaheim, California. Check out Rick's report on what's new and exciting from his day on the tradeshow floor.

Sonalksis today announces The Sonalksis Mastering Suite. The Sonalksis Mastering Suite consists of a select range of plug-ins for Mastering Engineers, Producers and other Industry Professionals.