Transfer 314,95 USD for Sony here, and you will own a brand new ACID Pro 7. The world famous loop sequencer has numerous new features like track freeze, a serious new mixer, rendering sound real-time, programmable tempo changes, a very new, sophisticated time-stretch algorhythm. It works with every resolution up to 24/192.

Sony has officially announced the next version of their loop-based sequencing software: ACID Pro 7. For the 400 USD it will do all the audio resolutions up to 24/192, with the maximum configurability - surround 5.1 is also supported. It will come with 3000 audio and 1000 MIDI grooves from Sony, and all the MIDI functions are highly extended. A professional mixer panel is the next big smash in the application, with flexible routing, and integration with external effect processors. The official webpage is already opened for everybody.

Musikmesse rulez: Sony's online software shop offers every item (Vegas Pro 8! Sound Forge! Acid!) 25% off while we are out in Frankfurt. Seeing is believing!

Sony announced two new pocket recorders, ICDUX70 and ICDUX80. (Since they forgot to post them to their website we have a picture from Future Music blog, thank you.) Interanl memory sizes are 1 and 2 gigabytes, both connect and charge via USB. Visually they are quite similar to the semipro Sony walkman recorders. Prices to be announced.

Tascam also has a new recorder, DR-1. It records on SD card, a 1-gigabyte piece is attached, formats supported are mp3 and WAV, the maximum resolution is 24 bits and 48 kHz. A guitar tuner feature is included.The best part is the price: only 300 USD. Check here.

Sony was dealing with flash-based recorders already but in the higher price category - now times are changed and their new baby, PCM-D50, showed in AES these days has a price that is much closer to the M-Audio/Edirol/Zoom category. You have to pay 600 USD to own this product which reords 24/96 quality at its best, has 4 gigabyte internal memory which is expandable with standard Memory Stick cards. It is boxed with aluminium, and runs on standard AA batteries - communicates via USB, and has some extra features like digital pitch control, limiter, and low-cut filter. You can buy even a remote controller accessory! Here are the very detailed sheets.

Sony tells in their recent newsletter that the next version of Vegas comes in 10th, September. Vegas 8 Pro has lots of new features like multicamera workflow, serious titling system, Blu-ray disc burning, 32-bit video processing, 24/192 audio resolution and audio mixer, and full support for HD cameras working with AVCHD compression. read more here at Sony.

Sony makes new subbrands around their product groups: at the Musikmesse they introduced Sonnox, which consists of the well-known Oxford plugins. On the web, nothing has changed, their page is the same, Sony logo is on, and www.sonnox.com has nothing to do with it.

Sony's Vegas promotion has just finished with their free Sound Forge 8 and now the present has become obsolete: here is Sound Forge 9. The price is the same (300 USD for the download version), and there are numerous new features: multichannel recording and editing, Dolby Digital AC-3 export, phase metering, iZotope mastering effects, QuickTime and MPEG 1-2 import, a new user interface and so on. The cheaper Audio Studio verion is already available also for 70 USD - see more details here.

Order a downloadable Sony Vegas 7 non-linear video editor with DVD Architect expansion until 31th March for 524 USD and you will receive a free, downloadable, full Sound Forge 8 (normally a 300 USD value). Direct purchase here at Sony.