Just got back from the Universal Audio booth and got a run through the highly anticipated UAD-Xpander, an ExpressCard DSP system intended for the mobile music producer/engineer who wants to carry along all their UA plugs, with project transfers to desktop systems. It will ship in March, we’re told, and will come in three versions, from the Xpress at $999 (with $500 plug-in voucher) to the Xpert at $1399 to the Xtreme at $2199. The latter comes with all UAD plugs up to version 4.5, which is worth the price alone. Key features? 44.1-192 DSP audio accelerator for laptops, 2.5 Gbps ExpressCard 34 interface, and optional Xtenda kit with PCIe desktop adapter. In other news, the DCS remote pre will be shipping in February, and we’re told it will come in at $999. That should do well at that price point. And finally, the UAD-1E Extreme Pak, inc luding 32 plugs and the PCI Express DSP accelerator, is shipping this month. Oh! One more thing. They hired Brent Elder, formerly of E-mu and Apogee, as VP of engineering. We’ll leave it up to you to guess what that might mean for future products…