Sarah Yule from TL Audio, the company that’s passionate about tubes, was proudly displaying a rackful of new processors and I/O boxes at their booth. Boasting discrete class A signal path plus selectable tube stage with variable drive, the range features a dual mic pre and DI, a discrete class A stereo processor with compression and EQ and a discrete class A mono channel strip with DI, compression, EQ and balanced insert point. All units also have a classic TL Audio tube stage which you are able to select in and out of the signal path and control how much saturation you get with rotary drive control.

Everyone seems to like those monitors with room-correction algorithms, but not everyone wants to replace their monitors. IK Multimedia now has a solution for room correction in plug-in form. It called ARC (Advanced Room Correction), and it comes with a microphone for recording tones that determine the room correction that’s needed. You apply the plug-in to your DAW’s master channel when mixing, and disable it before rendering the audio, to keep the room correction off the audio file. IK expects to ship ARC in Q4 for $699 or $499 for registerd users of other IK products.

In other IK news, the SampleMoog ($299) virtual instrument that’s based on samples of 16 vintage Moog synthesizers is now shipping, and the Stomp IO hardware foot controller/USB audio interface for using with Amplitube will be available in November. IK is taking pre-orders for ARC and Stomp IO on its website.

We’re here with Rick Stevens, owner of Record Plant in Hollywood, and they’re announcing their expansion into Miami — South Beach, and introducing a new concept: The Record Plant, South Beach is going to be an 8-studio complex, two of which are owned by Record Plant, with the other six studios being owned by…..Top Artists and Producers. They’re calling them, “stu-di-o-min-i-um.” Cool, huh?

Studiominimum is a world-class recording studio and related lounge/work space, side-by-side with Record Plant’s own studios– all in one location. Record Plant will take care of everything, from technical and engineering service, messenger, runner staff, health club, swimming pool — everything. Rose Mann-Cherney and Rick believe that this development represents the development of the future of the high-end recording industry. Sales are underway; actual opening of the studios is projected for winter season, 2009. Stay tuned for updates.

For more, www.recordplant.com.

Mix Girls Jen Smith, Sarah Benzuly and Clarina Raydmanov were looking mighty fine at the Mix/Avatar 30th Birthday bashlast night at Avatar Studios. The Mix crew and about 500 other attendees had the AC working overtime as the body heat and unseasonably warm NY weather kicked the party up to sauna-like levels. Despite that, plenty of good food, drink and audio celebs were in evidence making it the coolest place to be in NY.

What’s better than a stereo mic? How bout a stereo mic with four outputs? The new ELA M216 is a dual capsule microphone with 4 outputs! Telefunken‘s Toni Fishman tells the tale of two mics in our Mix interview.

Mark Ludmer from Rode talked to me about their new M3 condenser microphone. It’s battery or phantom powered and ready for a multitude of uses. Get all the skinny in our exclusive Mix interview.

photo caption: Niall Feldman from SSL in front of the “shed”

Aside from their booth, SSL had a “shed” for sale on the show floor. It wasn’t just any shed but a replica of Peter Gabriel’s own personal recording studio. The whole thing was shipped from the UK and it will be sold at the show. Better bring a big wallet though, as the asking price is about $300k.

Michael Deming and Jennefer Wason from Charter Oak showed me their new headphones and handmade pop screen. The new cans are aimed at the high end and promise to be very easy on the ears, both from a comfort and sonic standpoint. The pop screen velcro’s on most any mic and is made from a top secret material that rejects moisture as well as plosives. Listen to Michael talk about the new products in our exclusive Mix interview.

Check out Markus Revito’s interview with David Cross from Ableton who dishes what’s new in Live 7. The new version offers 64-bit mix summing, new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, better MIDI timing and hardware integration.

photo caption: MTV’s Marc Repp in the Lawo booth

Herbert Lemcke from Lawo showed me their cool new plug-in server that delivers beaucoup horsepower for Lawo Console users. Check out my interview with Herbert for full details on the capabilities of this new product.