Today's Top Stories:

  A Perfect Duet
The brand-new Apogee Duet, which was officially introduced at the AES show last week, builds on the success of Apogee's Ensemble, but in a 2-channel design. This was one of the most interesting items seen at AES this year. The Duet has a low-profile design that makes it a perfect fit in any Apple-based home project studio. Its squeaky-clean 24-bit/96kHz audio resolution guarantees true, pro-quality audio. Like Ensemble before it, Duet works in perfect harmony with Apple's Logic Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and Garage Band software, delivering amazing stability. A FireWire 400 connection provides bus power, so you can actually take the Duet with you pretty much anywhere. Now add two superb mic inputs with phantom power and up to 75dB of gain, plus 1/4-inch high-impedance inputs for guitar, bass, or keyboards. Duet also ships with Maestro software that allows you to use it with any Core Audio-compatible applications. Want one? Our first shipment just came in from Apogee, but there is still more demand than product right now, so we suggest you call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer to get further information or to order a Duet of your own!

  Cakewalk's Pro Suite for Today's Audio Professional
For the first time ever, Cakewalk is making all of its flagship products available in one specially priced collection for the serious music producer. Pro Suite ships with a full array of creative tools including: SONAR 7 Producer Edition, Project5 Version 2.5, Rapture, and Dimension Pro. To further round out this collection and maximize each musician's creative abilities, Cakewalk is including four special expansion packs for Rapture and Dimension Pro that have never before been available in retail stores. All of the tools in Pro Suite are designed to be part of one seamless music-making experience, providing musicians access to both vintage and modern instrument sounds, studio-quality effects, timing and pitch correction, high-end mastering tools, and much more.

  SSL Launches Pro-Convert
Since you clearly wouldn't want anything to get lost in translation when moving sessions from one DAW environment to another, Solid State Logic has released Pro-Convert, which was specifically designed from the ground up to enable workstation users to convert session files from one format to another. It can handle most of the major formats, including the latest versions of Pro Tools, Soundscape, Cubase/Nuendo, Vegas, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Audition, Sonic Studio, and many more. SSL is committed to supporting the existing user base, as well as maintaining and developing the application. No ship date as yet, but we'll keep you posted.

  Updates and Upgrades
PreSonus Audio Electronics has announced that brand-new Windows Vista-compatible drivers (64-bit and 32-bit) and firmware for the INSPIRE 1394, FireBox, FP10, and FirePod are now available on the PreSonus website. The new drivers along with specific update details may be downloaded free of charge.

  New in Stock at Sweetwater

• Guild GAD-4N - This new acoustic/electric classical guitar represents over 45 years of Guild's experience in building fine nylon-string instruments. Steeped in both Spanish and German traditions, the GAD-4N offers the same level of quality and workmanship the company has been putting into its classical line since 1961. This guitar features a cutaway design with a natural finish solid Western red cedar top and classical spruce bracing, solid mahogany back and sides, a one-piece mahogany neck, and ebony fingerboard. An onboard pickup system with Seymour Duncan Timberline electronics, a rosewood bridge, bone nut, and bone compensated saddle round out the feature set on this remarkably affordable instrument.

  Guitar of the Day
Gibson has a long history of building guitars to an artist's specifications or making exact duplicates of their favorite instrument. Way back on October 28th, 1999, six-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow inked a deal with Gibson Acoustic Guitars to build a Sheryl Crow Signature Model guitar. These new guitars would be nearly identical replicas of Crow's cherished 1962 Gibson "Country And Western" guitar, which is one of Sheryl's favorite instruments and has been used extensively by her not only on stage, but for songwriting and on many of her recordings. Naturally, this required Sheryl to send Gibson her very own guitar so master luthier Ren Ferguson could study it from headstock to endpin and take detailed measurements and digital photographs, capturing the essence of this instrument right down to the label inside. True, the cosmetics had to be right, but the quality of the sound was equally as important, so plenty of effort was put into duplicating this guitar's signature sound. After a bit of nail-biting, a prototype was created that impressed Crow so much, she signed off on the entire run (and got her original back)! The Sheryl Crow Signature Model features a square-shoulder body style that is quite similar to Gibson's acoustic Hummingbird, with a Sitka spruce top and Honduras mahogany back and sides. Gibson applied a very special "antiqued lacquer" on top, which matches the aged, honey-color of Sheryl's original guitar, so even brand new, this guitar looks like it's spent decades up on stage in smoky clubs and on extended tours across the country. It also has unique dark cherry-stained back and sides, which exactly matches Sheryl's, as well as a special pickguard material that accurately duplicates her older-style "faux tortoise" pickguard. As you'd expect, the neck width and shape were crafted to Sheryl's exacting specifications while a traditional Indian rosewood fingerboard completes the picture. Hidden inside is a Fishman active transducer that accurately reproduces this guitar's vintage-flavored tone when amplified to fill larger venues. As you'd expect, this beautiful guitar ships with a plush-lined hardshell case.