Allen Farmelo, who reviewed the Euphonix MC Mix, MC Control, and MC Transport (www.euphonix.com) for Tape Op #76, emailed me recently to clarify some points in his article. He wrote, "This is just a quick update to follow in the wake of my review of the Euphonix Artist Series control surfaces. First of all, it was brought to my attention that the Mackie Control allows you to select automation modes, making false my statement that the MC Mix is the only control surface under $10,000 to offer automation mode selection. Secondly, many of you already know that Avid has bought Euphonix and is now planning on a full integration of the EuCon software with Pro Tools, effectively eliminating the limitations I had gone on about in my review. Avid is also planning to make EuCon an industry-standard control surface integration platform. All good news." ••• Brian McGovern, who is the Marketing Manager for Steinberg North America, also emailed me regarding Tape Op #76 — specifically, Joseph Lemmer's review of PreSonus Studio One Pro 1.0.2 (www.presonus.com), in which Joseph explains how he's moving from Steinberg Nuendo (www.steinberg.net) to Studio One as his primary DAW for music production. Brian wrote, "A Studio One customer is most likely not even considering Nuendo. We are talking $399 street pricing versus $1999 for Nuendo with Nuendo Expansion Kit. When Nuendo 4 came out, we had a strong offering that explained the transition and offered Nuendo users the ability to transition into Cubase as their go-to music solution. The fact is, we have numerous solutions (six in total, not counting EE versions or WaveLab) that customers can consider if the Nuendo direction doesn't meet their needs. PreSonus has one or two. Many of the features were, well let's be honest, copied from what Steinberg offers. He doesn't go into detail about the upgrade process or Nuendo Expansion Kit. All I got from it was, 'I won't be upgrading because of policies... for now I'll use Nuendo only because of video support and surround capabilities.' Well, so does Cubase, and Cubase outperforms Studio One with regard to Music Tools. They do get us with Mastering, but I have a whole different long response on that. In short, Mastering is a very unique process that few fully understand. WaveLab is our mastering tool and dedicates itself to this process. Truth is — right now Cubase 5 is in ways more powerful than Nuendo 4 because Nuendo hasn't experienced the version 5 transition yet. Music Tools will include Groove Agent One (a drum player), VariAudio and PitchCorrect (pitch tools), and REVerence (convolution reverb) — just to name a few — along with the other amazing core elements that will be enhanced. Studio One is a one-window application more like GarageBand — not Nuendo, and not even Cubase." For more on Nuendo 4 and Cubase 5, see reviews in Tape Op #68 and #75. I myself am a Nuendo/Cubase user, so I'm very excited that Nuendo 5 is scheduled for release in June. ••• If you've ever stepped foot in a big-box music store or flipped through a catalog, you've seen music furniture and accessories from Raxxess (www.raxxess.com). What you may not know is that their 45-page catalog includes a huge range of products. Last year, after seeing the catalog online, I purchased an RB-60M bridge (from the Config-U-Raxx series) for my office desk to hold Hi-Fi components and a pair of ADAM P11-A powered monitors (Tape Op #33) on Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers (#62). Even with all this weight, the quick-adjust, heavy-gauge steel supports and the maple-finished, silver-trimmed 1-1/8'' thick shelf are holding true. A great buy. -AH