The New York Times has an interesting article today about the oldest recorded music in the world:
For more than a century, since he captured the spoken words “Mary had a little lamb” on a sheet of tinfoil, Thomas Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound. But researchers say they have unearthed a recording [...]

 

 Au Clair de la Lune [0:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At the Winter NAMM Show, Edirol released another portable recording unit. The Edirol R-44 4-Channel Portable Recorder is a 2 lbs. device that offers professional recording options, up to 24-bit and 192kHz, and uses SDHC cards to store the audio recorded.
The Edirol R-44 features

4 channels
XLR (with phantom power) & balanced/unbalanced TRS combo inputs
digital RCA and [...]

PreSonus is shipping FireStudio Project, a complete recording system combining eight XMAX microphone preamplifiers, 24-bit/96K sample rate conversion, zero-latency matrix router mixer, and the PreSonus ProPak Software Suite featuring Steinberg’s Cubase LE 4 48 track recording and production software, over 25 real-time plug-in effects, and more than 2 GB of drum loops and samples.
Based on [...]

PreSonus Audio Electronics has introduced the Monitor Station mixing console.
The Monitor Station is a desktop monitoring and communications system for your recording studio. Based on the award winning Central Station, the Monitor Station is designed to provide everything you need to control your recording environment.
You can listen to your mixes on different speakers; with and [...]

Zoom has introduced a new portable recorder, the H2 Handy Recorder. According to Zoom, the H2 provides studio-quality stereo recording in an easy-to-use, ultra-portable device.
Description:
From seminars and conferences, to interviews, electronic news gathering (ENG) and podcasting, to musical performances, songwriting sessions and rehearsals, the H2 provides amazing stereo recording quality. The H2 is the only [...]

Wave Arts has released Master Restoration Suite, a comprehensive set of restoration plug-ins for cleaning up tape, vinyl, and acoustic recordings. The tools are designed to give extremely high quality results with minimal tweaking, hence they sound great and are easy to use.
The MR Suite consists of 5 plug-ins:

Master Restoration - all-in-one plug-in
MR Noise - [...]

PreSonus Audio has cut the price of its best-selling Firepod firewire recording system to $399 (estimated street price in the USA.) Previously, it was selling for $599 street.
The FirePod is a 10 input, 10 output, Mac and Windows-compatible firewire recording system complete with eight Class A XMAX preamplifiers, MIDI and SPIDF input/output as well as [...]

PreSonus is shipping what looks to be the Monica Bellucci of recording system remotes, the Monitor Station Remote for the FireStudio 26×26 FireWire Recording System.
The Monitor Station Remote (MSR) is an integrated surround sound/stereo speaker manager, input switcher and communication system. The MSR connects to the FireStudio via standard Cat 5 Ethernet cable. There are [...]

VocalBooth.com, a manufacturer of modular sound reduction enclosures, has released their 14 Carat Diamond Series vocal booths. The Diamond Series, named for its shape, is a five-sided booth engineered to utilize the corner of a room. The five sided design also creates non-parallel walls that help to reduce standing waves.
The new 14 Carat series is [...]

Dangerous Music is shipping D-Box, a multi-purpose hardware product for DAW users. The 1U rack-mount box combines 8-channels analog summing technology and a collection of important features garnered from other Dangerous products. The D-Box has an integrated programmable monitor control section with analog and digital inputs, on board 24 bit/96KHz D-to-A converter, talkback, dual headphone [...]

Good Vibrations, by Mark Cunningham, is a fun and frustrating ramble through the history of record production. It offers insight into the production of some of the most significant pop records in history, including Pet Sounds, Telstar, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Dark Side of the Moon, Bohemian Rhapsody and many more.
The book [...]

Musikmesse: Alesis has introduced the iMultiMix 8 USB Mixer with professional mixing and direct-to-iPod recording.
The iMultiMix 8 USB features a mounting dock to enable recording directly to any 2nd through 5th generation iPod. Unique to its class, the iMultiMix 8 USB is the world’s first mobile recording mixer with iPod transport controls and a control [...]

Musikmesse: Allen & Heath has introduced a fourth control surface to the iLive digital mixing console system, joining the existing iLive-122, iLive-144 and iLive-176. The new iLive-80 is the smallest in the range of control surfaces, designed for smaller applications such as theatres, churches and touring bands.
Providing 80 control strips grouped in 2 sections, each [...]

NAB: SoundField has introduced the SoundField SPS200 A-Format microphone for stereo and 5.1 surround recording.
Designed for computer-based field and studio broadcast and recording applications, the SPS200 offers software plug-in A-Format to B-Format conversion, plus stereo and surround sound decoding and manipulation in place of an outboard control unit.
The most affordable of the SoundField Technology product [...]

At the Winter NAMM show, Radial Engineering introduced the Tonebone PZ-Pre, a compact full-function acoustic instrument preamplifier designed for studio and live performance.
The PZ-Pre is a unique two channel pedal that is equipped with piezo acoustic input signal boosters to allow both ‘add-on’ instrument pickups and built-in, integral active preamps to be combined for a [...]