MESSE: Tascam Release a Brace of Gizmos

US-122
The chunky blue and silver box on the left of the photo is the new US-122 which has two audio inputs and outputs, plus a MIDI-in and out, all using a bus-powered USB interface – no pesky PSU to worry about (which can’t be a bad thing).
The adjustable XLR and jack inputs allow you to connect guitars, keyboards, CD or MP3 players, as well as microphones (phantom power can be connected) -- even loop-in paths are provided for the insertion of effects. A direct monitor function enables playback of input signals, and there is a headphone output with adjustable levels and phono outputs. The US-122, together with drivers for all standard Windows and Macintosh operating systems, should be available from dealers shortly.

But my personal fave has to be this handy gadget:-

The CD-GT1 guitar trainer
I wish they’d invented this years ago – would’ve saved me trashing a few records trying to figure out how to play that oh-so-cool riff.
The bright red box on the right is basically a portable CD player and a guitar/microphone pre-amp…with built in effects. You can mark a section on the CD and play it back until the cows come home – or you’ve figured out the riff, whatever. If it’s just too lightning fast, you can simply slow it down by up to 50% without affecting the pitch. Likewise, you can also play with the pitch using the onboard pitch control. The built-in effects unit provides 15 clean and distortion sounds as well as 13 vocal effects, so you can connect a microphone and sing along to your favourite CD for that karaoke moment. A line input provides for an additional signal (for example from a mixer or cassette recorder) and a line output allows you to connect the trainer to the stereo system or a mixing desk. There's also an internal tuner and a foot switch input that can be used to switch effects or start and stop CDs.

All in all – a pretty handy little box of tricks.

For all the info:-