The Euro rose to an all-time high against the dollar, yet manufacturers were out in force and buyers were undaunted as Frankfurt's Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound show saw another banner year, with 112,000 visitors from 126 countries. Even on the heels of Winter NAMM, there were plenty of new products, including a couple of surprises. Listed alphabetically, here are our Top 10 certified hits from the show.

ADAM's (www.adam-audio.com) new A5 powered monitors are based on the company's A7 technology in a smaller footprint. Powered by two 25-watt amps, the speakers combine the company's ART folded-ribbon tweeter with a 5-inch woofer. List is $699/pair; a matching Sub 7 subwoofer is $479.

The big news was Celemony's (www.celemony.com) Direct Note Access. A mind-boggling app, DNA breaks a single polyphonic audio track into individual notes, editable using Melodyne parameters: pitch, timing, duration, vibrato, pitch drift, formant spectrum, volume and more. During a mobbed demo session, we watched inventor Peter Neubäcker (below-left) explode Chet Baker's signature “My Funny Valentine” into individual parts and then essentially rewrite the trumpet solo. DNA ships this fall with Melodyne Version 2.

The SD7 “concept console” from DiGiCo (www.digico.org) is now shipping. The new digital live sound board uses the company's Stealth mixing and routing system based on Super FPGA technology, which, along with two Tiger SHARC processors, gives the SD7 eight times the processing power of a D5 Live — translating to a possible 128 simultaneous 192kHz signal paths. It offers 448 simultaneous optical, 224 MADI and 24 integral connections, as well as 128 buses, 32 matrix buses and 32 graphic EQs.

Built like a tank, HHB's (www.hhb.co.uk) CDR-882 DualBurn pro dual-drive CD recorder supports recording on two discs simultaneously, high-speed duplication and seamless extended recording across two or more discs. Analog, AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital I/O (with onboard SRC), and internal/external clocking are standard.

JBL (www.jblpro.com) expands its VerTec line array family with the JBLVT4889ADP (dual-15s, quad 8-inch mids and triple 1.5-inch HF) and the companion VT4880ADP ultralong-excursion, arrayable double-18 sub. The available DrivePack DP-3 module adds 6,000W of Crown power, dbx signal processing and optional HiQnet networking.

Happy birthday to Neumann (www.neumannusa.com), which celebrated its 80th anniversary and launched the TLM 103D — a digital version of its best-selling TLM 103 studio mic. An integrated fast peak limiter optimizes recording levels, and output options include AES-42, USB, S/PDIF and AES/EBU.

PreSonus (www.presonus.com) enters the live market with StudioLive 1642, a 16-channel digital mixer designed for studio or stage. It's based around a 22×18 FireWire recording/playback engine, with 16 high-XMAX mic pre's; Fat-Channel processing with 4-band EQs, compressors, limiters and gates; DSP effects; six aux buses; four subgroups; and channel strip save/recall/copy/paste. Shipments should begin in time for the summer touring season.

SSL (www.solid-state-logic.com) showed us Matrix ($25,000), a small-format console integrating a 16-channel, 40-input analog line mixer with a multilayer, 16-fader DAW controller that lets users easily route outboard processors plug-in-style. Key features include onboard Total Recall supporting up to six SSL X-Racks, two separate inputs per strip, 32×16×16 insert router for up to 16 external processing devices, stereo and four mono aux sends per channel, dual-stereo mix buses with summing inserts, four stereo returns and full stereo monitoring.

Steinberg (www.steinberg.net) previewed the CC121 Advanced Integration Controller, providing full Cubase 4 integration by combining the company's flexible AI Knob controller for “point-and-control” parameter adjustment with a range of dedicated controls that mirror Cubase 4 functions.

We saw Thermionic's (www.thermionicculture.com) Fat Bustard tube mixer back at AES, but the 4U rackmount unit has been upgraded to 12 channels: four stereo pairs and four mono channels, plus bass and treble EQ, stereo-width control and the all-important “Attitude” knob. Dial in some.

Musikmesse/ProLight + Sound returns to Frankfurt from April 1-4, 2009. Meanwhile, for more show highlights, including exclusive videos, visit www.mixonline.com/video.