The stakes in the mobile multitrack recording arena just raised with Apogee's announcement of the Symphony Mobile 32-Channel I/O solution. Aimed specifically at MacBook Pro users, the short summary about the unit is that it's the ExpressCard format equivalent to the company's PCI-format Symphony PCI-Express card, allowing host connection between Apogee X-Series or Rosetta converters to MacBook Pro machines. From Apogee:

Apogee Electronics Corporation announced today that Symphony Mobile is now shipping worldwide through authorized dealers and distributors. Symphony Mobile is the first professional, state-of-the art native audio workstation designed specifically for Apple’s MacBook Pro.

Symphony Mobile features all of the performance, quality and value of Apogee’s Symphony PCI-Express card, with up to 32 channels of I/O, and less than 1.6 milliseconds of latency at 96K, in a portable form factor. Installed directly into Apple’s MacBook Pro and connected to Apogee’s legendary X-Series or Rosetta Series converters, Symphony Mobile delivers amazing sound quality and capabilities that rival most desktop workstations, making it the ultimate solution for professionals that want to do audio production on a laptop.

“We are pleased to be shipping Symphony Mobile, an exciting product that is sure to reinvent professional recording on a laptop,” says Apogee Co-Founder and CEO, Betty Bennett. “With high channel count and extremely low latency, Symphony Mobile liberates the customer from large desktop workstations. The freedom to move no longer requires professionals to compromise on performance.”

Symphony Mobile At A Glance:

• 32 channels of 24-bit 192K Digital I/O
• Single 32 channel, PC-32, bi-directional connector
• Direct connectivity to Apogee’s Rosetta 800, Rosetta 200 and AD-16X and DA-16X converters via the optional X-Symphony card
• Simple connection with a single PCI-32 cable
• Compatibility with any CoreAudio software applications
• Apogee’s Maestro Software for advanced control and routing
• Apogee’s VBus for virtual routing between CoreAudio applications
• Compatible with any Apple MacBook Pro