If you are a Mac-based recording musician with blazing, delicate, or down-right deafening guitar licks in your tracking plans, Apogee‘s Gio (MSRP: $395) could be your perfect studio companion. Apogee, an industry favorite for their pristine audio converters, aims to please the guitar-welding recordist with this new foot-controller/audio-interface combo. Technically, any Mac-based DAW (Ableton Live, for example) can be controlled by the Gio, but the product is intended for—and works best with—GarageBand ’09, Logic Pro 9, and MainStage 2. Offering a standard 1/4-inch instrument input, an expression pedal input, and an output suited for headphones, powered monitors, or an instrument amplifier, the Gio delivers pro-audio clarity with a no-brainer signal path. It’s built like an iron ship, sporting the type of sturdy shell and robust mechanics that can handle all the stomp you can muster. Due to the lack of an on-board screen to provide clear preset indication, this product is really most useful off the stage rather than on, but as a studio-based foot-controller/audio-interface for the Mac guitarist, the Gio has a massive, power-chord-like grip over the rest of the market.