Art Vista Productions has released the Art Vista Virtual Grand Piano. This virtual piano plug-in is based on Native Instruments' Kontakt Player recreating the 1960 Hamburg Steinway "B" Concert Grand Piano. It features 200 presets, including emulations of recording styles from the most famous piano recordings in all genres from the 1950's through 2005.

Virtual Grand Piano is available in VST, AU, RTAS and Stand Alone formats and costs $120 (introductory price of US$99 until 16th August).

Native Instruments announces at Summer NAMM its new Akoustik Piano, a sample-based software instrument. It includes three famous Grand pianos that have been at the heart of countless classical concerts and recordings for many decades - the powerful and dynamic Boesendorfer 290 Imperial, the crystal-clear and versatile Steinway D, and the gentle Bechstein D 280 with its subtle harmonic overtones.

Akoustik Piano will be available in September 2005 for for $349 /299 euros.

As MacMusic announced on july 15th, the new Oxford Limiter plugin is now shipping. The Oxford Limiter is a very high quality programme limiter, which employs logarithmic side chain processing, with innovative adaptive timing functionality, using look ahead techniques. Whether seeking general transparent level control, programme loudness maximisation or heavily applied artistic effects, the Oxford Limiter provides outstanding flexibility and world class performance.

Sony Oxford limiter is available as TDM and RTAS versions.

Edirol has introduced the world's first professional Hi - Speed USB (USB 2.0) multi-channel audio support for Apple Mac OS X Tiger using it's UA-1000 and UA-101 USB 2.0 Audio Interfaces. This eagerly awaited Mac OS X support is made possible due to advances made in Tiger.

A preview beta version of the Tiger driver is currently available for download at the Edirol site, and a preview beta version of the Tiger driver for the UA-101 is also available for download.

Alesis unveils 2 new "reference" studio monitiors. The M1 Active 520 features a 75-watt amplifier coupled with a 5-inch low frequency woofer, and the M1 Active 620 features a 100-watt amplifier and 6.5-inch low frequency woofer. he M1 Active 520 and 620 are both magnetically shielded.

M1 Active 520 costs $499 per pair and M1 Active 620 costs $599 per pair.

Numark announces the iDJ Mixing Console for iPod portable music players. Featuring large iPod navigation controls, this two-channel mixer provides 3-band EQ with gain control for each channel and a dedicated microphone input with tone and level control. Each channel also provides phono/line inputs for adding additional devices. This feature-packed mixer also provides USB connectivity.

The iDJ will be available Q3 of 2005 at $399.

Miroslav Philharmonik orchestra and choir sound workstation will start shipping in August. Miroslav Philharmonik is an integrated Orchestral Workstation plug-in combining 7GB of samples and over 1,200 sounds of the legendary Miroslav Vitous Orchestra and Choir sample collection masterpieces with dedicated, plug-in instrument.

Miroslav Philharmonik will have an introductory price of €419/$499. After the introductory price period is over, the price will be €499/$599 for the full version and €329/$399 for the cross-grade.

IK Multimedia announces that AmpliTube UNO, guitar amp and FX software, is now available as a free download from the IK Multimedia product website. AmpliTube UNO is a stand-alone single amp application using the same technology derived from the full version of AmpliTube.

At NAMM, Roland introduces the new SP-404 sampler. Built on the SP-303 sampler, the new SP-404 offers more features, more voices, more pads, and more memory. It features battery-power compatibility, a CompactFlash slot, and a built-in microphone. The SP-404's onboard pattern sequencer allows up to 8,000 notes to be recorded. Up to 24 patterns, each 1--99 measures long, can be stored in the internal memory simultaneously.

Antares announces AVOX, an interesting new vocal processor. Antares has combined five vocal processing modules : THROAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer, CHOIR Vocal Multiplier, PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer, DUO Vocal Modeling Auto-Doubler and SYBIL Variable Frequency De-Esser.

AVOX will be available this fall in RTAS, VST and Audio Units versions.

That's a good news if you're a M-Audio hardware user. Divers for Ozone, MobilePre USB, Omnistudio USB, Quattro USB and Sonica Theater audio interfaces are now compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

These updates are free and are available in the MacMusic Software section.

At Summer NAMM, Tascam debuts DP-01FX/CD digital portastudio. This new portastudio features a built-in CD burner for under. Based on the best-selling DP-01 and DP-01FX, the new DP-01FX/CD makes CD recording simple. Like the DP-01FX, it features eight tracks, two XLR inputs with phantom power, a pair of digital effects processors, eight 45mm Faders plus a dedicated Master fader, S/PDIF Digital Optical output, USB 2.0 port for computer backup and a simple-to-use interface. It also adds a Built-in 40GB hard drive

The Tascam DP-01FX/CD ships at $799.

Digidesign has updated its Pro-Tools M-Powered, which now adds Mac OS X 10.4 "aka Tiger" compatibility. Qualification of Pro Tools M-Powered software on Mac OS X 10.4.x has taken much longer than anticipated due to unforeseen technical issues. Please note that this new 6.8r2 version is not "bug free". The fully qualified version of Pro Tools M-Powered is anticipated for release within a few weeks

Today is a very special day for all musicians. The summer NAMM '05 has just started in Indianapolis, USA. With around 500 exhibitors and lots of events, this fair is going to last three days. As usual, the whole MacMusic team and myself are on the alert to keep you up-to-date. You can read about the NAMM either in this special report or in the daily news section.

Audiofile Engineering presents a beta version of Wave editor. This audio editing software features : direct editing of AIFF, WAVE, Sound Designer, ACID, Apple Loop, and µLaw audio files, Partial support for Recycle (REX, RX2 and RCY) files, Supports any sample rate or bit depth, Supports any number of channels, Supports interleaved and split channel files, Imports and exports MP3, AAC, AC-3 and other CoreAudio-supported files, and more.

Antares announces a new version 4.2.9 for Auto Tune, which is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This update is available in VST, AU, MAS, RTAS and TDM versions. Auto-Tune is a pitch correcting plug-in.

Digidesign announces an update to version 6.9.2cs2 for both Pro Tools TDM and LE softwares. This update fixes : CoreAudio Did Not Function Properly With Many Third Party Applications (Item #63500 : QuickTime, Jam, Safari, iMovie and other applications were affected) and QuickTime Picture Was Sluggish When Using CoreAudio Drivers (Item #63831 : QuickTime picture could stutter, and slow down when outputting audio via the Digidesign CoreAudio driver). The TDM version updater also fixes a disk activity bug : disk activity was too high during record passes, and could result in -9073 errors.

MacMusic announced new Moog analog delay in this news, but it's official now. MoogMusic will debut at summer NAMM the new MF-104Z Analog Delay, an all-analog delay processor designed for floor, table-top, or rack mount use and with delay times as short as 50 milliseconds to as long as 1000 milliseconds. Like all Moogerfoogers, the MF-104Z has the user flexibility built-in to all Moogerfoogers.

The MF-104Z will sell for $729 and will be available in limited supply in September.

The PowerMac G5 monoprocessor 1.8 GHz does no longer exist. After it was withdrawn from the American Apple Store, it is now discreetly disappearing from the European Apple Stores. Since its release, the G5 mono 1.8 has visibly suffered from various problems (uncertain sleep mode and shut down, unstable FireWire ports, major problems with Tiger) that touch on a design and production defect rather than a software problem, vaguely brought up by Apple. The total absence of communication from Cupertino on these problems, the endless wait for a potential update of the firmware, and finally its withdrawal from sale after just 9 months can't put our minds at rest, both on this machine and the design and production quality of current Apple products.

If some people considered this machine was an iMac G5 "dressed up" as a PowerMac, for many others it looked like a very attractive choice because of its price, its proper performances and its "tour" architecture. Today in the Apple catalogue there is no PowerMac under $2000. And I personally think it is a serious mistake...

Eventide announced today a $200 limited-time rebate for the Anthology bundle. The rebate, which runs from July 1 through September 30, 2005, gives any Eventide plug-in or Digidesign MassivePack owner, cash back on the bundle. Included in the Anthology bundle are H3000 Band Delays and new H3000 Factory plug-ins. Are also included : five plug-ins from Clockworks Legacy (H910, H949, Omnipressor, Instant Phaser, Instant Flanger) and two plug-ins taken from Eventide's processor Orville.

To claim the rebate, you must be a registered Pro Tools HD owner, have purchased any Digidesign MassivePack or any other Eventide plug-in, and have purchased the Eventide Anthology bundle from an authorized Eventide dealer between July 1 and September 30, 2005.

The whole web is talking about it as if it were this week's event, and I'm snowed under messages asking me to announce the news which is not exactly a recent one. So this leads me to remind you that MacMusic announced last June 20 that the Live 5 Beta version is available. Almost a month later, this beta version is, of course, still available and downloadable.

Ableton is waiting for your bugs reports and other comments.

Native Instruments had updated Kontakt to version 2.0.2. This new release adds a lot of enhancements and bugfixes : output configuration can now be changed and saved in hosts, big browser fonts, output config dialog now allows easy switching between channels, hanging notes problem has been fixed, library issues with incorrect glide default value have been fixed, library issues with loading in non-DFD modes have been fixed, issues with high CPU load have been fixed, issues with start-up crashes have been fixed, and more....

This update is free for Kontakt users.

Today JazzMutant announces that the Multitouch Control Surface Lemur is finally out of the factory and available worldwilde. The Lemur is a sleek portable controller for live performance computer music applications featuring a 12" LCD display and a proprietary touch screen interface that can simultaneously track multiple fingers. The Lemur's interface objects can be customized with JazzMutant's "physical" properties that include friction, smoothing, and fade-in and fade-out.

The street price is 2190 euros and available for European citizens directly from JazzMutant web site. For American and Canadian citizens, they must order their Lemur at $2495 directly to Cycling'74.