We may be spoiling your day with the news that has been spoiling ours for quite some time : MacMusic will most probably not be able to continue anymore. Attempts to finance it through advertisements have failed and plans are to close the site in February.

Native Instruments has released a new set of presets for Absynth, the company's software synthesizer for Macintosh and Windows. The new collection, Absynth Sounds Vol. 1, includes 256 new presets.

A complete string orchestra for VST 2.0 and DXi hosts, Steinberg's new release includes 5 GigaBytes of sample data covering multiple playing styles, like legato, tremolo, pizzicato or spiccato, with a natural room ambience.

HALion String Edition Vol.1 is expected to be available now in specialist shops at a recommended price of $399/Euro 399.

New from IK Multimedia are AXE' and Trance Grid, two new highly focussed loop sound libraries for the company's SampleTank software sound module. These new sound libraries range from ethnic music to the hardest modern trance. They both offer flexible groove creation via a construction kit format, including single sounds and also recycled loops with associated MIDI files.

Rob Papen and LinPlug announce the release of their RP VSTi Synthesizer Albino. It is the result of a unique collaboration between famed Dutch sound designer Rob Papen and LinPlug. The synth is especially designed for Rob Papen and comes with a cutting-edge selection of 550 professional-quality fresh presets.
The Albino is a fully professional, thirty-two note-polyphonic synthesizer and features a modular design that includes three types of oscillator, two types of stereo filter, two types of envelope, four LFOs, an eight-by-eight Modulation Matrix and two separate stereo effects units each containing six different effects processors.