Steinberg Announces Studio Case : a suite of virtual instruments combined with legendary Cubase technology to form a powerful and complete music production software package - all in one box at one low price. Features Cubase SE, compatible with Cubase SL, SX and Nuendo, works on Mac OSX and 5 VST instruments : Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition, Groove Agent Virtual Drummer, The Grand Piano, D'cota Synthesizer, HALion Sampler.
Studio Case is available in August 2003 for EUR 279.99.

I took the wheel (for some hours) of the last Panther Beta on Mac OS 10.3 and took the opportunity to install DP4.01, being warned about the random reactions of a beta system. Panther on the HD of a venerable Pismo Powerbook G3/400, it's like a tiger in the motor of the old John Steed's Bentley! I was surprised... very pleasantly : menus are faster than on OS 9, the buffer size can be reduced more than before, the "Windows" menu correctly display all the opened windows names (it was not the case for Jaguar) et Exposed is very efficient on a lot of opened windows. In a word, DP4 is much faster on the Beta 10.3 with small configurations like G3. Hope that it will last :-)

Ableton offers a special deal for the ProTools users who want to download the 2.1 version of Live. It will cost you 239 euros for the download version and 20 euros more for the hard copy on CD. The offer expires at the end of September 2003. For those tempted, you need your ProTools serial number, bank card and:

The Mackie Control will soon be compatible with Logic and Logic will be compatible with the Mackie Control protocol and both will work with Nuendo, Cubase SX, Sonar, Digital Performer, Cool Edit.

The upgrade will be made very simply via a combination of keys and a MIDI file freely downloadable on the Mackie web site. The next shipped Mackie Controls will integrate this 2 modes (Mackie and Logic). Notice that a HUI emulation can be added on the 2 surfaces for 99 USD.

Seems that Mackie and Emagic are once more the best of friends.

Apogee Electronics Corporation announced that the Rosetta 800, 8-channel A/D-D/A converter, is now available worldwide.

The ROSETTA 800 :
- 8 channels of premium 24-bit AD/DA conversion
- Sample rates up to 96k with optional 192k upgrade
- 8 channels of AES, ADAT I/O
- Optional Firewire card for compatibility with OS X (no driver required)
- "Soft Limit" for maximum digital input level without overs
- "UV22HR" for superior dither of 24 bit resolution down to 16-bit
- Unique channel selection for flexible signal routing
- Advanced, dual-stage "Intelliclock"

Pricing: 96 kHz version $2995
192 kHz version $3995