Domz has translated an article from french, about the basic knowledges of instrumentation, the sound balance, and building an orchestral kit with the Mac.

A new update available for Spark XL 2.7 (audio editor software by TC Works). The new features are :
- Ressources optimisation with Mac OS X
- Enhanced Audio performances and better compatibility with ibooks and powerbooks

With SPARK LE PLUS :
- Enhanced burning CD features
- Encoding MP3 with Frauenhofer technology
- Compatbility with QuickTime6

With SPARK XL :
- MEGABITMAX® Word Length Reduction System(advanced Noise shaping)
- Encoding MP3 with Mac OS X
- Highly improvements of the recording possibilities (auto région, auto take..)

Spark XL 2.7 available at the price of ? 499

And for the update with a previous version :
Spark XL 1.x : 149 EUR
Spark XL 2.0 et 2.5: 99 EUR
Spark XL 2.6: Gratuit (téléchargement)

D-Mute already purveyors of the free D-Comp just released the HuiDrum module for the Scope Fusion platfrom from Creamware. HUIdrums is a virtual drum machine with the 808 or 909 in mind (oh original!), 808 and 909 which are 2 of the three modes available, these two ones are self explanatory. the third mode Custom is to, well… customize it: import your own samples, full control on each sound.
Among the features you have: 11 drum slots, real time edition, tempo delay, Old Sound mode to get retro, a drumkit library, 3 skins, all parameters under MIDI control, each drum can get a different effect level, a master effect, import wav, AIFF or Akai up to 24bit/96kHz.

A demo is available on the website and you can also buy it there for 70€

TC Applied Technologies launch a chipset for Firewire with audio in mind. In fact it covers all standard pro audio formats and Firewire. This will bring us cool interfaces soon.
Some of the main features of the Dice II include:

• A total of 96 FireWire audio channels at 96kHz Sample Rate.
• Two Sample Rate domains each featuring an on-chip PLL.
• AES receiver/transmitter handling 8 channels in each direction.
• ADAT receiver/transmitter with S-MUX support for 96kHz.
• Glueless connection of AD/DA converters (more than 16 channels in each direction).
• Glueless connection of a high number of commodity DSP processors.
• ARM 32 bit RISC processor.
• IEEE 1394 Link Layer Controller.

Wave Arts has expanded its line of pro audio plug-ins to MOTU?s MAS platform, adding support for musicians and engineers who use Digital Performer and AudioDesk.

The newest batch of MAS plug-ins include: the powerful yet CPU-efficient MasterVerb reverb; the all-in-one TrackPlug channel strip plug-in with a compressor, gate and a 64-bit 10-band EQ; and the WaveSurround Pro spatial enhancer/wide reverb plug-in.

In addition to MAS support, Wave Arts has also made significant improvements to its Mac-based graphics engine ? its Mac VST and MAS plug-ins now offer smooth and fast graphics controls, with vastly improved GUI refresh rates.

Free 30-day demo downloads of MasterVerb, TrackPlug and WaveSurround Pro for MAS, as well as VST , are available in the section software of MacMusic.