The Arturia Forum has finally announced a major update of the Storm software for January 2004. According to users in their forums, the update has been anticipated for a long time. The upgrade from version 1.5 to 2.0 is free. Quite a good way to bury the rumor of the death of this software!

Ed: This news is a little old, but if you missed this news like some of us did, better late than never. The new version is a major update with interactive, online collaboration tools, a composition wizard with song templates by genre, new modules including analog-modeling synth Shadow, Vocoder, and Compressor, for a total of 23 instruments and effects, new synthesis and effects algorithms, redesigned screens, and ReWire device and mixer which can even sync two Storm studios, plus unlimited undo and many other enhancements. At EUR/USD 150, with optional academic discount, worth a look. Any devoted users, feel free to write us a review or tips. -Peter Kirn

Getting ready for tonight's upgrade to OS X 10.3 Panther -- or trying to decide whether to upgrade? Here are some tips for would-be upgraders:

Pros and Cons: IDC's Roger Kay complains to the San Francisco Chronicle that Apple's making users upgrade OS X too often. Worthwhile reading just to bring back warm memories of Apple talking about OS upgrades being "like getting a whole new Mac" -- haven't heard that expression in a while. Macworld's Jason Snell defends the OS in the same article. David Pogue in the New York Times has a great overview of why ...

Audio and MIDI functionality was one of the last areas of Mac OS X to fully develop: basic functionality was not available until OS X 10.1, and only with the debut of Jaguar 10.2 last summer was OS X truly ready for music and audio. The good news is, for the many users who have made the leap to Jaguar and have enjoyed this operating system's superior stability and MIDI/audio compatibility thanks to Core MIDI and Core Audio, 10.3 Panther is another step forward.

MOTU's press release minutes ago has revealed some details about improvements to Apple's underlying audio/MIDI support. Despite Apple's acquisition of rival Emagic, MOTU clearly remains close to the development process at Apple and is actually ahead of Emagic in terms of support for features like audio input names in its flagship ...

MOTU has posted new drivers and software for full compatibility with OS X 10.3 Panther, the Apple OS update shipping today. MOTU has updated drivers for all its FireWire and PCI audio interfaces, including full Panther support plus new features such as custom input and output names (a featured enabled by Panther) and control surface support for CueMix DSP (pictured), the monitor mixing feature in its newest FireWire and PCI audio hardware. DP 4.11 update is available for free download for all registered DP4 users, a required update for full Panther compatibility, which also boasts new features, including a synthesizer expansion card patch name customization utility, and TDM plug-in menus for Pro Tools hardware users with categorized sub-menus. MachFive is already Panther compatible and needs no upgrade. Unrelated to Panther: MOTU has a new USB MIDI driver, 1.2.1, for all users of Mac OS X 10.2 and later with performance improvements for FastLane users.