Native Instruments has just posted a much needed free update for Battery. The details (from NI) are as follows:

Problems fixed:
- Interference between tracks in Logic
- High CPU load
- Crash while dragging
- Missing notes

Known issues:
- RTAS/OSX : After choosing a new kit in the open dialog the kit cannot be opened with the open button, without prior selection of a sample folder. Open kits using double click.
- BATTERY is likely to crash if you close the plug-in battery window while BATTERY is loading a kit.
- The OSX version of BATTERY will not load kits that contain umlauts or special characters (ascii table above 128).
- Sometimes there is a GUI offset in LOGIC.
- Under RTAS OSX it is not possible to enter values for controls manually by keyboard.

It remains to be seen whether this update will fix the GUI problems involving Battery and Digital Performer under OSX. Native Instruments also note that they expect more bug fixes to come in the next update but give no exact date.

Native Instruments annouced that a new update for the Pro-53 is available and now compatible for Mac OS X and RTAS. The Pro-53, a virtual synth based on the legendary Prophet 5 synth, now fully supports the modern technologies and interfaces of OS X, including AudioUnits, RTAS, VST, and standalone operation with CoreMIDI and CoreAudio.

The Pro-53 update is immediately available to all registered users as a
$29 direct download. An update on CD is also available for $49. Customers who bought their Pro-53 after August 15th, 2003 can download the update for free or receive an update CD for a discounted price of $19.

KavaSoft has announced iTunes Catalog 1.5 for Mac OS X. iTunes Catalog creates web catalogs of your iTunes music library, displays the cover artwork for each album, and copies album artwork into iTunes.

iTunes Catalog 1.5 now creates catalogs with separate pages for each letter of the alphabet, or genre of music. This feature makes it easier to browse very large catalogs, even with tens of thousands of songs.

iTunes Catalog 1.5 now comes with dozens of built-in links to music websites, so you can link your catalogs directly to All Music Guide, CDDB, Daily Tunes, MTV, Rolling Stone, and many more. You can also create custom links to your own favorite websites.

iTunes Catalog 1.5 lets you include your Amazon Affiliate ID in your catalogs, so you can earn money from Amazon when peopl ...

ModernBeats.com has expanded its downloadable library of HipHop soundware with a new ethnic percussion collection titled "Ethnic HipHop 2 - Tha Percussion". The collection is sold as a multi-format product for all major software samplers. Native formats inlcude HALion, EXS24, Kontakt, Battery, Reason's NN-XT, SF2, and .Wav. Like all ModernBeats' soundware, the ethnic collection is available for instant download or can be shipped on a ModernBeats multi-format CD-ROM.

This multi-format collection contains over 500 ethnic percussion samples from 21 high-quality percussion instruments: Agogo Bell, Berimbau, Cabasa, Cajon, Chaker, Chime, Congas, Cowbell Clave, Djembe, Doumbek, Gankogui, Guiro, NuBellTree, Pandeiro, Rainstick, SleighBell, TalkingDrum, Timbale, Tombek, Triangle, and the Udu. T ...

The press release from Lexicon reports the shipping of the Omega Desktop Studio. This device is a mixer USB interface and comes with software for both Mac and PC.

From the web site "The Omega I/O mixer provides 8 inputs which are assignable in pairs to any of 4 simultaneous record channels featuring ultra-transparent, high-resolution analog to digital converters to capture your performance with pristine 24-bit quality. Two of the inputs feature extremely low-noise dbx mic-preamps with 48-volt phantom power and TRS insert points."

It also has midi connections and just might make a nice addition to the growing list of products users are looking at to make their final choices in the USB in market.

Street price is around $350.00.