It's Macworld time again, so you know what that means -- an even bigger show for Mac music, the NAMM, is looming just around the corner. And this is going to be a NAMM of "Blasts from the Past" -- long awaited apps arriving on OS X. First up: Propellerheads' legendary (and still unequaled) app for chopping up beats for tempo warping, ReCycle. ReCycle should be a great companion to Reason on OS X, for newcomers who haven't discovered this software. Check the site below if you're already a user to join the public beta and get ready for more from NAMM. Also promised is a "Reason Education Pack" (I'll let you know what that is), and some "surprises." We'll be watching.

Oxford Semiconductor will announce a dedicated FireWire audio controller at Macworld Expo 2004, the company announced today.

The new Integrated Circuit (IC) will be launched and demonstrated at the show. It is compatible with FireWire400 and FireWire 800 connections and offers eight digital audio output channels.

The product (the OXFW970) can be used to build high-quality surround-sound systems for Macs and PCs. It uses the bandwidth and quality-of-service attributes of FireWire to overcome the limitations of USB multi-channel audio solutions and removes the need for PCI-based soundcards.

The company says its FireWire audio controller can receive and process 32-bit audio data sampled at up to 48kHz at a streaming speed of up to 100MB/sec. FireWire's power-carrying capability also means that the speaker configuration does not require the use of external power supplies.

Evolution/M-Audio is looking for Beta testers for an application allowing users of their latest generation of hardware (MK-425C, MK-449C, MK-461C, UC-33e, X-Session) to configure all the memories/presets of their device, directly from the mac (OS X) by using drag&drop from a "library" of well known plugins and application settings.

Our friend Mark Coniglio writes us: "I am in the process of developing an OMS Emulator that allows applications running in Classic to communicate with CoreMidi devices. So, if you have that a legacy app you know isn't going to get ported to OS X, and you'd like to be a beta tester, please contact me." Sounds fascinating, especially since there are some apps that will never be fully ported to OS X. Keep us posted!

A new driver for the FW-1884 interface is downloadable on the Tascam Site. This version includes :
- Panther Compatibility
- Firmware update
- More control with the FE-8