At the NAMM 04, Tascam announced the release (expected April) of the US2400, a 24 track DAW controler. The US2400 should allow 192 channels and will be equipped with 25 touch-sensitive moving channel faders, 24 encoders (control pan, aux level or channel strip functions like EQ & Aux) and a joystick for the surround control.

The US2400 is compatible with Mac OS X and should list for about US$2000.

Universal Audio has announced that the new UAD-1 Studio Pak is now available. The pack now includes the UAD-1 PCI DSP card and a collection of 20 Universal Audio plug-ins including: the 1176LN/SE and Teletronix LA-2A vintage compressors, the Pultec EQP-1A, RealVerb Pro, Cambridge EQ, Dreamverb, Nigel guitar processor, Fairchild 670 compressor and the CS-1 Channel Strip. The CS-1 itself includes a collection of plug-ins developed specifically for the UAD-1, including EQ, compression, delay modulation, and reflection engine modules.

The UAD-1 Studio Pak supports VST, AU & MAS plug-in formats and is now available for a MSRP of US$1199.

Apple left out standard MIDI file import from Garage Band, but a new app, Dent du MIDI, fills the gap. Current version is 0.1, and lets you drag-and-drop files to convert. Let us know if it's working for you -- hit the comments link.

This NAMM was undoubtedly the NAMM of Mac OS X. While there are certainly some Mac users who happily run along in OS 9, it's clear that OS X is the mainstream standard for the majority of music users and, thankfully, without the tradeoffs that OS X used to require. Native Instrument's entire product line now is on OS X, with full support for Core Audio, Core MIDI, and Audio Units, and the company has announced it will only support OS X in future versions (with ongoing customer support for its OS 9 products). One detail that has gone mostly unmentioned in the Mac press is that Native isn't just making this decision for Mac users: it's also going Windows XP-only on the PC side, where users face a confusing array of OS versions with widely varying support for music. So both platforms are havi ...

Abstract: There isn't much information available, since they don't even have an ETA yet, but the rumor is that it will be more affordable than other firewire interfaces. Basically, the specs look like a better done M-Audio 410. The determining factor will be the drivers (as usual). Ed: Well, quality seems an issue, too, and I prefer the fidelity of the M-Audio eqipment to Edirol, but read on!