MacMusic is back on with Inside Mac Radio's Scott Shepard (pictured at right) with a special extended interview on the latest in Mac music technology. Scott and I got to chat about the drama between Apple and Real over opening up the iPod's digital rights management, specifically in terms of how it affects musicians, and we took a look back at all the new technology to come out of Musikmesse, with the coolest gear and software and what it means for Mac musicians. As usual, you can download the show to your iPod or other music player and listen wherever you want.

This spring has been one mega-show after another full of announcements. On the heals of Musikmesse, on the eve of NAB, the MacMusic team offers our look at all that's new in Mac gear and goodies.

Musikmesse, Frankfurt. Native Instruments wins the prize for all-around cool factor, with new stuff for guitarists and keyboardists. Don't miss Native's special NAMM page. IK Multimedia's StudioPhonik could be a big hit, like a pro version of GarageBand's soft instruments. Prosoniq's Orange Vocoder 3 is terrific Mac-only software.

Musikmesse MacMusic Picks. Clouvel's pick: Clouvel gives a nod to the upcoming OS X editor for the Nord Modular G2X. Peter's pick: My pick from the show has to be the Guitar Rig from Native. Makes me wish I could play the guitar. Best photos and news roundups: Synthesizers.de for lots of analog-inspired gear, the colorful SuperBooth by Scheideri (German only), and the venerable PR roundup and videos in Harmony Central's special report.

NAB, Las Vegas. All this week, photos and news from "Sin City" and last week's broadcasters' show, part of joint coverage with OSXFAQ/Inside Mac Radio with Scott Shepard. Numbers are in, and attendance reached nearly 100,000! We'll look at the latest media announcements from Apple and Digidesign. Scott sent us great photos from the show plus audio interviews: a DV special and pro audio special featuring Digidesign.

MakeMusic has released its 2004b update to Finale 2004 for OS X. Most significantly, the release adds Mac OS 9 support. There are numerous bugfixes in the new release, including improvements to the articulation tool, edit commands, expression tool, lyrics, mass edit tool, measure tool, interapplication MIDI, MIDI pan, saving audio files and opening and saving MIDI and Finale files, playback, plug-ins and FinaleScript, printing, setup, entry, and many other tools. The release also adds a fix to a performance glitch with creating TIFF graphics, adds support for OS X patch list names, and fixes a crash with the Search and Replace function. However, there's still no support for EPS export or PostScript listings "because of limitations in OS X." That's a confusing claim, since both features are supported in Finale's competitor, Sibelius. There's also nothing to address ongoing performance complaints. Despite these factors, though, this is clearly a must-have download. MakeMusic has a PDF file with all the changes.

Soundcraft introduces its new concept of a powered mixer: the GigRac. Presented as a compact case and designed for easy carrying, the GigRac offers 8 inputs: 4 mono inputs on combo (XLR/Jack) connectors, 2 stereo inputs on combo connectors and 2 cinch inputs. A global phantom power is available for the first four mic inputs. Each channel features both low and high freq. EQ pots, a send level assigned to the internal effect, a volume pot to an auxiliary output and a volume pot to the main mix output. A graphic 7-bands EQ (BSS designed) as well as a digital multi-effect (8 programs) can be assigned either to the main mix or to the auxiliary output.

The GigRac is distributed in France by Audio SCV.

Get ready for this love triangle, folks. Based on a memo leaked to The New York Times, RealNetworks is looking for an alliance with Apple against Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Here's the interesting part: Real offers an ultimatum -- work with us, or we turn to Microsoft. What's that? Real is a major component of the European Commission's anti-monopoly case against Microsoft, so a strategic alliance with Microsoft could undermine the case. And some outlets are talking more than just an "alliance", saying Real may actually switch to Windows Media format. (If that doesn't send a chill down your spine, nothing will.) Why the switch in philosophy? Real, in ongoing confusion about what their business model is, appears to be moving to content as its primary revenue stream, instead of the Real audio format.