After drums and strings, a replacement for backing singers? Yamaha will soon release (planned at January 2004 NAMM) Vocaloaid, a VST plug-in designed to synthesize human voices. Planned for PC, but may we hope for a Mac version?

Discovery Sound released The Legend of China, a set of 2 discs, CD-ROM (387 files) and Audio CD (339phrases). It has overwhelming capacity of loops & shots by percussion, stringed and wind instruments plus the phantasmagoric voices by Peking Opera actors and actresses. Moreover, this library includes bonus! CD-ROM includes 36 kinds of the tone data corresponding to a multi-sampling and Audio CD does include 15 kinds of the sound effects which were caught on the street corners in Beijing, Shanghai and wherever in China.

Format: CD-ROM (ACID/WAV/REX 2) & AUDIO CD - Price: US$ 55.00

IK Multimedia has announced that upgrade 2.0.1 R1 of Sampletank is now available. This recommended upgrade fixes multiple instances on multi processor systems (Mac OS9/OSX) and improves some SampleCell instruments conversion .

IK Multimedia has also announced that T-Racks/AudioUnits compatibility will be available at the end of the week, and that Amplitude/AudioUnits compatibility will be available at the end of the month.

More details of Digidesign's products' compatibility with Mac OS 10.3 Panther are now available.

• Phase I (completed): Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel on Power Mac G5 1.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz and Dual 2 GHz models running Mac OS X 10.2.7 and 10.2.8 only: Pro Tools 6.2.r2.1 Update required (download). Note that Unity MediaNetwork and AVoption|XL are not yet supported.

• Phase 2 (previously expected "mid-November", now expected November 21).
A new version of Pro Tools (6.2.2) LE & TDM will be available on free download or on a CD version on the Digistore. There is no pre-order before this date. This version supports ONLY:

- Digi 002, Digi 002 Rack and Mbox
- Power Mac G5 1.6 GHz, 1.8 GHz, and Dual 2.0 GHz models, iMac G4, PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 on Mac OS 10.3.1 only.

...

SFX Machine RT 1.03, a real-time audio effects plug-in. is now available in VST format for Mac OS 8/9/X as well as Audio Unit format for Mac OS X. SFX Machine RT comes with hundreds of presets, including conventional effects like choruses and flangers, and this version 1.03 fixes a number of bugs.

SFX RT 1.03 costs 99 euros and a demo version is available here :