Digidesign just posted an update to version 6.7 for its Core Audio manager. This new driver features : fix for large TDM systems where the driver would timeout waiting for the Manager app to auto-launch and fixed a problem where older versions of Avid Xpress DV and Avid Xpress Pro would produce noise out of outputs 5-8.

Native Instruments announced that a demo version of Battery 2 is now available. Battery 2 takes drum sampling to the next level with a powerful new sampling engine, enhanced sound shaping and modulation capabilities, sophisticated
sample control and a revised user interface. The Battery 2 demo version comes with a selection of five drum kits, and is available now as a free download on the NI website.

Both demo and full versions are now available. For more information, please see www.ni-battery.com.

ChucK is a new audio programming language for real-time synthesis, composition, and performance, which runs on commodity operating systems. ChucK presents a new time-based concurrent programming model, which supports multiple, simultaneous, dynamic control rates, and the ability to add, remove, and modify code, on-the-fly, while the program is running, without stopping or restarting.

The 1.1.5.3 version is available in our softs section.

Open Tuning is a MIDI utility for Mac OS X offering to MIDI and MIDI-fied polyphonic instrument players the ability to play and explore an unlimited number of virtual tunings without needing to retune the instrument each time. In this new version, the internal Mac OS X Audio-Unit DLS Soft-Synth can now be chosen as MIDI destination to be played from Open Tuning through a user-friendly interface.

More info and dowload in the MacMusic softwares section.

Project Sam announced that true Strike 1 will be available in January. True Strike 1 is an orchestral percussion sample library which features sampled percussion instruments and will be available in 2 versions. The 51 instrument is a 18 Gb featuring a wide range of percussion instruments, effects and the versatility of three microphone sets. The Sarter Edition features a collection of 41 out of 51 percussion instruments in one microphone set.

The Professional Edition will cost 399$ and the Starter Edition 199$.