Korg has released the Triton Extreme, a new version of its flagship workstation. The Extreme is loaded with 160 MB of waveforms, 1344 presets and 1280 combinations. The unit also features 120-note polyphony, double arpeggiator, and 2 USB ports to connect to your computer, or to a hard disk or CD-ROM. Data can be saved on CompactFlash cards or Microdrive. There's even a tube circuit (12AU7 dual-triode) for use in both effects and sampling -- a real breakthrough in this type of keyboard!

Gleetchplug proudly announces that today you can download (free, as usual) Cosmo, a custom-made plugin for Teradélie new music artwork.

Cosmo is a spectral delay + granulizer that works for VST/MAS and RTAS applications. OS 9 only, though OS X versions of all the software are scheduled. It transforms non-ryhthmical signals into huge drones or pads: try it with voices or long transient sounds. On the same page you can also listen to a Cosmo sound sample made by Teradélie herself from her forthcoming CD. Enjoy!

Breakbeat scientist bitshift has created 40 MB of exclusive Apple Loops, available for free download, perfect for GarageBand and Soundtrack. And since Apple Loops are plain AIFFs, of course, you can load them into non-Apple Loops software like Ableton Live and loop them there, too. Best news: if you saw this item a few days ago, just tried the download and thanks to a new server it's downloading nice and fast! Opt-in for their mailing list and you'll get free software instruments, too. Enjoy!

Drums on Demand has released its Vol. 1 loop CD in Apple Loops format for use with GarageBand and Soundtrack. The collection includes nearly 900 live, acoustic drum loops organized into 41 "Song Sets" -- the song-based organization is includes as many as 33 verse, chorus, fill, bridge, break, intro, ending, and other loops, so that you can use the samples to easily build a song structure. Royalty free, with rock, pop, and country styles, 72-170 bmp, 24-bit 44.1Khz; list US$49.95.

In February 2004 the Traktor Final Scratch 1.1 software by Native Instruments will receive an update to version 1.5. This update includes important optimizations for Mac OS X , brings new drivers that have been specially optimized for Mac OS 10.3 "Panther" and Traktor FS 1.5 now offers the high-quality timestretching functionality of TRAKTOR DJ Studio 2.5.

This update will be available in February. For a limited time, it will be offered as a free download to all customers who purchased FS 1.1 after January 1st, 2004. All other customers can get the update as a 49 Euro direct download or an update CD for 79 Euro.