Spain's Minister for Arts, Carmen Calvo, has announced an upcoming drop down of the "TVA" tax on commercial CDs from 16% to 4%. In addition to the tax, Spain will launch a program to fund musical production, with both measures intended to support artistic culture in the country. No more excuses for the French government, no?

Ed: While Americans complain about the prohibitive cost of CDs, they may be surprised when visitors from Europe stock up on enormous stacks of music from our record stores: CD purchase prices are dramatically higher overseas. But, to our colleagues abroad, one thing you shouldn't envy: our public funding for the arts is meager at best, and getting worse. -PK

We talked about Zebra in October but now shipping is imminent: a near-final release was presented at the Musik Messe conference and the commercial release should be available in the next days.

Zebra is a virtual synthetizer plugin that combines subtractive/additive synthesis with a powerful modulation engine. Version 1.5 features infinite variations of synthesizer circuits, four oscillators, four multimode filters, a noise generator, mixing units, delay effects and waveshapers.

A beta version is already available. The AU version for OS X will be listed at US$199 for new users; the update will be free for registered users.

ApulSoft releases apTrigga, a Mac OS X VST Effect plugin that generates a trigger signal from an audio source. This signal is used to trigger mono Samples (AIFF & WAV), which can be dropped directly onto the plugin interface. apTrigga features an extensive filter section to extract specific frequencies from the source material. Velocity and a 4-pole low-pass filter can be modulated by the trigger intensity.

apTrigga can be used to replace recorded drum instruments with sampled drums, to extract rhythm elements from drumloops or to spice up drum mixes with short attack-samples. Due to its zero sample latency apTrigga works great for live drum triggering.

Main Features:
- Triggers mono samples by an audio signal.
- ZERO samples trigger latency.
- Output can be modulated by level and a lowpass filter.
- Drag 'n' drop support for AIFF and WAV sample files.

apTrigga is available for $30 USD

NAB 2004 - Solid State Logic announces a new recording and mixing system, the AWS 900 Analogue Workstation System. The system combines the dual benefits of SuperAnalogue processing and sophisticated digital control to provide a complete solution to the use of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) in professional audio applications.

Solid State Logic mixing systems are the de facto standard in audio production, valued for their unrivalled audio quality and control ergonomics. SSL was the first company to integrate automation and machine control into the mixing console, and it pioneered surround mixing. The new AWS 900 delivers the same powerful integration benefits to DAW users, who face similar challenges with an array of equipment (Mic Amps, Effects, Controllers etc.) to produce professional results from a modern DAW.

Ever want to get a song off your iPod? AudioFinder can now help you with that. New in this release:

Added "Scan iPod" to the Scanner menu. AudioFinder can now find, play and copy sounds off your iPod.
Increased the range of "Show Guides" to 64 measures.
Added an Add ("+") to the Tools Palette.
In the Scanner changed the "Search Within Results" checkbox to a "Refine" button for ease of use.
Improved Scanner display by adding a "Folder" column.
Added "Add Sounds Manually" to the Scanner Menu, along with an Add ("+") to the Scanner to allow manual control over scan contents.
Added ID3 Tag display
Made Preferences, Tools Setup and Organizer Setup panels into sheets.