Focusrite, owner of Novation, announce that companies had been the victim of a major burglary, on August 15th morning. Missing stock - arround $250,000 - includes classic Reds, ISA and Platinum rack-mount units, Novation X-Station keyboards, and the new Saffire interface. Focusrite is offering a substantial reward for any information (you can contact Focusrite on 01494 836307 in England).

A list of the serial numbers for the stolen units is available on line.

McDSP will announce an upgrade program for those wishing to upgrade their LE plugin versions to full TDM/RTAS plugin versions for $300 - LE versions are $195 and RTAS/TDM versions are $495. McDSP LE plugins line includes FilterBank LE, CompressorBank LE and Chrome Tone LE.

This upgrade program will be available soon on McDSP web site, and recipients must provide a valid iLok account.

Flexatone has updated Athena CL to version 1.4.1. AthenaCL is a modular, object orientated, interactive command-line environment for music analysis and algorithmic composition. Scores are created in Csound as well as standard MIDI files. The software s open-source, cross-platform, and written in Python and XML. This new release adds new parameter objects, new Csound instruments, and several minor changes and bugfixes.

Bob Moog died August 21, 2005 at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71. Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme or GBM) in late April 2005. He had received both radiation treatment and chemotherapy to help combat the disease. He is survived by his wife, Ileana, his five children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog, and Miranda Richmond; and the mother of his children, Shirleigh Moog.

MacMusic pays all its sympathy and support to his family.

Sonic Flavours announces the release of the Mac OS X VST effect version of R66 Reverb. The R66 is a 32-bit stereo digital reverb built for the VST platform. The R66 is a musical reverb based on a new algorithm — not separate plate, hall and room algorithms.

R66 Reverb ships at $149.