Happy boys and girls, the supposedly last update to Panther is out tonight. Time to start up your update in the system preferences. Now some caution is always a good idea… Don't update now till we have some user info, especially if you work during the week end with your beloved mac.

Includes updates to Safari, stickies, the Finder… and the security updates.

Synful has updated their website to confirm that their new orchestral emulation technology is coming to OSX by July 1st.

The system works by way of analyzing your MIDI track for a given orchestral instrument, and choosing from a large internal library of phrases, connective material, slur profiles, articulations, related noise by-products, etc., "splicing" these models together into a performance, then re-synthesizing the actual audible output based on this construction. The resynthesis step makes for a glitch-free performance, without the pops, clicks and "matching" problems associated with playing back spliced samples directly.

The system will work to an extent in real time, but really works to its potential when allowed to "look ahead" (meaning, the track is delayed by 1 full seco ...

Elektron announced today in London the Machinedrum UserWave, an evolution of the beloved Machinedrum. Take a MD with all SPS-1 functions, add: 2048 kb of sampling memory, 12bit dynamic playback engine, 32 ROM machines, 2 RAM realtime machines, Optional Turbo-MIDI interface. Price 1590€ /$1640

Methinks there's going to be some fighting between JoMoX with the new Xbase and Elektron in the heart of the noise makers…

ReFex announces an update to version 2.5 VST for its virtual guitar instrument Slayer. A new 2.5 Audio Units version is also available. This new version features : Damping control, Velocity -> Damping control (great for chunks), 'iq'-Amp has been replaced with a better sounding version, Sound improved, Two new playing-aids added, Reverb-mix reduced a bit, Optional Humanize added for slight pitch/volume variations, All presets redone, added another 64 presets so there are 128 of them now, CPU consumption lowered, and Rack-mode with parameter-readout added.

Info and download in the MacMusic softwares section.

Apple today announced that Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" will go on sale Friday, April 29, beginning at 6:00 p.m. during special events at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Tiger has more than 200 new features and innovations including Spotlight , a desktop search technology that lets users instantly find anything stored on their Mac , including documents, emails, contacts and images; and Dashboard, a new way to instantly access important information like weather forecasts and stock quotes, using a dazzling new class of applications called widgets. Tiger also features native 64-bit application support and an improved CoreAudio. Apple also announces that OS X Tiger Server will be available too at the same day.

Tiger will cost $129.