As usual, Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered users just have to wait ! Digidesign announces that Pro Tools 7 HD Software is today available, and that Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered "wiil be available soon" (yeah but when ?? ). Please note that the "Upgrade Plus option" is available only until December 20, 2005. If you purchased a new Pro Tools|HD system, Pro Tools LE system, or an upgrade to Pro Tools TDM 6.9.x or Pro Tools LE 6.9.x software on or after September 1, 2005, from an authorized dealer, you're automatically eligible for a free update to the corresponding version of Pro Tools 7 software. Registered Pro Tools M-Powered software users are also eligible for a free update. All registered users who are eligible for a free update will be contacted directly by email with a free update offer.

Here's a price list of Pro Tools 7 updates :

Steinberg today announced that Hypersonic 2, the long-awaited update to its Hypersonic music workstation product, will be available in November. Hypersonic 2 has been engineered to run at maximum CPU efficiency, and features a lossless playback engine that provides significant performance advantages. Up to 1024-voice polyphony across a maximum of 32 outputs is available per instance. Hypersonic features 1.7 GB of sounds, and 1800 factory presets.

Hypersonic 2 will be available as standalone version and in VST, AU and ReWire formats. It will cost €389, and an update for current users will be available for €129.

Line 6 announced the release of TonePort, a new line of USB recording and modeling audio interfaces, designed for recording guitar, bass, and vocals. The two new models UX1 and UX2 are now shipping. They are USB-powered and both include Line 6 GearBox modeling software, which provides a collection of guitar and bass amp/cab models, stompbox and studio effects, and models of high-end studio microphone preamps. TonePort UX1 features a microphone input with preamp, a guitar/bass instrument input, stereo line inputs and outputs, and stereo headphone jack. TonePort UX2 adds more features like analog VU meters, a second microphone input and preamp, phantom power for both preamps, stereo digital S/PDIF out, a padded instrument input, dual footswitch jacks assignable to MIDI functions such as start/stop and punch in/out, and independent volume controls for the headphone and main outputs. Both units support 44.1/48KHz with 16/24-bit recording, a 96KHz mode, and drivers for ASIO, WDM, and Core Audio.

TonePort UX1 ($175.00) and UX2 ($269.00) both ship with Ableton Live Lite Line 6 Edition recording software.

Steinberg announced a new update to its Cubase System|4 music production system. Cubase System|4 now includes Cubase SL 3.1 with new features and capabilities as well as a new driver for Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger, ensuring full compatibility with Apple's latest operating system. Cubase System|4 is Steinberg's integrated music production system, featuring MI4, a 4 I/O USB Audio and 16-channel MIDI interface, and Steinberg's Cubase SL sequencer.

As some of you may have marked it, the update of Tiger to 10.4.3 is available. A few important things to know beforehand:
- This is a heavy update, the combo is 105 MB, and the smallest automatic update is "only" 57 MB.
- A lot of things are changed, in particular in Core Audio, so I strongly recommend not to try it on productive computers, let some try it before.
- Prepare your OS before the update, verify all is well (drive, permissions). Repair permissions after too as usual.
- note that the update include previous security updates, as they seem to be a source of problems for some plug-ins, especially in Cubase, beware! (see the forum on this issue).

The exciting other stuff: Safari pass the acidtest, that is, it is the only browser out there fully W3C compliant for CSS. Lots of fixes in Spotlight, syncing, Mail, networking, iChat… Now the Disk Utility can verify the Mac OS X 10.4 startup volume (Yeahhh! at last!)

Also, Apple stated again but this time with a strong warning that Quartz 2D Extreme is still unsupported but this time it leads to kernel panics if enabled, you're warned, it's true!

No news of a iPumpKin Widget though… ;)