Motu unveiled Digital Performer 5, a major upgrade that includes six new virtual instrument plug-ins, track folders, a flexible Meter Bridge feature, new audio editing tools, a multitude of new film scoring features, new input monitoring modes, clip-based volume automation and many other feature additions and enhancements. DP5 includes six new, easy to use, CPU-efficient virtual instrument plug-ins (BassLine, PolySynth, Modulo, Nanosynth, Model 12, and Proton). In all windows that display tracks, such as the Sequence Editor, users can now organize their lengthy track lists into folders and sub-folders, much like the list view in the Mac OS X Finder. The Meter Bridge is a new window that is dedicated to monitoring all signal paths in the Digital Performer mixing environment. The tool bar now contains four new audio editing tools: Trim, Slip, Slide and Roll.

Digital Performer 5 will ship in Q1, 2006 for $795. Existing registered DP users will be offered an upgrade path.

Mopis is a new virtual synthesizer in VST format, soon to become AU too. It is both a virtual analogue with the usual tricks (filters and so on) and a resynthesizer, that is a mean to analyze a sample and create an oscillator based on the properties of the sample. It is not a sample player as you'll see the result can be very different. Here are some of the tricks it does:

- Adjust the pitch of a sample without changing its speed or getting the "chipmunk effect"
- Adjust the speed without changing the pitch
- Move freely back and forth through a sample Loop samples quickly

Source-Elements, makers of Source-Connect, have announced the release of a brand new plug-in called Source-Live. Source-Live enables users to stream the output of their Pro Tools mix to multiple listeners simultaneously. Pro Tools users simply e-mail listeners a Live-link and the listeners, utilizing common media player software such as Quicktime, immediately connect to the stream in real time from anywhere in the world. Utilizing the most current AAC/mp4 algorithms, Source-Live provides listeners with true 24 bit audio quality. Real-time 'listener management' and password protection within the plug-in allows users to control of who's listening in on the session. Source-Live can also be used to stream live events to a streaming server for true internet radio capabilities.

Source-Live is compatible with Pro Tools 7 and is slated for release on January 23, 2006 at a price of $395.

Motu debuted the Motu Ethnic Instrument, a cross-platform virtual instrument that gives users quick and easy access to an 8GB library of world/ethnic instruments, loops and phrases. With 4GB of expressive ethnic instrument sounds combined with another 4GB of authentic world music loops and phrases, Ethno Instrument delivers all of the exotic textures needed to take recordings to the four corners of the globe. Ethno Instrument can be used on the Mac as a plug-in with any compatible host application (VST, MAS, Audio Units and RTAS) or as a stand-alone application where users can load up to 64 different instruments per instance (triggered independently via 64 MIDI channels) to create ensembles of any size and scope, sub-mixed to as many as 17 independent stereo outputs.

The MOTU Ethno Instrument will ship in Q1, 2006 for a list price of $295.

We all know the DM5, that 1U rack full of drums from Alesis. Now it can be sold as the Electronic Drum Kit, which is a DM5 and all that is necessary to bang the drums : 5 playing pad, 2 motions cymbals, kick pedal, the tube structure and the cables. So Alesis proposes at last the DM5 as a complete practice solution or as a mean to capture drum parts. an entry level solution for the ones without a Ddrum?

Price and availability TBA.