M-Audio announces that new Oxygen 49 and Oxygen 61 MIDI keyboards will ship soon worldwide. The Oxygen 61 model features 61-note velocity-sensitive keyboard, and the Oxygen 49 is a 49-note velocity-sensitive MIDI keyboard. Both models feature a total of 35 controllers—including 9 sliders, 8 knobs and 15 buttons— can easily map to any MIDI-assignable parameters in your hardware and software rig. While easy to program, the Oxygen's complete MIDI implementation will also allow you to go as deep as you want to go. Store 10 different setups in on-board non-volatile memory, plus manage an infinite number with our free Enigma software for Mac.

Oxygen 49 ships at $229,00 and the Oxygen 61 at $279,00.

Apple invited selected press members to a special event which will take place at Apple's company campus in Cupertino. Several sources report that Apple will unveil new Intel-based Macs (new iBook models and/or new MacBook models), and probably a new iPod with a larger display. Other sources report that Intel is beginning the production of a single core Solo processor, which could find its way into the iBook or Mac mini successors.

Just wait...

An update to the free Impromptu audio-visual environment has been released. Impromptu is an OSX programming environment for composers, sound artists, VJ's and graphic artists with an interest in live or interactive programming in the Scheme (Lisp) langauge. The new version includes a number of new features especially with regard to its graphic capabilities along with stability and performance enhancements.

Full liste of major additions 0.95 and download are available on the Impromptu web site.

Antares announces that Auto-Tune has been updated to version 4.3.9 for Mac OS X in TDM, RTAS, Audio Units, MAS, and VST formats. This new release adds optimizations for Pro Tools 7 (TDM and RTAS version) and fixes some minor bugs. Auto-Tune by Antares is a pitch correcting plug-in working in two modes : The Automatic Mode corrects the pitch of a vocal or solo instrument in real time, and the Graphical Mode displays the performance's detected pitch enveloppe and allows you to draw in the desired pitch using a variety of graphics tools.

Zygoat today announces the immediate availability of Doggiebox 1.3, an update
to its percussion sequencing software for Mac OS X. Version 1.3 introduces some significant features and improvements, including:

- velocity adjustment is now possible,
- a new floating inspector window provides control over time signature and tempo, default velocity, etc, new commands to insert and delete beats.
- changing time signature now preserves a bar's structure,
- zooming is now adjustable for individual bars, and is persistent,
- Playback tempo is now adjustable in real time according to inbound,
- Many other bug fixes and usability enhnacements.

Doggiebox is available at $39. Updates from previous versions are free for all current users and a free evaluation version is available for download.