Apple released an online seminar "Making Music on the Mac using Garageband". Tune in to this free online seminar and learn how to transform your Mac into a musical instrument and record new and inspiring masterpieces. Who knows? This seminar may take you from musical inspiration to 50,000 screaming fans.

This free seminar requires online registration on the Apple web site.

Finale 2006c is a free, downloadable maintenance update available to registered Finale 2006 users. It includes improved conversion of lyric baselines in older cross-platform files. Finale is a music notation program giving a control over every aspect of the printed page while providing control over MIDI input and output.

This updated version is available in the MacMusic software section.

Waves announced its new noise reduction plugin, Z-Noise 1.0, available in VST-AU-RTAS formats. Z-Noise features an exclusive Extract mode which can create a noise profile from sources that contain signal, as well as a flexible Adaptive mode. This innovative dynamic noise profiling delivers unparalleled results when reducing noise that changes over time. Z-Noise gives you the power to shape your noise profile with pinpoint accuracy, using a familiar 5-band EQ interface. Real-time operation means you can fine tune parameters and hear your changes as you make them.

Z-Noise Native by Waves costs $800, and a demo version is available.

Glaresoft released a new cersion 1.0.6 for iDrum. This new release is a bufix version and addresses several problems : crashes with Pro Tools 7, crashes when scrolling through kits, some crashes with Live 4 and Live 5...iDrum is a virtual drum machine. It comes with hundreds of dope drum samples arranged into hundreds of iDrum files, each with several preset patterns programmed by some of the best beatmeisters working today. But these beats are just the beginning -- since you can mix and match parts and samples between kits, and even load your own AIFF and WAV drum samples, the possibilities for beat creation are virtually endless.

Mdsp and SmartElectronix announce the release of VST reverb MdspDuckVerb. The reverb output is compressed when there is a certain amount of signal present on its input. It allows to use a lot of wet signal on a voice without loosing too much intelligibility. They also ported MdspFlanger VST and MdspDuckDelay VST to Mac OS X. At last SmartElectronix has updated MdspCompressor and MdspDuckDelay. These two versions both feature new user interface.