As a happy owner of the new Digidesign Mbox2 Audio and MIDI interface, I am very happy to publish in our 'Articles' section a short article, not really a review or a benchtest, but nothing more than my very first impressions after using the Mbox2 for two weeks.

Good reading !

Kyma is now available as version x.32 Universal Binary for both Intel-based and PowerPC-base Macs. This UB version runs 3.3 times faster on a MacBook Pro than on the Powerbook G4 1 Ghz. Kyma is a visual sound design environment that runs on your Macintosh. It's a graphical language for creating, modifying, and combining sounds. Kyma is an unusually open-ended, flexible, and real-time controllable environment for creating new sounds. Kyma provides you with hundreds of basic modules and over a thousand complex examples that you can combine to create your own synthesis algorithms, your own effects algorithms, and your own forms of sample manipulation that can be performed in real time with responsive controls.

This update is free for registered users.

Ableton today announced the release of Live 5.2, which delivers immediate native Intel-based Mac computer support. Intel-based Mac Live 5.0 users can purchase a Live 5.2 serial number for 49 USD/39 EUR via the Ableton webshop. Customers who purchase the upgrade to Live 6 from the Ableton webshop will receive a full refund of this 49 USD/39 EUR. Live 6 is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2006. Intel-based Mac users who purchased Live 5 after Steve Jobs' announcement of the new Intel-based Macs (January 10, 2006) will receive the Live 5.2 download at no additional charge.

For all other Live 5 users on non-Intel-based Mac machines, Live 5.2 will be released as a free bug-fix update.

Cakewalk releases version 1.2 update for Dimension Pro. This update adds Intel-based Mac support (for the AU version), RTAS support, performance enhancements and bug fixes. This synthesizer combines real instruments with advanced synthesis, giving you endless sound possibilities. Dimension Pro offers an abundance of vital, usable sounds that range from pristine realistic acoustic instruments, thumping basses and cutting leads, to complex, evolving atmospheres. This wide tonal range can be attributed to both advanced sample mapping and a powerful sound-sculpting engine with analog sound generation that lets you mutate and recompose any sound you might imagine.

Waves announces new expanded versions of its Gold, Platinum and Diamond bundles of plug-ins. Waves has added 4 new plug-ins to the Gold Bundle including the Tune LT pitch-transformation tool, the IR-L Convolution Reverb, a mono/stereo Doubler effect and the Rennaissance Axx compressor. in addition to these 4 plug-ins, Waves has also added the L3 Ultramaximizer multi-band auto-summing limiter as one of the 32 plug-ins comprising the Platinum Bundle. The Waves Diamond Bundle now includes 41 definitive plug-ins and now includes the complete Platinum, Transform and Restoration bundles, as well as newly added plug-ins including Tune LT, IR-L Convolution Reverb, Renaissance Axx, L3 Multimaximizer, and the Q-Clone processor.