At Frankfurt Steinberg announces a new symphonic VST instrument and library: HALion Symphonic Orchestra. A 27GB library, integrated easy-to-use player, RealAmbience adjustable recorded reverb and range of playability features combine to form a new orchestral composition and production tool. Played by a leading European orchestra, the expansive 27GB HSO library encompasses a vast array of articulations for strings, woodwind, brass and percussion including crescendo, decrescendo, accents, half and whole tone thrills, bowing (where applicable), portamento, pizzicato, expressivo and many more. 1250 programs offer solo, ensemble and tutti sounds for almost every instrument, with innovatively programmed facilities like key-switches and crossfades providing easy use of complex sample groups.

Supporting VST, DXi, AU as well as ReWire for easy integration into Pro Tools, HALion Symphonic Orchestra also offers a stand-alone mode. it will be available n Q2 2006 for €499.00.

Frontier Design Group announced the availability of Universal Binary drivers for its Tranzport controller. it is now in version 1.20 and will work on PPC and Intel mac (OS X 10.3.9 or better). Note that this driver is also mandatory for use with Logic 7.2

Little Phatty! You had the specs a little while back but to sum up, it's a 2 VCO, 1 VCF, 2 ADSR, 4 waveforms LFO, full analogue path 37 notes keyboard. There's audio I/O, Midi I/O, CV I/O, and a 100 presets memory. It'll run as a 1200 pieces Bob Moog Tribute Edition first with a price tag of $1475. Beware, it's said to have b…s! ;)

Sound samples will be available next week, meanwhile you have to go in Frankfurt to play it.

Almost everyone is familiar with his legendary hits, such as 'Sledgehammer', 'Biko' and 'Big Time', and his videos are considered to be milestones in the history of pop culture: Peter Gabriel, rock musician, songwriter and video artist, will be awarded the 2006 Frankfurt Music Prize during the international Musikmesse. He was singled out for the prize because, with his creative work, his appearances and his support for young talents, he laid a vital foundation stone for the future of rock and pop music.

The Frankfurt Music Prize was founded in 1980 and is awarded annually by the Trustees of the Frankfurt Music Prize Foundation on the occasion of the international Musikmesse in Frankfurt.

At Musikmesse (Hall 5.1, D93) Celemony Software will announce version 3.1 of the audio software Melodyne cre8/studio. The new version runs native on Macs with Intel processors, supports as an option the iLok dongle and is compatible with the new 'Melodyne Sound Library'. In addition, numerous requests from customers have been implemented and improvements in all areas carried out. The upgrade to Version 3.1 will probably be available at the end of April and is free for all registered users of Melodyne cre8/studio.