After nearly a year of development reFX has finally released NEXUS, a "next generation" ROM synthesizer plug-in for Windows and Mac OS X in VST and AU formats.

Feature highlights:

* Over 4 Gigabytes of previously unreleased sample material.
* Over 650 presets including all popular genres.
* Expandable: New samples and new presets. Three expansions are available already (with more in production):
o Dance Orchestra: Choirs, strings, brass, timpani, etc. $69.99.
o Dance Vol.1: 128 fresh dance sounds. $69.99.
o House Vol.1: 128 funky house sounds. $69.99.
* Production quality built-in reverb (by ArtsAcoustic).
* Freely programmable arpeggiator.
* Trance-gate.
* Skinnable: Five skins to choose from.

Nexus is available for Mac OS X (Universal Binary) in VST and Audio Unit formats and has an MSRP of $299.99.

Soniccouture have released their very popular KIM sampled instrument in EXS24 format. The Kim is a type of dulcimer or zither from Thailand, and is related to the Chinese yangqin. It is sometimes spelled khim. It consists of a flat soundbox with 42 wire strings stretched across in 14 sets of 3. The courses are struck with two thin bamboo mallets with soft leather tips. The Kim was sampled at 24-bit /44.1 and contains 184 MB - 137 separate unlooped samples. Each note was sampled individually with 4 velocity layers, twice, to give an extremely natural, expressive response.

For more information, visit their web site.

This week [CodeOperator] has a special offer for all their Bundles:

EverythingBundle for MacOS X (PlugAdmin, DelayPack, COModPack) $50 (save $25)
PlugInBundle for MacOS X and Windows (DelayPack, COModPack) $40 (save $20)

You can buy the Bundles using PayPal by clicking the ling below. For more informations about their products please visit the [CodeOperator] products page.

Camel Audio have updated their additive synthesizer, Cameleon 5000. Version 1.7 includes Universal Binary support, bringing the entire family of Camel Audio products to the Intel Mac. The update also provides VST 2.4 compatibility, and includes improved standalone and RTAS performance, as well as minor bug fixes and other improvements. The update is also accompanied by a new bank of 70 presets and a new tutorial.

The new preset bank 'TC Elementals' was designed by Tim Conrardy, one of Cameleon's leading sound designers. The bank contains a wide range of sounds, including basses, guitars, ethnic instruments, distorted and crisp leads, a great acoustic piano and ballad electric piano. The pads range from warm sounds which fit unobtrusively into a mix to extreme 'moving' pads and atmospher ...

Macscoop/MacOSXRumors claims that Apple is finishing development on a 12" MacBook Pro described as "ultra-thin":

"The new laptop should be even thinner and weigh less than the current
models in the MacBook Pro line-up. In spite of this very tiny and lightweight
form-factor, the miniaturized MacBook Pro should keep its built-in optical drive
and sport a dual-core processor, providing unequalled size/performance ratio in
the PC industry, sources told MacScoop."

This "ultra-portable" MacBook Pro is estimated to be priced in the $1700-$1800 range and sport a 12" widescreen display. The introduction of 12" MacBook Pro would fill a gap left by the 12" PowerBook model, which was dropped during the transition to Intel in early 2006.