Cakewalk has released the Universal Binary (Audio Units) version of Rapture. Rapture is a wavetable synthesizer designed to produce pop, dance and electronic sounds. Rapture combines an advanced modulation system with an non-aliasing wavetable resampling engine. It features 40 Envelope Generators, LFOs, and Step Generators per patch, and comes with more than 500 programs including Basses, Leads, Pads, Arpeggios, Textures, Electronic Percussion and Sequences.

The UB update is free for registered users. Rapture Universal Binary in VST and RTAS versions will come soon.

Sagan has updated all versions of its Metro to prerelease version 6.3.5.6. These new version fix several bugs and include new features :

- New: Normalize Faders function in the special menu
- New: View plug-ins by manufacturer or category.
- New: Metro will interpret the enclosing folder name of any VST plug-ins as the manufacturer name.
- New: When "manufacturer" is the selected plug-in sort field Metro will sort plug-ins by name if the manufacturer names are equal.
- New: Menu item for inserting a random chord progression.
- New: The Mouse Wheel can now be used for incrementing and decrementing numeric fields.
- New: Metro now receives MIDI data from VST plug-ins that send it.
- New: The jukebox now uses a triangle to indicate the currently playing song.
- New: Humanize and Extract Data have been added to the LX version.

These new versions are of course available in the MacMusic Software section.

WaveArts announces the release of PowerSuite version 5.20. TrackPlug now includes a real time spectrum analyzer, support for external sidechain input and a user selectable EQ. This release also includes 192Kb support in Panorama, fixes a Panorama loading bug on MacIntel, fixes resource loading errors with TrackPlug, and improves compatibility with Mac 10.3.9. Power Suite 5 by WaveArts includes: TrackPlug, MultiDynamics, MasterVerb, FinalPlug and the new Panorama, a 3-D virtual acoustics processor with binaural HRTF technology.

Solid State Logic announces that Duende, its first entry in the DAW world, is shipping today. Duende is a DSP platform in a rack format, enabling you to have the SSL sound quality directly in your favorite audio software. It connects to your computer via Firewire 400 and the plug-ins are in AU, VST and RTAS so all DAWs are concerned. Each unit handles 32 channels at 96 KHz, and 2 can be daisy chained.

Duende ships at $1899.

Vienna Symphonic Library announces that five new elements in the Symphonic Cube are now available : Woodwinds II, Brass I, Brass II, Harps and Percussion. The "Cube" contains all of the samples that are included in the Pro Edition and the Horizon Series, plus much more, for example, Fast Interval Performances, Trill Performances (using the speed controller), gypsy and harsh styles, ponticello, sul tasto, ricochet, mordents, arpeggios, etc.

The Vienna Instruments is now available as Universal Binary on Mac.