Akai just released the latest of his MPC, the numbered 500. As its name suggest, this is an entry level MPC, from the likes of the MPC 1000 and 2500 with which it is data compatible as other Akai products. With a small footprint (266x175x44mm) and 1.34 kg, running on wall-wart or batteries, its comprehensive surface has the MPC trademark as usual : 12 velocity and pressure sensitive pads plus an on board 48 tracks sequencer and a 44.1 kHz sound engine. The internal memory is of 16 MB, Compact Flash cards from 32 MB to 2 GB can be used as additional memory. MIDI i/o and USB (Mac and PC) ports complet the box along with the stereo i/o and headphones socket.

The MPC 500 is available now for $1129.

Universal Audio releases UAD v4.4 software for the UAD-1 and UAD-1e DSP card and powered plugins system. This version includes a 14-day fully functional demo of the second Neve® licensed plug-in – the coveted 33609 Bus Compressor. Registered UAD-1 customers may purchase full authorizations of the 33609/33609 SE two plug-in bundle for US$249 from my.uaudio.com

Key Features:
* Exclusively Neve licensed/UA modeled 33609 bus compressor
* Compression curves and nonlinearities modeled to exacting detail
* Auto-release settings offer program dependent qualities
* "Software-only" controls link and additional 20 dB output gain
* Stereo or mono operation/ SE Version for Higher instance counts

Registered users can download this update for free on Universal Audio website.

Wave Arts is pleased to announce Power Suite 5.21, which now includes Universal Binary support for our Mac VST and MAS versions. All our Mac plug-in formats are now Universal Binaries and will work on any Intel based Mac. Wave Arts Power Suite 5 has received critical acclaim since it's introduction last year, and continues to be the go-to "essential" plug-in bundle for many musicians, engineers and producers around the world. Power Suite 5 features the following plug-ins:

- TrackPlug- all-in-one channel strip with 10 band EQ, dual compressors, gate, sidechain EQs, peak limter, and realtime spectrum analyzer (RTA).
- MasterVerb- classic digital reverb algorithms.
- MultiDynamics- multiband compression/expansion processing.
- Panorama- 3-dimensional sound panner with environmental audio effects.
- FinalPlug- mastering limiter/volume maximizer.

The plug-ins are available in all native formats for Mac OS X (AU/MAS/VST/RTAS, all Universal Binary) and Windows 2000/XP (VST/DX/RTAS). The version 5.21 update is free for existing version 5 users. The updates and free demos can be downloaded at :

Cycling'74 announces a bunch of updated versions for Max, Hipno, Pluggo and Mode.

- Max/MSP is now available as version 4.6.2 for Mac OS X and fixes several bugs in the Max/MSP application (problem where saving a prototype, crash problems with complex patches) and in the Max objects.

- Pluggo, Pluggo Junior and Pluggo Runtime are available in version 3.6 featuring : Iniversal Binary versions for both MacIntel and PowerPC Macs, better AudioUnit plugins folder classification, VST 2.4 support, and bugfixes.

- Mode is updated to version 1.3 and Hipno to version 1.1, and both are now available as Universal Binary versions.

Nomad Factory is pleased to announce the release of the Liquid Bundle II. The Liquid Bundle gives you a variety of incredible effects plug-ins. The plug-ins in this bundle include Liquid Compressor II, Liquid Delays II, Liquid Gate II, Liquid Mod II, Liquid Phase II and Liquid Verb II. These tools are ideal for the sound designer, mixer and musician. And although this plug-ins provides intuitive and simple controls, the sound quality they deliver is full and warm. Plus, Liquid plug-ins operates efficiently to avoid over-taxing your CPU resources.

The Liquid Bundle II demo and full product files are available via instant download at :