CreamWare announced in April its new Authentic Sound Box (or ASB), two new digital emulations of classic synthesizers. The first one is the Minimax ASB, a recreation of the famous Minimoog, which fully integrates with your computer via USB and offers polyphony and preset management. The second one is the Profit-5 ASB, a recreation of the classic Prophet V synth, with features similar to those of the Minimax ASB.

The first one, the Minimax ASB, is on its way to the dealers and will soon be available at 730 euros.

Digidesign announces two new Avid MediaDrive standalone SCSI hard drives (146 GB and 300 GB) and a new MediaDock Shuttle 146 GB removable SCSI drive. Digidesign is also lowering prices for the 73 GB MediaDrive and 73 GB MediaDock Shuttle. At the same time, the 80 GB FireWire drive and the 36 GB versions of the MediaDrive and MediaDock Shuttle are being discontinued.

Cycling '74 has just announced the release of version 3.5.2 of Pluggo for Mac OS X. this update adds multi-channel input support for plugin (up to 16 channels) and includes multi-threaded Javascript. Pluggo is a collection of more than seventy-four audio plug-ins that work with Mac OS sequencers and audio applications. Effects categories include delays, filters, pitch effects, distortion, granulation, spectral effects, modulators, multi-channel effects, synthesizers, audio routing, reverb and dynamics, and visual display.

Native Instruments announces that Kontakt Experience is now available in stores. Kontakt Experience is the first instrument collection specifically designed for Kontakt 2. Kontakt Experience includes 128 new instruments that cover a wide range of musical styles and include lead synths, bass, vocal sounds, drum kits, pads, guitars, various construction kits, and much more.

Kontakt Experience ships on a single DVD and is exclusively for use with Kontakt 2. It costs $119 or 99 Euro.

Luxonix has updated Ravity(R) and Ravity(S) to VST and AU version 1.2. This version now works as a stand-alone application, is ready for Apple Logic (passes AUvalidation), adds Full-down Preset menu when Main LCD right-clicked, fixes several bugs. CPU performance was also improved.

This update is available as a free download.