M-Audio unveiled the Studiophile BX5a, a revised version of BX5 near-field monitors. M-Audio's new BX5a employs Kevlar for low-frequency driver construction. These new monitors feature : two-way magnetically shielded studio reference monitors, 70 watts of distributed power, 5" Kevlar low-frequency drivers, 1" natural silk high-frequency drivers, XLR balanced and 1/4" balanced/unbalanced inputs.

M-Audio new BX5a is currently shipping at $399,95$.

Bias announces that all versions of its audio editing software Peak are updated to versions 4.1.4. These new versions are now compatible with Mac OS 10.4 aka Tiger. These updates are available as free download for all registered users.

Ableton has updated its sequencer Live to version 4.1.4 in order to fix a Rewire Slave functionality bug. Live would not work right as ReWire slave. The symptoms would be anything between crashes and strange behavior.

Digidesign announces a new update to Pro Tolls TDM 6.9. to version 6.9 CS 1. Please note that this update is NOT for Pro Tools 6.9.2 on Mac OS 10.4. This new release fixes :

- A ProControl fader could sometimes lose communication with Pro Tools while writing automation (Item #61458)
- External Time Code Offsets were not being added to Auto-Edit times (Item #62239)
- Scrubbing or shuttling a 9-pin device did not smoothly update the 9-pin device (Item #51198)
- Playback scrolling did not update reliably to the incoming time code position (Item #58665)

As we announce May 19th in MacMusic News, Waves now introduces NetShell APA. Connects to your computer via Ethernet, the new APA 32 (1U 19") and APA 44 (half rack-size) gives more freedom to the host cpu and supports the more-demanding proccessing power needed by todays high quality software solutions. Most Waves plug-ins are supported by the NetShell APA, and more should be supported soon. As it uses a LAN connetion, the new avialable DSP power is instantly available without opening the computer case or modifying hardware, and you can still use your CPU or installed hardware-DSP for plugins. You can connect 8 APA modules (with 8 millisecondes time latency) use your CPU or installed hardware-DSP for plugins.

APA 32 costs 1.600 US$, and APA 44 is 2.400 US$ (with free IRL and Q-Clone plugins).