Vir2 Instruments has released Acoustic Legends HD, a new acoustic guitar virtual instrument plugin for Windows and Mac OS X. Powered by the Kontakt Player 2 engine, Acoustic Legends HD delivers 19 gigabytes of acoustic guitar, including picked notes, finger-picked notes, natural and artificial mutes, chords, harmonics, harmonic chords, release layers, and even fret noise sampled for each guitar. It contains several different steel string guitars, nylon strings, twelve strings, acoustic bass, as well as a bonus folder featuring mandolin, ukulele, and banjo. Acoustic Legends HD features guitars from McPherson, Taylor, Gibson, Martin, and other manufacturers.
Acoustic Legends HD has an MSRP of $299.95 and is available for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, DX, AU, RTAS and standalone formats. Audio demos are available. For more detail see their web site.

SoundHack has released Spectral Shapers plugin bundle version 1.2 now compatible with Protools 7.0 and above. The new version also adds Universal Binary support to its VST, Audio Unit, and RTAS plugins, enabling them to run natively on Intel-based Macs. The four plug-ins in the Spectral Shapers bundle are filters which reshape the timbre of sound:

+spectralcompand: a spectral version of a compressor/expander which can be used for broadband noise reduction

+spectralgate: a multi-band noise gate and ducker

+morphfilter: morphs between two filter settings that can be drawn or learned

+binaural: a spatialization plug-in optimized for headphone use

Spectral Shapers 1.2 is available for $99 as an electronic download from SoundHack web site, or $150 from authorized dealers. It is a free update to registered users.

Image Line has released version 1.4 of Toxic III.

Changes

* Fixed denormals on some Intel systems.
* Removed clicks in some hosts.
* Banks are now saved in a compressed format, saving space.
* 36 new presets added.
* No more external wave files.

Note that this version will have to be registered again.

Massey plug-ins has released THC, a highly accurate analog-modeled distortion stompbox plug-in. THC delivers true analog-like sonic quality in either RTAS or TDM plug-in formats. A highly functional demo which never expires is available for download. The full version is available for purchase at a price of US$69.

You have a Nintendo Wii? You have a Mac? Try DarwiinRemote, which is in its early developments but enable you to send controls from and to the Wii controllers: 3 axis acceleration sensors, all buttons except power button on/off from the Wii, the LEDs and Force Feedback on the Wii remote. it's aimed at the moment at FrontRow but MIDI or OSC is not far away… Mr Hiro, please please please!

DarwiinRemote is Open Source and free, under early development so uncomplete and unstable so be careful! Works on PPc and Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 and better in Universal Binary.