Here's a picture found on the web... it seems like McDSP is about to release new plug-ins called Retro Plug-ins. In the bottom of this advert we can read :

"The Retro plug-in line from McDSP is new class of plug-ins with vintage style and completely original design backed by McDSP's reputation for superior reliability and customer support.

See McDSP's Retro Plug-ins at the Winter NAMM 2009 show (...) and find out how a software plug-in is better than hardware"

Better than hardware... wait and see !

SampleModeling has released Mr. Sax T., its new Kontakt Player-based Tenor saxophone plug-in instrument, created by Stefano Lucato in cooperation with Giorgio Tommasini & Peter Siedlaczek.

Mr. Sax T. is a sample-based virtual instrument relying on a completely new technology, developed and patent-pending by Stefano Lucato. The saxophone is probably the most difficult instrument to emulate. Despite several attempts, using different technologies ranging from traditional sampling to sophisticated physical modeling, the results obtained so far fell short of the expectations. This is particularly true if real time use is concerned.

Synchronous Wave Triggering
This entirely new technology was developed by Stefano Lucato when it became clear that all the previously applied approache ...

Muse Research unveils two updated models of their famous Receptor hardware plug-in players. The Receptor 2 Pro and the Receptor 2 Pro Max are described as faster, smarter, and better units than the original.

Featuring entirely new computational engines with fast dual-core processors that offer twice the power of the previous generation, their new SATA-2 storage systems offer three times more disc bandwidth, 10 times the networking speed, and 50% more memory that is twice as fast as before.

The Receptor 2 Pro and the Receptor 2 Pro Max will be available soon with a MAP price of $2599 and $3199 respectively.

E-MU Systems has just announced that for the first time it will release as open source the Macintosh driver stack for its award winning USB 2.0 audio interface products — the 0202USB, 0404USB, and TrackerPre.

The software will be released under the GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL v3, which enables developers to commercially redistribute products derived from this code base.

The Software Developer Kit will be available on the SourceForge developer's website in early December and can be found at :

Focusrite has released an update of the Liquid Mix firmware.

Changes :

+ Fixed a crash in Ableton Live crashes when loading LiquidMix if the hardware is not connected
+ Fixed a problem with CPU usage in Cubase 4 when inserting the first LM instance
+ Fixed a problem with Liquid Mix snapshot naming
+ improved snapshot loading robustness
+ Fixed a problem with Intel/PPC cross platform compatibility of snapshots / sessions
+ Fixed a problem with RTAS wrapping the LM plug-in for Pro Tools
+ Fixed a problem with recalling settings in logic 8 on some channels
+ Fixed a problem finding the stereo plug-in in Cubase 4
+ Problem with rotary controls Fixed on Windows build
+ Fixed Liquid Mix crash when trying to use 'Fixed' EQ controls
+ Fixed hardware parameter control in Cubase 4.5.1
+ Fixed bug causing continuous software controls from hardware
+ Fixed CPU spiking with certain emulations
+ Removed C++ Runtime Library dependency (Windows)
+ Remove dependency on the shared memory update - now using POSIX shared memory

This update is available at the following url :