M-Audio is pleased to announce the launch of its official user forums. Discuss production techniques, hot tips and favorite gear with fellow technology enthusiasts—and get valuable assistance from other users.

Visit the brand-new forums page to register and start posting right away.

Sibelius has just released Sibelius First which is kind of a light version of Sibelius, the famous music notation software.

Features :

- Friendly user interface
- Includes composing & arranging tools for up to 12 staves of music
- Scan in sheet music or open PDF files easily
- Create instrumental parts that automatically sync up with your score
- Switch from guitar tab to notation and back again with ease
- Change the key of your score with one click
- Hear what your score will sound like with playback using 128 sampled instruments
- Print professional-quality full scores or individual parts at the touch of a button
- Export an audio file of your score to burn a CD
- FREE Sibelius Scorch technology lets you post and share scores on the web for others to see and hear your music

Sibelius First is available now for both Mac OS X and Windows at a price of $129.

Akai Professional also announces that the MPC 5000 is available for purchase. The MPC series has set the global standard for producers making beats. The new MPC 5000 is the result of dozens of engineers, 20 years of experience and a new synth and drum sampling engine unlike any MPC.

Key Features :

- 64-voice drum/phrase sampler with 64MB memory built-in. Expandable up to 192MB RAM
- Three-oscillator virtual analog synth engine with built-in arpeggiator
- Over 300 Virtual Analog synth presets included
- Eight tracks of Direct-to-Hard Disk recording
- Over 40 all new effects available within a modular 4-bus effects processor
- Master compressor and equalizer
- 960 ppq resolution
- Built-in hard disk drive
- Optional CD-R/DVD drive
- USB 2.0 port for computer connectivity
- ...

Akai Professional announces that the MPD32 pad controller is now shipping.

Using a USB cable to connect to a Mac or PC, the MPD32 features the MPC Note Repeat with swing and gate time parameters. It can also work as a master clock for MIDI sequencers, includes transport functions and is fully programmable. It includes sixteen velocity and pressure-sensitive MPC pads, eight assignable faders, eight assignable switches and eight assignable infinite knobs. Three selectable control banks extend the number of available faders, buttons and knobs to 24 each (72 total controllers). Four pad banks allow for 64 total pads.

The MPD32 is available now at a sugested price of $499.

Soundcraft will be demonstrating the FX 16ii and MFX Series mixing consoles at InfoComm '08. The FX 16ii is a 19" rack-mountable mixer with a total of 26-inputs and integrated Lexicon FX processor while the MFX series is available in 8+2, 12+2 and 20+2 channel/frame sizes and once again the addition of a Lexicon FX processor.

For more information, please visit their web site.