Drumtracker is Toontrack's answer to Drumagog - a software that analyses your acoustic drum track and makes a MIDI file, according to your beats. The very low price is 99 euro, for both PC and Mac. Check here.

Sonic Charge released a new software synth, Synplant, which breaks all your expectations that are related with a synthesizer plugin. Instead of dealing with usual parameters, Synplant uses a seed (a program patch) which you have to plant, and develop into different directions. Sound generation parameters are nested into a DNA-spiral far under the very simple surface. The program is a fun to use and I recommend it - it is worth a free try at least.

If you want to own it fully, you have to pay 89 USD, here.

You can buy SONiVOX's great sampled instruments nested into virtual instruments: they work both as stand-alone and as a plugin. Every piece of them are cheap - 20-30 USD -, but contains only a single theme: Bass - Rickenbacker, Guitar - Stratocaster, Guitar - Les Paul etc, so anyone can build an own orchestra with only the relevant samples. Go click here to learn more.

Antares formed a new version of Auto-Tune: Auto-Tune efx costs only 129 USD, and does all the big things that are commonly known but graphical editor and formant correction. Go check here.

You only have to pay half price at Native Instruments for all the updates during the Christmas season - it is the first good news from the company. Second is for the interface buyers: Audio Kontrol 1 will contain a bundle of a great Native synth of your choice from Absynth 4, FM8, Pro-53 or Massive. Third, Guitar Rig Kontrol Edition will contain a Cubase LE, a Kore Player, plus Pop Drums as a Soundpack. Check here.

Mixed In Key, the popular DJ software reached version 4. For those who are not familiar with: it is a program that finds the key of a song from the audio file. The price is 58 USD, and here is its product page.

At GForce, three days to renew the legendary Mellotron's finest software emulation, M-Tron. The new M-Tron Pro will have several surprise inside and outside: contains 3.5 gigabytes of samples, more than 700 presets, works in dual and split modes, vintage effects are present at the end and more - all this wonder will be step forward from shadow in Monday, at GForce's website, for 199 USD.

Koblo's new, small green synth is Vibra2000, cots 30 USD - check it here if you like.

An online petition has started against Apple under this link to warn the company. The number of joined people is quickly rising, it is currently above 14,000 who undersigned.

Some are worrying about MacBook Pro, too, while it also has no standard FireWire 400 connector but FireWire 800, a physically and electronically different one. This means you cannot connect your usual interface hardware into it - until to this day Apogee and MOTU has guaranteed compatibility officially. The hardware units of both companies works well with the new MackBook Pros but you will need a 800-to-400 converter cable. Users of the new MacBook series have to forgot FireWire.

Native Instruments will sure make a big hit with a new generation of DJ software: Traktor Pro and Traktor Scratch Pro. What is the most interesting is the totally redesigned user interface which seems very logical. It even displays the album art of the tracks that playlisted. A huge bunch of new effects will improve the excitement, and the loop functions make it a real sequencing instrument - just check the demo videos.

IK Multimedia's fine mastering suite, T-RackS got a new version. It also runs in stand-alone, and has a grand total of nine processing algorhythms - five of the are new, for example the emulation of the legendary Fairchild 670 compressor. You can configure the order of the effects freely, and it has a very safe and sophisticated metering system. A new, refined oversampling method is also implemented. The full Deluxe version costs 500 USD, while the Standard that lacks all the new effects but has the new frame costs 200 USD. Here is the product page to know more.

Create Digital Music started a serious dispute on Apple's latest laptop news: all the new models lack the FireWire connection but MacBook Pro. This means that if you own a FireWire interface and want to deal on with it, you have to buy the most expensive MacBook models to live on. This step seems very unfriendly from Apple towards the digital music community which supported enthusiastically this platform. Now, after the latest backlash around the OS X update, a new cloud shades this relation.

UltraMixer, a nice DJ application runs on Windows, OS X and Linux, too. It has three levels: the very simple Free is rather a sample, and works for two hours at a time. Basic for 109 USD has no such disadvantage, and Professional has numerous goodies for 239 USD. The lattest has ASIO support, real-time effects, time-stretch, sample player, looper, 31-band graphic equaliser, BMP-counter, controller interface and so on. Check here if you are interested more.

From now, Focusrite offers their super channel effects algorhythm used in Liquid Mix DSP-powered interface as a software plugin pack for TDM-equipped Pro Tools systems. The product is named Liquid Mix HD, It costs 499 USD, and you can learn more about from here.

Stay tuned, the entire Pro Tools family will renew in the near future, an official info page is already set up. It will have numerous new plugins, five new virtual instruments, a new graphical user interface, enhanced scoring and MIDi editing, and better controller integration. It will run well on Vista, too, and on the Mac it will handle HD-video thru QuickTime.

LinPlug's  RMV is a serious instrument, having a heavy-weight sample playback engine and a sophisticated drum synth, too. It has 48 instrument pads, all polyphonic, and all have an own 12x12 modulation matrix as well as envelope generators, parametric EQ, distortion, lots of insert effects at the same time, and a humanizer. Six groove player and slicer serves the musician, and a library module with advanced search capabilities. More than 10,000 sound samples is coming with the package, plus 1,500 audio loops and 2,600 MIDI grooves. RMV costs 139 euro, check here the details.

Audio Damage wants a good reputation therefore they dropped out a new, analogue modeling compressor for completely free. Rough Rider works on both PC and Mac as a VST effect, has a stylish analogue design, and has some modern functions like MIDI Learn. Download it from here.

Voxengo's Elephant mastering plugin reached version 3.0 recently. It has ten types of limiting, converts bit resolution, kills DC offset, oversamples 8 times, calculates with 64-bit resolution and so on. Purchase it until 15th, October for only 70 USD - later you have to pay 90 USD. Here.

Cakewalk's flagship sequencer will have a new version in 2nd, October. Sonar 8 will feature a new track type, instrument for plugin synths, Loop Explorer is 2.0 already, QuickTime export/import is introducing, BeatScape is a new loop instrument, TruePianos is a new piano instrument, plus there are some new effects: a tube leveler, Native's Guitar Rig 3 LE and so on. The full version costs 600 USD, and Sonar Studio 8, a smaller version costs 370 USD. Go here for more info.

This is Alchemy, a new supersynth software from Camel Audio. It is a sample/VA based instrument, packed with a huge array of digital sound manipulation funtions. It loads almost any sound sample (you get two gigabytes with him), has sound morphing, and analogue modeled filters. The arpegggiator inside is a powerful one, also. Price is still not known, but there is a detailed web page about.

Supersynth specialist Spectrasonics promised the top-of-the-line Omnisphere months ago - and finally it is here. Priced at 499 USD, it is not a cheap toy, but it serves for the money heavily. It has a maximum of 10 oscillator per voice, plays back samples and has VA-generators also, and has an extremely wide range of sound manipulation tools. Beyond them, 6 LFOs, 8 envelope generators, 12 effects plus 8 arpeggiators per sound move the sound in the regular way. The package is coming with 40 gigabytes of samples. Check here the rest.

Ableton bundles a free softsynth, Operator, if you buy Live until 30th, October. Hurry up, the analog/FM world is waiting for you.

Steinberg updated Cubase seriously in all platforms - 64 bit Vista version has arrived also as a beta. The new Cubase 4.5 supports all the new Steinberg interface-controllers that were introduced earlier. New on the support topic is the VST integration of the Yamaha Motif XS synths - you just connect it via Firewire and the hardware synth acts as a plugin. A new format is also introduced: VST Sound, which can hold any type of a synth sound for any gardware or software synth or effect. A useful extra is bundled: 1.5 gigabytes of sound sample material for HALion. Here is the detailed spec list, and here is the download link.

NuSofting released Modelonia, a new softsynth plugin that uses physical modeling to produce sounds. It has accurate brass and plucked strings models, and you can combine the diferent elements inside the instrment. Skinning is performed also, with two selectable skins that are coming from the factory. All these costs 51 euro, here.

Wallander Instruments' WIVI has reached version 2. It realises wind and brass instruments via physical modeling, has a small phrase sequencer, and all this wonder sits in a single plugin. A great feature is the finest velocity resolution on the market, far beyond the usual 127 levels. Not the cheapest one: if you buy the whole ensemble, you end at 1600 USD. Go here to learn more.