Novation upgrades their SL series with the new SL Mk II line. It has 25-, 49- and 61-key version, plus the Zero again, with no keyboard. Mechanics came from Fatar, a giant display is present (144 character), endless rotary encoders, XY pad, buttons with LED backlight, eight drum pads, and of course Automap 3, the new software system. Coming in April, check them here.

Ableton now starts to ship Live 8, the new version of their preformance DAW.

PreSonus thinks the DAW competition is still opened so their launched Studio One, a full-featured desktop workstation software. It is ASIO-based, has a lots of plugins, calculates with 64-bit precision, and all the thing work in a single window only. Accepts every VST and AU plugins, and writes Red Book-compatible master CDs, too. Click if you want to know more.

For the analogue lovers some serious news from the scene: MFB offers this new analogue drum machine, MFB-Schlagzwerg. It has bass drum, snare, hi-hat and cymbal, MIDI, and a built-in step sequencer with CV/Gate out - so it controls almost all the old analogue synth gear. It costs 680 euro, if you want to know more or order just click here.

Jomox upgrades his existing bass drum synth, Mbase01 into Mbase11. It still has the main function of producing a big, fat bass drum sound but now it has more tool to tailor with. A sophisticated LFO with eight waveforms, compressor, and the ability to produce tuned sounds within a three-octave range make it a serious weapon. It has MIDI of course, and 110 program space to store your complex bass drum sounds. Just click here if you want more of it.