Created in collaboration with Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Nickelback, Daughtry, Foo Fighters), Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Peter Frampton), Jack Joseph Puig (John Mayer, Lady Gaga, Counting Crows, Goo Goo Dolls) and Tony Maserati (Tupac Shakur, Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, Jason Mraz), Waves Signature Series Bass & Drums Collection and Waves Signature Series Vocal Collection bring the sound of top producers and engineers to your studio.

Ivory II Upright Pianos is a Virtual Instrument that can run as a plug-in or standalone. Or, if you are an existing Ivory II user, Ivory II Upright Pianos will install directly into your existing Ivory II library, giving you access to all of Ivory II's pianos and features from one great interface. Its MSRP is $299.

Highlights of Ivory II Upright Pianos:
Four hand-selected Upright Pianos including:
- Yamaha U5 Modern Upright
- 1914 A.M. Hume Vintage Upright
- Honky Tonk, Barroom Upright
- Real Tack Piano

From NI Forum:
"In order to utilize its development resources in the best interest of its wider userbase, Native Instruments has decided to discontinue the Kore product range.

As an immediate consequence, Kore 2 and all Kore-based instruments and effects will no longer be offered for sale. The Kore Player will also be no longer available for download. Technical support for Kore will also continue to be available. Future versions of the Komplete bundle and of individual NI instruments might no longer be fully compatible with Kore, and will not include special preset versions for its sound browser.

Owners of the full versions of Kore 1 or Kore 2 (excluding software-only versions) who are interested in Maschine can purchase a special crossgrade price of $449 / €399 until the end of the year".

Avid today announced general availability of the M-Audio Venom virtual analog synthesizer and is shipping throughout EMEA.

Venom: New Virtual Analog Synthesizer Brings Unprecedented Sound Options to Customers of All Skill Levels
Merging Avid's expertise in virtual instrument development and keyboard design, the M-Audio Venom synthesizer delivers an aggressive take on the emulation of classic analog synthesis—combining the warm sound and character of vintage keyboards with the intuitive control and workflow advantages of modern digital processing to provide cutting-edge sound options to musicians of all skill levels.

Ime+Space, the UK's largest distributor of sample libraries and virtual instruments, has teamed up with Native Instruments to offer three lucky winners the ultimate cinematic production package worth over £830!

Each prize bundle includes:
Native Instruments – Kontakt 4
5 Zero-G sample libraries:
Alien Skies: Cinematic Ambiences 2
Animato: String & Flute FX for Cinema
Dark Skies: Cinematic Ambiences
Deep Impact: Cinematic Atmospheres and SFX
Spiritoso: Live Cello Phrases

PLUS, to ensure you're completely up to scratch with Kontakt, the bundle also includes a copy of ASK Video's Kontakt 4 tutorial package!
The competition runs until 7th July 2011 and all entrants must be over 18 years of age to be eligible to win this competition.

The Nord Electro 3 OS and the Electro 3 HP OS have both been updated to version 3.04.

- If keys were held down during startup or a synchronizing with the Manager, they would all play, quite loud, once the OS had booted or the sync was completed. This is now fixed.

- Muted output when organ models are changed, to prevent noise.
- The Electro 3 61/73 did not use the internal velocity curves that are assigned to every individual piano in the Nord Piano Library v5.x. This is now fixed.