SXSW MUSIC AND MEDIA CONFERENCE, celebrating its 18th edition, will showcase hundreds of musical acts from around the globe every evening for five nights on 50 stages in downtown Austin. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. For developments, visit sxsw.com.

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Cycling '74 M for Mac OS X, Soundflower, Mode Plug-Ins

Now Shipping: Grace Design m906

Metric Halo Adds +DSP to ULN-2

PowerFX Miracle Beats Sample CD

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SM Pro Audio RED Valve Series

Soundcraft COMPACT 4

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Universal Audio Ships Fairchild 670 Compressor Plug-In, UAD-1 Studio Pak

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Full Sail Upgrades With Argosy
Full Sail (Winter Park, Fla.) has purchased more than 72 Argosy Console pieces for its multistation lab environments, which houses Digidesign ProControl and Control 24 worksurfaces, as well as Sony DMX-R100s, Mackie d8bs and MIDI systems built around Logic Audio and the Logic controller. MORE

Attention Royalty Holders
The Copyright Office has initiated the voluntary negotiation period for determining reasonable rates and terms for two compulsory licenses for the period of January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2006. MORE

Museum Needs New Home
For the past 12 years, the Museum of Sound Recording (Queens, N.Y.) has been collecting artifacts of the recording industry, but despite recent efforts, a lack of funding and an expired lease have led the Museum to find a new home. MORE

Sennheiser, TL Audio End Agreement
Sennheiser Electronic Corporation and TL Audio have terminated their distribution agreement, effective January 1, 2004. While Sennheiser will continue to take orders on its existing limited inventory of TL Audio products, customer inquiries should be addressed directly to TL Audio at tlaudio.co.uk until the company names a new U.S. distribution partner. MORE

McConnon founds MTECH, Signs Steinberg/Pinnacle
Brian McConnon, former marketing manager for Steinberg Media Technologies, recently announced the founding of mtech marketing communications, a public relations and marketing firm for MI, pro audio and consumer technology companies. MORE

M-Audio Extends Tech Support Hours
M-Audio's customer support team will now be available 12 hours a day between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. (PST). M-Audio's customer support staff is available to answer questions on outboard gear, software setups, and general computer and operating system issues regarding all M-Audio hardware products and all versions of Propellerhead Reason, ReCycle, and ReWire; Ableton Live; ArKaos VJ; Sonic Reality ReFill libraries; and more. MORE

Sonic Studio Facility Directory Launched
To make it easier for people to find and access professional audio facilities that use Sonic Studio workstations and NoNOISE restoration software, Sonic Studio has implemented an online directory of Sonic-equipped sites. MORE

Solange Knowles at SugarHill
Solange has returned to SugarHill Recording Studios (Houston) to begin tracking a new album with engineer John Griffin. The CD will be her followup to last year's debut, Solo Star. MORE

Neumann Mics Capture 'Cold Mountain' Soundtrack
Michael Piersante, recording engineer for producer T-Bone Burnett, used a mix of vintage Neumann and RCA microphones to re-create the sounds for Cold Mountain. Piersante revealed that the songs for Cold Mountain are more simply arranged to capture "the feeling that the music is being played by real people sitting on their porch playing a song on a banjo or a fiddle." MORE