At the 80th Academy Awards this past Sunday, Italian born composer and MOTU user Dario Marianelli won the Oscar for Best Music (Original Score) for Atonement (2008, Focus Features), starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This is Dario's second nomination and his first Oscar. Dario was first nominated for Best Music (Original Score) for his soundtrack for Pride & Prejudice (2005, Focus Features). Dario also recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Atonement. As a prolific award-winning composer of piano, orchestral and film music, Dario uses Digital Performer, MachFive and MOTU audio interfaces in his studio.

Digital Performer 5.12 is now shipping. If you own Version 5, you can download the free Version 5.12 updater here. This maintenance release includes numerous program enhancements and optimizations, including the ability to mix and match sample formats within a session, native operation under Japanese systems, and many program enhancements and optimizations.

Blogs have become a mainstream vehicle for expression. Now, it's podcasts: they add sensory depth to our web browsers and RSS feeds, giving a dynamic voice to anyone with a message and a desire to broadcast it. Digital Performer is proving to be the Go To production application for many podcasters, thanks to its complete end-to-end workflow tool set. According to Ben Kaplan, who developed and produced the String Theory podcast series for St. Louis-based Act3 production studios, "Digital Performer makes it easy to manage a ton of content and edit on the fly."

TutorialDEPOT has released "HOW TO: Digital Performer", the premier training video podcast series for getting the most out of Digital Performer 5. Download these short, concise and informative training video clips from iTunes and then watch them on your PowerBook, MacBook or even your video iPod, on the go. Learning DP has never been easier or more convenient.

According to Newsweek Magazine, Disney's made-for-TV movie "High School Musical" has "proved itself a tween phenomenon and marketing juggernaut, racking up record sales on its CD soundtrack and DVD release, and spawning everything from T shirts to sheet music." Industry analysts estimate the fledging Disney franchise already totals $100 million in CD and DVD sales with growth that has no end in sight. Packing almost 80 minutes of music into the 98 minute movie, composer David Lawrence experienced major turning points in his career, both in terms of rocketing success and his decision to go with a 100% native Digital …

Digital Performer 5.1 is now available as a free update to all registered DP5 users. This maintenance update, provided as a Universal Binary application, can be installed on an Intel Mac or PowerPC Mac and provides numerous code enhancements and optimizations.

MacAudioLab has released a new instructional DVD for Digital Performer 5. The Ultimate DP5 Learning Series DVD provides 14 hours of QuickTime movie content, including new clips that cover the new features in DP5 and a bonus in-depth programming guide to MX4. Easy-to-follow linear chapters, large videos screenshots for easy viewing, audio narration, a PDF index and PDF keyboard shortcuts are just some of the features on this new must-have training DVD.

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Paramount Picture's Mission: Impossible 3, now showing in theaters around the world. M:i:3 is directed by J.J. Abrams with original music written by Michael Giacchino, the same director/composer team that has brought you the prime time network TV smash hit shows ALIAS and LOST. Michael has used Digital Performer and a host of other MOTU hardware and software products to write all of the original music for M:i:3, ALIAS and LOST.

Best known as the keyboardist in the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, now in its 13th season on NBC, New York based musician and composer Scott Healy has been a long-time MOTU user. A native of Cleveland, Ohio with a degree in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, Scott landed in New York and has never looked back, building a long list of performing and recording credits that include the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Al Green, B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Phoebe Snow, Brandi, Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, Graham Parker, The Band, Donald Fagan, …