Every year, the readers of Mix magazine choose what they consider to be the best new pro audio products in a wide range of categories, from "Ancillary Equipment" to "Large Format Console Technology." And this year, three MOTU products have garnered nominations in several categories for this prestigious industry award.

Working together, MOTU and Berklee Press bring you the ideal companion to Digital Performer: Producing Music with Digital Performer. "I don't know of a faster way to gain such a deep and intuitive understanding of Digital Performer, so that you can master it and get right to the art of making music." —Dave Kusek, Architect of the General MIDI Protocol and author of The Future of the Music Business

The worldwide hit television series 24 expands into the wireless space with the first original dramatic series produced exclusively for next-generation mobile phones. 24: Conspiracy is a series of 24 sixty-second "mobisodes" that will be launched in January of 2005 exclusively on Vodafone in 23 countries in Europe, with eventual US distribution on Verizon Wireless. Composer John Massari created an intense, dark, and suspenseful score for this innovative new series. "DP, MachFive and MX4 are superb products," says Massari, "a real asset for any composer creating complex or simple orchestral textures."

The February 2005 issue of Keyboard Magazine has just hit the streets with an extensive review of DP 4.5, providing in-depth analysis of all the new features and overall commentary about DP's position in today's competitive audio sequencer marketplace. And the verdict? DP once again wins Keyboard's coveted Key Buy award as "...overall the most balanced DAW on the Mac."

This maintenance update, which is now available as a free download for registered DP 4.5 users, offers numerous feature and performance enhancements, including Dynamic CPU Management, Save Bounce Settings, Multi Bounce and much more.

As keyboard player, songwriter, and founding member of Bon Jovi, David Bryan has seen and learned a lot about music and the music business in the past 20 years. After selling 100 million albums, traveling the world and playing to millions of people in 50 countries, and living through the rock and roll years, the grunge years, the rap years, and everything in between, David has a lot of experience to share.

Contrary to his name, Joe Solo is all about partnerships. As head writer and producer for Famous Music, Paramount's music division, Joe works with signed songwriters developing pitch songs for major-label artists including Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, and Eric Clapton, just to name a few. Joe also develops influential artists such as Macy Gray, works with Rami Jaffe of the Wallflowers, and composes music for film. And Digital Performer is one partner Joe works with on every project.

This year's Mega Summer Tour season is in full swing, and Madonna is on the road again to promote her most recent album release, "American Life". Like many top artists, Madonna mixes studio-produced tracks to support her highly choreographed live performances and the musicians on stage. Mike McKnight produces those tracks, and makes sure they sound great at every show. In fact, Mike has programmed every major Madonna tour using a MOTU system driven by Digital Performer. We recently caught up with him during Madonna's Re-Invention tour, in an interview directly beneath the stage, to get the latest details about …

"Finally, a new sampler that doesn't make your old libraries obsolete!" exclaim the editors of EM. "This universal sampler plug-in lets you import, audition, and load sound banks in a long list of sampler formats, including Akai, Roland, E-mu, Kurzweil, SampleCell, EXS4 and Giga. And that's not all: MachFive can also import samples in WAV, Acid, AIFF, SDI and REX formats." They go on to say: "Machfive strikes a welcome balance between simplicity and functionality." Even with its long list of high-end features, "MachFive never sacrifices its straightforward architecture and easy-to-use interface. Add to that its new direct-from-disk sample-streaming capability, …