Tech News Roundup: October 17, 2008

Tech News Roundup: October 17, 2008

17 October, 2008 | 12.00PM

• Written by: francispreve
• Filed under: Music News: tech news roundup

With the exception of the Ableton-Serrato bombshell announcement, this week has been a mixed bag with a few disappointments thrown in with the good stuff.

For example, the newest update to Apple’s MacBook line includes a shocking omission.

No FireWire ports.

On the plus side, ProTools Blog is assembling a discount package for fans of Ohm Force plug-ins.

More tidbits after the jump.

No FireWire on new MacBooks?!?

In our WTF department, Apple’s newest line of ultra-gorgeous - and more expensive – aluminum MacBooks now features a complete absence of FireWire 400 ports.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the upscale MacBook Pros also eschew FireWire 400 ports in favor of FireWire 800 only – requiring the use of an aftermarket adapter for compatibility with existing peripherals.

Here are the port specifics for each model:

- MacBook Pro: Two USB 2.0 port, one FireWire800 port, one ExpressCard/34 slot

- MacBook: Two USB 2.0 ports

- MacBook Air: One USB 2.0 port

For the full monty, the Apple site features individual pages for the new MacBook features and MacBook Pro features.

While there are rumors of some sort of FireWire-Ethernet bridge in the pipeline, it’s impossible to know whether said bridge will be compatible with the hundreds of FireWire 400 audio interfaces, DSP peripherals, and hardware DAWs - not to mention video cameras and hard drives.

Our suggestion?

Budget-minded shoppers should pick up an old-school white MacBook for $999 and make sure to get the three-year AppleCare warranty so you’ll be covered until you replace it.

Interesting thing about the older MacBooks is the fact that the Core 2 Duo processors are actually faster than the mid-level aluminum successor (2.1 GHz vs. 2.0 GHz).

‘Nuff said.

Celemony DNA Delayed

Celemony’s revolutionary, paradigm-shifting Direct Note Access technology – which allows producers to change individual notes in a polyphonic performance (like guitar chords and vocal harmonies) – has been delayed.

It was supposed to ship this fall, but Celemony’s perfectionism has pushed the release back to early 2009.

The announcement can be found here.

Our take?

While we’re just as juiced as everyone else about the possibilities, we’re willing to wait until it sounds as incredible as Melodyne in its current form.

Some things take time…

Mophomania

The lovely and talented Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music has an awesome interview with Dave Smith Instruments’ Andrew McGowan.

In the piece, Peter gets the inside skinny on the mysterious Push It button, along with some schematics and a screenshot of the software editor for Dave Smith’s affordable monophonic Prophet 08.

We’ll have even more info for you in the next week or so, since our review unit is currently in transit and should arrive early next week.

W00T!

Ohm Force group buy?

ProTooler Blog is organizing an Ohm Force “group buy” for its community – and everyone else within earshot.

Basically, if you’re in the market for any of the Ohm Force software effect goodies, you can theoretically save up to 50% on your purchase, depending on how many people hop onboard the group buy train.

The offer runs from October 13 to November 9, at which point the final discount amount will be determined.

The rules, regulations and specifics can be found here.

Now go have a great weekend…

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