Cakewalk has announced that a free update for Project5 v. 2 will be available in 2007. Cakewalk has also lowered the price of Project5 to $199.

Fractured Software has released Rondo 2.0 (Mac OS X; $25). The updated MIDI player now includes several larger pianos and a MIDI library, as well as a piano roll with scrolling notes to help you follow the music as it plays.

Manytone Music has announced ManyMapper, a free graphical sample mapping utility that allows you to create and edit soundsets. ManyMapper is part of Manytone's FreeZone, where users can download soundsets, loops, presets, MIDI files, and programs.

Soniccouture has released Abstrakt: Bass ($150), a 1.6 GB sample library with 140 Kontakt 2 instruments, a Brainwave Detune KSP processor, and Vari-Amp sampling on electric basses.

Universal Audio has announced UAD-1e Express Pak ($499), UAD-1e Expert Pak ($999), and PCI Express DSP Cards. The Express and Expert Paks come bundled with Universal Audio's core 15 free Mix/Gtr FX plug-in suite, new PCI Express DSP Cards, and UAD vouchers worth up to $750.