IK Multimedia (www.ikmultimedia.com) is now shipping Amplitube 2. The guitar-god-in-a-plug-in features 14 preamps, 14 amp EQs, seven power amps, 16 cabinets, six mic models with four placement options each, 21 stomp effects and 11 rack effects…Metric Halo has released the Universal Binary version of ChannelStrip AU. Version 2.2 of ChannelStrip AU is supported for operation with systems running Mac OS 10.4.3 or later and Audio Units — compliant host applications. It can be downloaded free from www.mhlabs.com…Ableton (www.ableton.com) Live 5.2 is a Universal version of this professional audio app designed to run natively on Intel-based Macs. The new version makes significant performance increases possible, and is a free bug-fix update for users running Live 5 on non-Intel Macs or Windows computers…Cakewalk (www.cakewalk.com) is offering a free update for SONAR users. Version 5.2 offers VST 2.4 support, MIDI output data from VSTi plug-ins, 4,096 (!) MIDI channels to any ReWire device and more…The Portico 5043 compressor/limiter duo from Rupert Neve Designs (www.rupertnevedesigns.com) is shipping. The 5043 features two independent compressor/limiters in a half-rack, single-rackspace module…Apogee Electronics (www.apogeedigital.com) is now shipping Symphony, a multichannel PCI Express card designed specifically for use with Mac computers. The card is a digital computer interface that is based on the PCI-Express architecture in Apple's PowerMac G5 computers, allowing access of up to 192 channels of audio simultaneously in a single computer…M-Audio (www.m-audio.com) announces a free V. 2 firmware update for Black Box, the Roger Linn — designed creative tool for guitarists that combines amp modeling, effects, guitar/mic preamps and drum tracks with an audio interface for computer-based recording. New features include 28 new guitar and bass amp emulations, five different reverbs, compression and new modulation options, as well as a host of new beat-synched effects for a total of 121 total effects…Rain Recording (www.rainrecording.com) and Tascam (www.tascam.com) have buddied up. Rain Recording computer systems have been tested and certified by Tascam for use with GigaStudio 3 software. In addition, all Rain computer systems are now shipping with Tascam GigaStudio Solo. Tascam has also released Universal Binary drivers for the US-122, US-224, US-428, FW-1884, FW-1082 and FW-1804, making these interfaces compatible with the latest Mac-Intel computers…Sony Media Software (www.sony.com/mediasoftware) is shipping ACID Pro 6 software. The upgrade offers many new features, including unlimited tracks of audio and MIDI, real-time pitch and tempo matching, VST effect and VSTi support, more than 20 real-time DirectX effects and more.