Native Instruments introduced ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER, a new KONTAKT instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s. The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era, which was necessary to compete with the electrified instruments gaining popularity at the time. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s DRUMMER also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s. ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER is available at the NI Online Shop for $99 US / 99 EUR. [source]

Autodesk announced Extension 1 for its professional video editing software for the Mac, Smoke 2013. It is expected to be available beginning May 29, 2013, and will feature numerous enhancements to help improve functionality, add flexibility as well as increase speed. The Smoke 2013 Extension 1 release will introduce support for Blackmagic video IO devices, including DeckLink (PCIe video boards), UltraStudio (Thunderbolt boxes) and the Intensity product lines. The Extension 1 will also add new Trim View and new dynamic trimming tools for faster editing; support for SonyRAW footage from Sony F5 and F55 cameras; improved performance in MediaHub when navigating large data sets; or better 3D compositing performance in Action when working with 3D objects, shaders and textures. Autodesk Smoke 2013 Extension 1 will be available to Autodesk Subscription customers. New customers can purchase a standalone Smoke license for $3,495 US with an additional $675 US for Subscription. [source]

The Blender 2.67a update features over 100 bug fixes since the 2.67 release. Read a complete list of changes here. Download the new binaries for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux at blender.org. [source]

Digital Tutors released a new Introduction to Maya 2014 tutorial for its subscribers. It contains over 10 hours of introductory training to get familiar with the latest release and learn about tools and techniques for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, dynamics, lighting, rendering and more! [source]

RE:Vision Effects announced the initial release of RE:Match for 64-bit versions of The Foundry's Nuke (5.0 or later) and eyeon Fusion (5.2 and up). RE:Match takes intuitive color and texture matching to a whole new level by addressing common problems on multicam and stereo shoots. RE:Match is a set of plug-ins to match one view of video or film to another so that it looks as if it was shot with the same camera and settings. RE:Match assumes that both image sequences are taken roughly at the same location but perhaps were not shot at the same time or from the same point-of-view. RE:Match for OpenFX hosts Nuke and Fusion, is priced at $395 US, floating licenses are $592.50 US. Volume discounts available. [source]

Autodesk has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tinkercad, an easy-to-use browser-based 3D design tool. The addition of Tinkercad to Autodesk will help broaden the popular Autodesk 123D family of apps and supports Autodesk's vision to help anybody imagine, design and create anything. The acquisition will also revive the Tinkercad service and community, despite a previously announced shutdown by its founders and creators. [source]

E-on software announced the availability of LumenRT 4.1 Studio, its comprehensive system for transforming 3D models and designs into rich, nature-filled videos, images and real-time immersive experiences. Version 4.1 adds several important improvements including enhanced support for exporting larger Bentley MicroStation models; new animated water materials; improved Revit export with more complete textures; export of point lights from Revit; and improved Mac OS X performance. LumenRT 4 Studio retails for $795 US for single user licenses with discounts available for multiple user and corporate licenses. The optional LumenRT Publisher retails for $995 US with discounts up to 90% for multiple user quantities. For Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac OS X (10.6+). [source]

Steinberg announced the availability of the Cubase 7.0.4/Cubase Artist 7.0.4 maintenance updates. This fully supported update adds over 20 improvements such as enhanced visibility in MixConsole, new MIDI functions and Chord Track improvements and resolves more than 45 user-reported issues. The update is now available for download from the Steinberg website. [source]

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 15 - 26th, will open with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D film was cut by award-winning editors Jason Ballantine ASE and Matt Villa ASE on Avid Media Composer. "During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA," explained Matt Villa, co-editor of The Great Gatsby. "We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done." [source]

Waves Audio announced the availability of its new GEQ graphic equalizer plug-in. Developed primarily for live users, Waves GEQ is a full-featured graphic equalizer plug-in with both Classic and Modern mono and stereo components, featuring 30 ISO bands plus high and low pass filters, a high precision floating parametric EQ bell filter, and a real-time analyzer. GEQ Classic components use traditional proportional Q filters inspired by the renowned DN series 1/3 octave equalizers, which narrow the filter width as you increase a band's gain; GEQ Modern components utilize special Flat-Top filters, which eliminate the artifacts associated with band interaction, and provide perfect plateau and stair-stepped responses. Users can set band gains one-by-one, or draw their curve via touch-screen or mouse. Finally, GEQ's integrated real-time analyzer lets users compare the difference between two sources (more in this video). The GEQ is now available with a U.S. MSRP of $200, with a special introductory price of $99 US. [source]