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At the 80th Academy Awards this past Sunday, Italian born composer and MOTU user Dario Marianelli won the Oscar for Best Music (Original Score) for Atonement (2008, Focus Features), starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This is Dario's second nomination and his first Oscar. Dario was first nominated for Best Music (Original Score) for his soundtrack for Pride & Prejudice (2005, Focus Features). Dario also recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Atonement. As a prolific award-winning composer of piano, orchestral and film music, Dario uses Digital Performer, MachFive and MOTU audio interfaces in his studio.

Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) is now shipping. Are your MOTU software and hardware products compatible? Absolutely. MOTU has worked closely with Apple to ensure a smooth transition for your MOTU products when you make the move to Leopard. In some cases, current versions of your MOTU software have already been made forward-compatible with Leopard. In other cases, MOTU software updates or driver updates are now (or soon to be) available to tame the new Leopard in your Mac.

Musician, producer and composer Al Kooper made an appearance at the MOTU booth at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) show in New York City last week to give a one-hour presentation on his composing and production techniques using Digital Performer, MachFive and other MOTU products. Kooper played tracks in progress for his up-coming album and offered key insights into his creative process to a standing-room only crowd.

MachFive 2 once again raises the bar for what a virtual sampler should be. No matter what you've got as your desktop production environment of choice, MachFive will fit right in and deliver state-of-the-art features and performance. Start with 32GB of included sounds. You get four dual-layer (8GB) DVDs packed full of multi-sample instruments, loops and phrases you can use every day, including a stunning 8GB grand piano and surround drum kits. MachFive 2 now imports just about every audio file, loop and sampler format on the planet - directly. No conversion is necessary. Just drag and drop loops in any format, including REX2, Acid and Apple Loops, or directly load multi-layer instruments in any major sample format, including Giga, EXS24, Kontakt, Roland, Akai, Kurzweil and E-Mu.

According to the April 2007 issue of Fortune Magazine, composer Brian Banks has written themes and music for many Fortune 500 companies. With a workflow that spans the globe and operates at the speed of on-air broadcast deadlines, Brian handles it all with ease using his state-of-the-art MOTU recording systems: sequencing, virtual instruments, live tracks, full orchestra recording sessions, sound design and even dialog editing. By focusing on the exceptionally demanding, fast-paced world of music and sound for advertising, Brian finds he is able to provide one-stop shopping for all of his clients' music, sound design, mixing and mastering needs. Even when he is conducting a live recording session in LA from his studio in London, it's all in a day's work for mega-clients such as Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and Motorola.

Digital Performer 5.12 is now shipping. If you own Version 5, you can download the free Version 5.12 updater here. This maintenance release includes numerous program enhancements and optimizations, including the ability to mix and match sample formats within a session, native operation under Japanese systems, and many program enhancements and optimizations.