Logic Platinum 5.3 - Emagic

"Logic Platinum 5.3 offers a comprehensive set of tools for digital-audio production, and it's very stable. If you currently use Logic, version 5.3 is a must-have upgrade, and the program is a worthy, if complex, choice for those new to music sequencing." ... read more at Macworld

SmartSound Movie Maestro - Sonic Desktop Software

"Designed and priced for home and educational users, SmartSound Movie Maestro makes it fairly easy to add soundtracks to any movie file that QuickTime 5 can open, but you can use only Sonic Desktop’s proprietary soundtracks" ... read more at macHOME

MegaSeg 2.5 - Fidelity Media

"For the majority of users, from a party DJ keen to travel light to a businessman needing a professional solution for managing background music, MegaSeg 2.5 offers almost everything they could need" ... read more at MacUser UK

Audio Hijack - Rogue Amoeba

"Audio Hijack's star quality is its ability to record the output of almost any Mac OS X application" ... read more at MacUser UK

Pro-53 - Native Instruments

"Pro-53 may not be the most versatile virtual instrument, but it's nevertheless a very playable, programmable, user-friendly synth with plenty of character" ... read more at MacUser UK

Waves Platinum - Waves

"Waves Platinum is quite simply the best plug-in collection available, and is an essential studio resource for all audio professionals working on Native and TDM platforms" ... read more at MacUser UK

Waves Restoration 3.5 - Waves SCV

"Waves Restoration 3.5 is a suite of four audio plug-ins designed to remove unwanted noise. X-Crackle and X-Click eliminate problems found with dirty and scratched vinyl records, while X-Hum and X-Noise cater for buzzes, ambient noise and hissy recordings" ... read more at MacUser UK

Amazing Slow Downer 2.0 - Roni Music

"it can slow down any audio file by up to 400% without changing the pitch. In conjunction with the signal-processing elements included, tricky guitar solos, vocal harmonies or rhythm sections can be looped, scrutinised and learnt by the eager student." ... read more at MacUser UK

Pluggo 3.0 - Cycling

"If you want one affordable package that contains a slew of audio plug-ins compatible with Steinberg's VST, Mark of the Unicorn's MAS, and Digidesign's RTAS effects formats, you need look no further than Cycling '74's Pluggo" ... read more at Macworld

Spark XL 2.5 - TC Works

"With version 2.5, Spark XL has attained the necessary ease of use and feature set for professional use. Its main rival, BIAS Peak 3.5, is cheaper, but lacks the quality of effects, audio restoration power and the Spark Modular synthesizer" ... read more at MacUser UK

VintageWarmer - PSP Audioware

"VintageWarmer, from Polish developer PSP Audioware, is a software emulation of an analogue compressor/limiter, which is capable of single and multiband operation, and is available as a plug-in for VST or MAS-compatible applications" ... read more at MacUser UK

Lexicon PSP 42 1.1 - PSP Audioware

"It's rare that a software emulation of a studio legend receives the official endorsement of its original manufacturer. However, PSP Audioware has done just this" ... read more at MacUser UK

EVB3 - Emagic

"Both the EVB3 and the EVD6 are fantastic. Authentic, responsive, musical and addictive, they make superb complements to the latest version of Logic and round out Emagic's virtual offerings nicely" ... read more at MacUser UK

EVD6 - Emagic

"Both the EVB3 and the EVD6 are fantastic. Authentic, responsive, musical and addictive, they make superb complements to the latest version of Logic and round out Emagic's virtual offerings nicely" ... read more at MacUser UK

Lounge Lizard EP1 - Applied Acoustic Systems

"Lounge Lizard, from Canada-based software developer Applied Acoustic Systems, employs clever physical modelling algorithms to build a virtual electric piano inside your Mac" ... read more at MacUser UK

SoundDiver 3.0 - Emagic

"Emagic's SoundDiver is an editor and librarian application for use with MIDI equipment, most obviously used with synthesizers" ... read more at MacUser UK

Live 1.5 - Ableton

"Live allows you to easily construct electronic, hip-hop, and trance dance music on-the-fly by triggering and layering sound snippets with your Mac or MIDI keyboard." ... read more at Macworld

Tickyclav - BigTick Software

"The Ticky Clav is a worthy addition to any keyboard player's arsenal. It's like having your own clavinet." ... read more at MacUser UK

Peak 3.1 - BIAS

"Widely used in the film, broadcast and music industries, Peak can optimise audio for Internet streaming and multimedia, master and burn audio CDs, clean up old vinyl disks, synch to picture for video and film sound design and much more." ... read more at MacUser UK

Virtual Guitarist - Steinberg

"Virtual Guitarist is a ground-breaking acoustic and electric rhythm guitar part generator that successfully recreates the nuances of timing, dynamics and timbre of live acoustic and electric rhythm guitar playing." ... read more at MacUser UK

DR-Verb 1.2 - Polyfractus

"A fantastic-sounding reverb plug-in for any VST-compatible application (bad news, then, for Pro Tools users), it also manages to deliver its superb results with a refreshingly low CPU drain." ... read more at MacUser UK

StreamCatcher - Bombich Software

"StreamCatcher (a graphical interface for the free Unix utility streamripper, which is bundled with the StreamCatcher download) can help you record the streaming audio to your hard drive." ... read more at Macworld

Spark ME - TC Works

"This OS X-only two-track editor allows direct recording and provides the ability to import and manipulate any QuickTime-compatible audio file." ... read more at Macworld

Sound Studio 2.0 - Felt Tip Software

It's a neat digital audio editing and recording application, operating at CD-quality, 44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo, allowing you to digitise analogue signals, such as your record collection. This means you can record audio and edit any digital audio cleanly and simply in an impressive number of ways ... read more at MacUser UK

Pro Tools Free 5.0 - Digidesign

"Pro Tools Free is an introduction to a family of audio products. This version provides eight tracks of real-time audio, 48 MIDI tracks, and industry-standard editing and mixing capabilities -- it's a powerhouse for musicians and video producers alike": ... read more at MacAddict

Ableton Live 1.1 - Midiman

"Neither a MIDI-sequencing nor a sample-editing package, Live is a new breed of tool for manipulating sampled audio. The program's name comes from its ability to apply a wide range of real-time effects ... to looped, sampled audio as it plays": ... read more at MacAddict

HALion 1.1 - Steinberg

Software that emulates its hardware counterpart, especially music production software, is clearly the wave of the future. Steinberg's HALion fits that model: It's a solid, feature-packed, and versatile software sampler with only a few minor dings ... read more at MacAddict

Blues Guitar Legends - eMedia

"The fun you'll have with eMedia's Blues Guitar Legends might chase the blues away as it teaches you to play some of its greatest hits" ... read more at MacAddict

SmartScore 2.0 - Musitek

"SmartScore is a splendid program for scanning sheet music and turning it into active documents, which you can then modify in any number of ways and ultimately play back as MIDI tracks" ... read more at MacAddict

Peak 3.0 - BIAS

"Here's the good news: Digital audio on Mac OS X is reaching new heights, thanks to powerful two-track audio editors such as Peak 3, from Berkeley Integrated Audio Software" ... read more at Macworld

Battery - Native Instruments

"If you need a sample player that can bring detailed and responsive high-quality drum kits to your virtual studio, Battery may be just what you've been looking for." ... read more at MacUser UK

VoiceMachine - Steinberg

Steinberg's VoiceMachine is a real-time vocal processor and harmoniser that uses sophisticated voice pitch manipulation algorithms and formant head tone modelling techniques. VoiceMachine can also create four-part harmonies with rich evolving pitch and timbral changes, and features extensive MIDI control of its edit parameters ... read more at MacUser UK

Logic Audio Silver 4.7 - Emagic

Logic Audio Silver lacks some of its kin's high-end features, but with its 24 tracks of audio, eight audio instruments, and support for VST plug-ins and instruments, it might be all you need ... read more at MacAddict

Digital Performer 3.0 - Mark of the Unicorn

For producing professional, commercial-quality work, MOTU's Digital Performer 3 is one of the most intensive, full-fledged audio-recording and -sequencing packages we've ever worked with ... read more at MacAddict

Melodyne 1.0 - Celemony

Melodyne analyses the content of sound recordings and then represents the recording on screen as a simple series of notes. You can then use the program's editing tools to alter the pitch or tempo of individual notes ... read more at MacUser UK

CellSynth - Living Memory

CellSynth by Living Memory is a powerful modular software synthesiser, playback-sampler, sequencer and digital effects processor ... read more at MacUser UK

Storm 1.5 - Arturia

a stand-alone recording studio packing virtual synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and a host of effects options into a relatively affordable, easy-to-learn package. ... read more at MacAddict

EXSP24 - Emagic

The Emagic EXSP24 is a sample playback plug-in for use on audio and MIDI sequencing software capable of utilising VST Instruments. It supports 24-bit, 96KHz samples but, unlike the EXS24, its more sophisticated sibling, the EXSP24 doesn't provide any sample editing features at a waveform/keygroup level. ... read more at MacUser UK

Emagic Vintage Piano - Emagic

to be fair, saying that emulating a Fender Rhodes piano only produces one sound is a little misleading. This classic instrument can deliver a range of subtle textures that Emagic has endeavoured to recreate in this easy-to-use VST Instruments plug-in ... read more at MacUser UK

MusicMatch 2.0 - MusicMatch MP3 Player

Supports ID3v1and v2 tagging ... read more at Macworld

Cabrio 1.1 - Melonsoft MP3 Player

Free; intuitive player ... read more at Macworld

Macast 1.0 - Macast MP3 Player

Good built-in plug-ins ... read more at Macworld

Audion 2.5 - Panic MP3 Player

Great interface with hundreds of skins available; DJ mixer and alarm clock built in ... read more at Macworld

ReCycle 2.0 - Propellerhead Software

ReCycle is not a music-creation tool, it's a utility to use in conjunction with a digital audio program or a MIDI sequencer, such as Cubase VST or Propellerhead's Reason. ReCycle converts fixed-tempo loops into the versatile, editable REX2 format, ultimately giving you more artistic possibilities for your productions ... read more at MacAddict

Megaseg 2.0 - Fidelity Media

Megaseg's chief function is to allow you to build playlists from a Library and segue them. To help this, Megaseg's editing features let you time and make a note of cue-in, intro and fade times for each track. The auto-segueing feature then uses the fade-out and cue-in times to calculate how to segue two tracks ... read more at MacUser UK

SampleTank XL - IK Multimedia

Having SampleTank on your Mac is almost like owning a $1,500 hardware sampler without sacrificing space or putting up with the mess of audio and MIDI cables. The program comes with a substantial truckload of quality sounds - from pianos to drum loops to sound effects. ... read more at MacAddict

Absynth 1.2 - Native Instruments

Software synthesizers are all the rage these days. So, being the poseurs we are, we got all excited about Native Instruments' Absynth, a programmable soft synth you can use as a stand-alone instrument or as a component in a studio setup ... read more at MacAddict

SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 2.0 - Sonic Desktop Software

Sonicfire Pro allows you to add audio to a silent video or layer audio over a video's existing soundtrack ... read more at MacAddict

Practica Musica 4 - Ars Nova Software

Practica Musica, Latin for "practical exercises in music," is a wonderful music-theory teaching program ... read more at macHOME

Nuendo 1.5 - Steinberg

if you're into multi-track recording, A/V work and surround mixing, then Nuendo has potential ... read more at MacUser UK

Phrazer 1.0 - BitHeadz

Phrazer allows you to build, arrange, and mix sample-based songs. You construct songs by auditioning and importing samples and loops to tracks and by placing track information ... read more at MacAddict

Kinky Beep 2.0 - Ken-ichiro Hidaka

Kinky Beep is for all creative noise artists and indie musicians who've wanted to create the sounds of eighties dance tunes, sci-fi effects, experimental soundscapes, synth-pop, and just about anything else that loops, buzzes, woops, gargles, whistles, and dings ... read more at Macworld

Audion 2.1 - Panic Software

The biggest news is that Audion now supports MP3 encoding. Previously it was a player only, but now it can encode any item in any playlist. Users can choose between the industry standard Fraunhofer MP3 encoder engine or the popular PMLAME. The default settings produced excellent results ... read more at MacUser UK

iTunes 1.1 - Apple

Download iTunes for free from Apple's Website, and it becomes your Macs default entertainment center. It plays CDs, downloads MP3s, plays Internet radio stations, creates song lists, and even burns CDs if you have a CD-RW drive. ... read more at macHOME

Cubase VST/32 - Steinberg

its top-of-the-line MIDI sequencing and audio product. The addition of VST instruments, 32-bit audio with TrueTape technology, and built-in Apogee UV-22 make it a compelling upgrade for musicians, producers, and audio engineers ... read more at MacAddict

Transcribe 4.0 - Seventh String Software

Transcribe! is an application for musicians who want to learn a piece of music by ear - that is, from a recording rather than by reading sheet music. There are several utilities that help in this process, but Transcribe! performs better than most, offering a range of tools to assist the learning process ... read more at MacUser UK

Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC) 3.0 - Roland

Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC) is a collection of advanced, realistic sounds that can replace QuickTime Musical Instruments to provide a rich and varied source of sampled sounds ... read more at MacUser UK