NAMM: Day one

OK, let's get the bad news out of the way first: Propellerhead haven't launched a new version of Reason at NAMM. However, the good news is that they are working on an update to their much-loved software studio, and they were willing to show us the Thor synth that this will contain.

First impressions of Thor are very favourable: it's described as a 'polysonic' instrument and utilises a variety of synthesis techniques. Crucially, it sounds great.

There's no word yet on when the new version of Reason will be released (in fact, we don't even know what it's going to be called yet), but hopefully, more details will leak out soon.

Elsewhere, several new DJ products have caught the eye. Native Instruments have Traktor Scratch and the Audio 8 DJ interface, while M-Audio have launched the Torq Xponent. Check out the company websites for more on these.

Perhaps the most intriguing launch of the day was Arturia's Origin hardware synth. This contains modules from their software synths and should be ready for launch in September. Arturia also had the Jupiter-8V on show; as its name suggests, this is a software version of the famous Roland synth. It'll be available in March.

Finally, we're sorry to have to report that there's no news on Logic 8. Apple weren't giving anything away when we asked them about it, so it's probably safe to assume that it's still some way off. Shame.