As I predicted, summer 2006 looks like the timeframe in which most Mac music software will ship with Universal binaries for Intel Macs. (All is going as I have forseen, erm, and whatnot.)

Linplug is shipping their flagship RMIV analog/sampled drum machine and Albino synth first. The RMIV is available now, with new, lightweight acoustic kits included. Albino III, a major upgrade of this cult-hit synthesizer, will be shipping this month (no word on what’s new just yet). Everything else should be available in upcoming weeks, for fans of Alpha, daOrgan, and other synths.

MOTU has already been shipping drivers for some time, but I don’t yet have the news I’d expect most MOTU fans would be waiting for: DP5, MachFive, and MX4 are all still PowerPC-only. In the meantime, though, they have shipped their newest synths, Ethno Instrument and Symphonic Instrument; the latter adds standalone support, disk streaming, and other features. (Surprised those weren’t in the initial release of Symphonic Instrument, since they are available in the MachFive sampler, but they’re there now.)