Metric Halo announced the immediate availability of version 5.3 of MIO Console, Mobile I/O CoreAudio driver and Mobile I/O Firmware. The new version is available as a free update and applies to all Metric Halo FireWire audio devices including the 2882, ULN-2, ULN-8 and the recently introduced LIO-8 multichannel A/D/A converter.

Version 5.3 provides a number of new features, usability enhancements, and bug fixes. Major new features include:

• New 64-bit AU version of the ConsoleConnect plug-in for seamless compatibility with 64-bit hosts (including Logic).
• Addition of sidechain routing within the Mobile I/O mixer for plugins that support sidechain input.
• Full support for setting all BEXT metadata when recording BWF files.
• Support for long filenames in the Record Panel.
• Rewritten and reorganized documentation.
• Propagation of mixer strip colors to EuCon control surfaces.
• Support for the LIO-8.
• New SIMD mixer for reduced DSP usage (effectively provides more DSP power).

Usability Enhancements include:

• Document proxy in the window title bar.
• Hierarchical menu for plug-ins in Graph windows.
• Addition of bypass support for a number of plug-ins.
• Mixer templates for LIO-8.
• Addition of new keyboard modifiers to accelerate some operations.
• Improved cueing speed in RP playback.
• Improved synchronization of Front Panel and MIO Console calibration.
• Removed latency jitter on driver start to provide consistent round trip transport latency.

The update also includes fixes for more than fifty potential issues discovered in older versions of the software.