Back in 2005, while NASA was busy launching Deep Impact, Novation was hard at work launching the first Automap Software Control system, and the latter changed the way we controlled our DAWs and plugins forever. Fast forward to the present where Novation is ready to launch Novation Automap 3 Pro at Winter NAMM 2009 and NASA is ready to launch Discovery . . . which coincidentally was what Wikipedia labeled 2005 as the "Year of" when I was researching things that happened in 2005 after unsuccessfully researching "interesting ways to start an article."

Automap 3 Pro is the first version of Automap that can handle more than one hardware device simultaneously, so separate Novation controllers can access different parameters and plugins at the same time. Whether you're playing live or working in the studio, this saves time while increasing your performance options.

Another innovation is Autoview, which displays Automap 3 Pro at the touch of any hardware control. After you release the control, the window goes back into hiding, so you only have to look at what you're doing while you're doing it. The features that made Automap Universal 2.0 such a smash are still there, too. Quick mapping and optional mapping reassignments via learn mode are still all there.

More newness can be seen on boot, which kicks you in the figurative face with a new start-up screen featuring an automatic software updater, online tutorial access and support and set-up guides specific to your popular DAW of choice. It's easy enough to access management tasks for your plugins and hardware and you also get integrated HUI control so you can use a hardware mixer if you're so inclined.