WMA Support to be Added to Pro Tools

Digidesign announce plans for a new Pro Tools software release using Windows Media Encoder 9 Series, which allows Pro Tools users to both import and export Windows Media Audio (WMA) files in the familiar Pro Tools environment. Users will be able to take advantage of this new audio compression technology in late 2003.

Digidesign's General Manager, Dave Lebolt, states: "Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series provides professional audio content creators everything they need to create final delivery streams with the highest-possible quality and efficiency, in addition to support of professional requirements such as multichannel surround and 96 kHz sample rates. That's why we'll be supporting integrated export capability from Pro Tools to this powerful and exciting media standard. We look forward to further integration of additional Windows Media capabilities in future releases of Pro Tools."

"Digidesign is showing its innovation by taking advantage of the latest digital media technology for the professional audio authoring community," said Jonathan Usher, director of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "Windows Media Audio 9 Professional, the first multi-channel codec that's streamable over the Web, provides professional audio creators with a new high quality codec to create whole new experiences with audio."

Windows Media 9 Series delivers audio at any bit rate, with features designed to provide quality at dial-up rates and home-theater-like experiences over broadband connections or for download-and-play.

Pro Tool's support for Windows Media 9 Series offers:

• 16-bit 24-bit audio encoding
• 44.1kHz, 48kHz, and 96kHz sampling rates
• 2-channel stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 multichannel configurations
• One-pass and Two-pass encoding
• Support for Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9 Lossless encoding.