Yamaha Pro Audio Announces Partnership With Sonic Foundry

Yamaha Corporation of America, an established leader in digital audio, announces a partnership with Madison-based Sonic Foundry to provide software applications for the Yamaha AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation. Compatible with PC platforms (Windows 95 or higher), the software bundle will be available in September as a free CD-ROM, packaged with the AW4416. Titles include upgradable versions of the popular ACID Style, providing rhythm patterns and other building blocks for samples; Sound Forge XP4.5, for sample and loop construction; and SIREN Xpress, an audio jukebox that provides MP3 encodes and unlimited WMA.

"Yamaha is proud of our new relationship with Sonic Foundry," states Wayne Hrabak, marketing manager, Professional Audio. "The packaging of superior software from Sonic Foundry coupled with the hardware and functionality of the Yamaha AW4416 will provide users all the benefits of two of the most respected manufacturers in music technology."

ACID Style, a version of Sonic Foundry's ACID PRO loop-based music production software, allows musicians and media professionals to create custom, royalty-free music via a multi-genre library of professionally-recorded loops or those that they have created. Loops may be added or deleted within an unlimited number of tracks and previewed in real time with full tempo matching. Volume, pan and effects for each track may also be adjusted. ACID Style generates and chases MIDI time code, and supports multiple audio outputs and sound cards.

Sound Forge XP 4.5 is the streamlined version of the professional digital audio editor Sound Forge 4.5, and provides an introduction to multimedia content creation. Its audio processing tools and effects allow users to simply cut, copy and paste their way to amazing media files for use in everything from Web pages to desktop presentations.

SIREN XPress music management software allows AW4416 users to convert and upload their own music productions from the AW4416 to the Internet, and provides categorized storage of these songs on the user's computer. In addition, SIREN XPress can create and upload custom playlists to a portable MP3 player.

"Sonic Foundry is excited to offer this compelling software suite to the AW4416 Professional Audio Workstation," states Jeff Conover, vice president of marketing for Sonic Foundry. "The power of Yamaha's AW4416 workstation combined with our award-winning software solutions will give audio professionals and hobbyists the best in audio creation options."

Combining powerful technological innovations from its successful digital products into one unit, the Yamaha AW4416 is currently delivering at an MSRP of $3,399. An optional front-mounted CD-RW drive, which enables mastering as well as loading and/or backing up data, is available for an additional $400.

The AW4416 contains full 32-bit DSP capabilities (similar to the Yamaha 02R digital console), 44 fully-automated audio inputs, 17 motorized faders, four fader and mute groups, eight bus and eight aux sends plus stereo, and stereo cue busses. An integrated 16-track recording system-complete with sampling, editing and mastering capabilities-retains true 24-bit, 48 kHz resolution without compression of any kind. Two 32-bit on-board effects may be routed to any bus or input channel directly, or re-routed during recording to create layered effects. Memory areas include scene, channel, EQ, dynamics and effects. Storage options include an internal hard drive and CD recorder and a SCSI interface for data backup to an external drive. Two rear-mounted card slots support future Yamaha products, and allow any or all of the 16 tracks, inputs and assigned busses to be output in digital form for further processing or transfer to external digital devices. The AW4416's FLASH ROM operating system enables software upgrades to be loaded from CD or the Internet.

"The Sonic Foundry software bundle really completes the Yamaha AW4416 package," notes John Schauer, product manager, Professional Audio. "In addition to all the other great features of this unit, users will now have the added advantage of being able to get their music to the Internet easily and legally."