Apple Offers New Standalone Version of Soundtrack
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Courtesy of Apple
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August 6, 2003
Apple has released Soundtrack, the royalty-free music production tool previously available only with Final Cut Pro 4, as a standalone product which is now available for $299 (US). Soundtrack includes more than 4,000 royalty-free, professionally-recorded audio loops and sound effects, giving creative professionals such as video editors, DVD authors and web developers a powerful and easy-to-use tool to create high-quality music scores. Soundtrack scales to meet the needs of audio producers, DJs and remix artists who start their projects in Soundtrack and then migrate to a digital audio workstation, such as Logic or Pro Tools, for the rest of their work.
"Soundtrack is a huge hit with Final Cut Pro 4 users and has enabled video editors without music backgrounds to save time and money by producing their own high-quality, royalty-free music scores," said Sina Tamaddon, Apple's senior vice president of Applications. "Customers tell us the need for producing original, royalty-free music is everywhere, and we think that other creative professionals such as web developers and DVD authors are going to find Soundtrack the easiest and most affordable tool for musicians and non-musicians alike."
"Soundtrack is so intuitive and powerful that within minutes of sitting down on a plane, I created temp tracks for some upcoming projects that would have otherwise taken hours to do in a studio," said recording artist and producer, BT (a.k.a. Brian Transeau). "Soundtrack is already one of my most important audio production tools and is set to become a staple for serious composers and hobbyists."
Soundtrack offers creative professionals an intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface and workflow with each loop treated as an audio building block that users simply drag and drop into a composition. Regardless of the musical key or tempo in which the loop was originally recorded, Soundtrack will match the audio loops and sound effects within a composition in real-time, making the project sound harmonious instantly. Such simplicity is also prevalent in Soundtrack's powerful search engine, which gives users the means to quickly locate desired sounds by instrument, genre or mood. This advanced search engine works with a new open audio format called, "Apple Loops," or any AIFF, WAV, and Acid format audio files.
With more than 4,000 royalty-free audio loops and sound effects included in Soundtrack, it complements other digital media creation applications, such as Final Cut Express, DVD Studio Pro, and Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. Licensing music is traditionally expensive, but Soundtrack users have the unrestricted ability to distribute, broadcast and resell their music creations without having to pay any additional fees.
Soundtrack also ships with over 30 audio plug-ins from Apple and Emagic. Plug-ins like Platinum Verb, SpectralGate, Multiband Compressor and AutoFilter, enable users to combine effects with individual tracks to create sophisticated audio. Furthermore, Soundtrack's support for Mac OS X's Audio Units plug-in architecture allows users to further expand their capabilities with additional third-party audio effects developed through Apple's open-standard plug-in format.
Pricing & Availability
Soundtrack will be available in August through The Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Soundtrack can be found at www.apple.com/soundtrack. For more information, visit their web site at www.apple.com. |
