Emagic, Steinberg, Lexicon, and Frontier
Design Announce Support for AudioX™
January 28, 1999Los Angeles - Emagic (www.emagic.de),
Steinberg (www.steinberg.net),
Lexicon (www.lexicon.com), and Frontier
Design Group (www.frontierdesign.com)
announced support for AudioX™, the open driver specification proposed
by Cakewalk that enables any audio software product to control the functionality
of advanced PC audio cards. The news follows a similar announcement in
December 1998, when audio hardware makers Yamaha, Event Electronics, and
Digital Audio Labs revealed plans to deliver products that support AudioX.
In addition, Microsoft announced today that it supports Cakewalk's objective
to improve audio quality on the Windows platform and endorses Cakewalk's
use of Microsoft's DirectSound API to enable advanced features.
"With top software and hardware companies now behind it, AudioX
will rapidly emerge in 1999 as an industry wide, open, and cross-platform
standard," said Tom Cook, president and chief executive officer,
Cakewalk. Cakewalk developed the AudioX standard to eliminate incompatibilities
between audio hardware and software, and introduced it in Fall 1998.
Existing Windows drivers provide a standard way for audio hardware and
software to communicate but do not accommodate high-end audio capabilities
like real-time digital signal processing (DSP), mixing and synchronization
to film or video. As a result, a user purchasing a digital audio card
with built-in DSP effects has no guarantee that available software will
take advantage of those effects. Similarly, a user buying audio recording
software has no guarantee that it will take advantage of the advanced
features of a desired audio card.
AudioX extends the capabilities of today's driver models, eliminating
these concerns. Buyers gain the freedom to choose the best product for
an application without regard for compatibility; software developers gain
support for every current and future sound card; and sound card makers
gain the ability to market to the universe of buyers.
"It's very simple, everyone gains from standardization," said
Dr. Gerhard Lengeling, Logic System Group Executive, EMAGIC GmbH. "AudioX
used as a common standard will enable developers to quickly support and
access specific qualities of any newly released audio hardware. With this
increased depth and release of support for new hardware, everyone wins."
"Steinberg is very interested and actively supporting the definition
of the AudioX format," states Steinberg's managing director, Manfred
Ruerup. "Whenever there is a standard, it benefits both the customers
and the manufacturers. It helps to plan and design the right products,
making sure that there will be maximum compatibility."
"We're very pleased to be a part of the AudioX initiative,"
stated Barry Braksick, co-founder of Frontier Design Group. "Cakewalk
has created a rich and extensible set of interfaces that will let users
access the advanced features of our hardware without having to switch
out of their preferred application environment. The open nature of AudioX
will promote quick and universal adoption."
"Microsoft supports Cakewalk in its efforts to improve the quality
of audio on the Windows operating system to meet the needs of the professional
audio community," said Kevin Bachus, product manager of DirectX,
Microsoft Corporation. "We're happy to see companies like Cakewalk
utilize the extensible DirectX architecture by creating industry standard
extensions like AudioX." For more information, visit Cakewalk's web site at www.cakewalk.com. |
