E-Mu Signs Letter Of Intent With BitHeadz
SoftwareCompanies Intend To Collaborate On Mac
Sound Card January 28, 1999 E-MU SYSTEMS has announced that a letter of intent has been signed with
BitHeadz Inc. of Capitola, California, to collaborate on a software/hardware
solution which will provide high quality sound and sampling synthesis
for the Macintosh™ computer. E-MU will provide the hardware solution
in the form of the Audio Production Studio (APS) PCI digital audio card,
and BitHeadz will provide the software front end to control the card based
around their Unity DS-1 software sampler product. The APS card is currently
being sold by E-MU to the PC marketplace through music stores worldwide.
Both companies declined to name the product on which they are collaborating,
but preliminary specifications were disclosed. The product, which is expected
to ship later this year (price TBD), will come complete with everything
you need to create professional- quality sound.
The letter of intent expresses the intentions of both companies to pursue
a development agreement, the terms and details of which were not disclosed.
Both E-MU SYSTEMS and BitHeadz were available to discuss further details
of this agreement at the Los Angeles NAMM show, booth #1233, which occurred
on January 28, 1999 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Hardware
The hardware consists of a single PCI card which allows 64 channels of
digital audio to be played at once, either as SoundFont® format samples
out of host RAM, or as streaming audio channels off of the hard disk.
The card has onboard digital mixing and professional, configurable effect
from the EMU10K1 DSP chip. The I/O complement includes stereo digital
analog I/O with 20-bit resolution, as well as S/PDIF format digital I/O.
Rounding out the hardware is full MIDI interface functionality, allowing
you to process 32 MIDI channels simultaneously.
Software
The software that is bundled with the card includes a complete
and powerful sampling front end which allows the user to program their
sounds and prepare them for playback over MIDI. Based on the recently
announced Unity DS-1 software sampler interface, the software allows for
full manipulation of all hardware functions, with a clear and userfriendly
interface that appeals to musicians with any level of experience. The
software also features substantial file format translation capabilities,
allowing the card to playback other sample formats other than the native
SoundFont format.
"We are extremely pleased that a relationship with BitHeadz is becoming
formalized," comments Don Scott, CEO of EMU-ENSONIQ. "We are
all impressed with their software expertise and believe this partnership
will benefit both companies while providing an optimal product solution
to the marketplace." For more information, visit www.emu.com.
Visit the Bitheadz website at www.bitheadz.com. | 
