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Digidesign

 
Hoover's Profile: Digidesign
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Contact Information
Digidesign
2001 Junipero Serra Blvd.
Daly City, CA 94014-3886
CA Tel. 650-731-6300
Fax 650-731-6399

Type: Subsidiary
On the web: http://www.digidesign.com

People whose job is to mix it up turn to Digidesign. The company makes computer-based digital audio production systems and software for the music, film, multimedia, and broadcasting industries. Its brand names include ProTools (Academy Award winner for technical achievement), VENUE, and ICON. The company's tools assist in tasks including audio creation, post production, collaboration, and distribution. Digidesign, a unit of Avid Technology since 1995, also markets computer audio peripherals through its M-Audio division, virtual instruments via its Advanced Instrument Research (AIR) group, and music teaching software from its Sibelius Software unit.

Officers:
COO and General Manager: Gerard (Tex) Shenkkan
Press Contact, Asia and The Americas: C.J. Alvarado
Editor, DigiZine: Dusty DiMercurio

Competitors:
E-MU Systems
Mark of the Unicorn
Peavey Electronics

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Wikipedia: Digidesign
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Digidesign
Type Public subsidiary
Founded 1984
Headquarters Daly City, California
Area served Digital audio production
Industry Technology
Products Pro Tools
Parent Avid Technology
Website Digidesign

Digidesign is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology.

Contents

Products

Digidesign's flagship software product is Pro Tools, which comes in three variations: Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered.

Pro Tools|HD requires a Digidesign TDM system and interface, and is intended for professional recording studios. Pro Tools LE is a complete package intended for home users and some post-production facilities. The package includes the Pro Tools LE software and hardware such as the M-Box 2 or Digi 003. Pro Tools M-Powered is simply the Pro Tools application adapted to run on M-Audio hardware, and is generally comparable in power to LE systems.

Digidesign also makes a number of products for the Pro Tools platform, including several software plug-ins. They also manufacture a wide variety of hardware add-ons for Pro Tools, such as audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces, Synchronizers, and control surfaces. In the spring of 2005 they introduced a system for live sound mixing called VENUE.

History

Developed by UC Berkeley Graduate, Peter Gotcher and his friend Evan Brooks, both double majors in electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley. The first incarnation of Pro Tools started life in 1984 as Sound Designer, while the pair were creating and selling drum sound chips under their Digidrums label. Sound Designer was originally designed to edit sounds for the E-MU Emulator sampling keyboard[1], Gotcher and Brooks discussed with E-MU Systems the possibility of integrating their renamed 'Sound Tools' software into the Emulator III keyboard released in 1987, however E-MU rejected this option and Gotcher and Brooks went on to start what is Digidesign as we know it today. [2]

Sound Tools[3] was debuted on January 20 1989 at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers). At this stage Sound Tools was a simple computer based stereo audio editor. Although the software had the possibility to do far more it was limited by the hard drive technology, which was used to stream the audio and allow for the non-destructive editing that Sound Tools offered. [4]

The first version of Pro Tools was launched in 1991 offering 4 tracks and selling for $6000USD, Digidesign continued to improve Pro Tools, adding a sequencer and more tracks with the system offering recording at 16bit 44.1kHz. In 1997 Pro Tools had eventually reached 24bit, 48 track versions. It was at this point that the migration from more conventional studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry.[5]

  • 1984 - Founded as Digidrums (later Digidesign) by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks.[2]
  • 1991 - Digidesign releases the first Pro Tools multitrack system, marking a significant advance in digital audio. This integrated software and hardware system (digital audio workstation) is among the most popular for audio production for television, music, and film.[7]
  • 2003 - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes Digidesign's contribution to audio post production for film with an Oscar.
  • 2004 - Avid acquires M-Audio, which now operates as a business unit of Digidesign, but maintains the M-Audio brand name and remains largely distinct from Digidesign. [11]
  • 2005 - Avid acquires Wizoo, which now operates as Digidesign Advanced Instrument Research Group (A.I.R.), but remains largely autonomous, operating out of Bremen, Germany.[12]
  • 2006 - Avid acquires Sibelius, the music software, in a deal worth over $23 million. [13]
Digidesign D-Show Profile live digital mixer on location at a corporate event

References

  1. ^ http://www.emulatorarchive.com/SampleDesign/SDSoundDesigner/sdsounddesigner.html Emulator Archive
  2. ^ a b http://www.eqmag.com/article/the-software-chronicles/Mar-06/19100 Interview with Evan Brooks
  3. ^ http://web.me.com/protoolsman1/deprotoolsman/Geschiedenis_files/soundtools.jpg Orginal Sound Tools Brochure
  4. ^ http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/evan-brooks Video interview with Evan Brooks
  5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inG-VGagm_U Digidesign 20th Anniversary Video on Youtube
  6. ^ http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/evan-brooks Video interview with Evan Brooks
  7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inG-VGagm_U Digidesign 20th Anniversary Video on Youtube
  8. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/26/business/company-news-avid-technology-plans-to-acquire-digidesign.html
  9. ^ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-70732700.html
  10. ^ http://www.avid.co.uk/company/press/generic_intl_press.asp?taxID=1150
  11. ^ http://www.m-audio.com/news/en_us-348.html
  12. ^ http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=48&key=/news/details.cfm&itemid=3450
  13. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/03/avid_buys_sibelius/

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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