Digidesign

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.

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 Mbox 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

• 1984 - Founded as Digidrums (later Digidesign) by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks.

• 1989 - Digidesign launches the first digital audio workstation system, Sound Tools, for the Apple Macintosh. The company refers to it as "the first tapeless recording studio".

• 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.

• 1995 - Avid Technology NASDAQ: AVID acquires Digidesign. Digidesign now operates as a business unit of Avid.

• 2001 - Digidesign wins a Grammy award for Pro Tools

• 2003 - Avid acquires Bomb Factory's extensive product catalog. These products are now included with Pro Tools systems.

• 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.

• 2005 - Avid acquires Wizoo, which now operates as Digidesign Advanced Instrument Research Group (A.I.R.), but remains largely independent, operating out of Bremen, Germany.

• 2006 - Avid acquires Sibelius, the music software, in a deal worth over $23 million.

See also

• Sound Designer II, popular audio file format made by the company.

External links

• Digidesign home page
• Digidesign User Conference
• John Payne: "The Software Chronicles" about Evan Brooks, EQ Magazine, March 2006

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