Apple Introduces Soundtrack as Stand-Alone Product

Apple today announced that Soundtrack, the innovative, royalty-free music production tool previously available only with Final Cut Pro 4, will be available in August as a stand-alone product for £249 (inc VAT). 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 videoeditors without music backgrounds to save time and money by producing theirown 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 thatother creative professionals such as Web developers and DVD authors aregoing to find Soundtrack the easiest and most affordable tool for musiciansand 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 andproducer, BT (a.k.a. Brian Transeau). “Soundtrack is already one of my mostimportant audio production tools and is set to become a staple for seriouscomposers and hobbyists”.

“Soundtrack is going to revolutionise music production for the Internet”, said Lynda Weinman, author, trainer and co-producer of Flashforward. “Web developers are currently forced to license background music for their online animation, or hire outside producers to create original compositions. The interface of Soundtrack is so intuitive that even non-musicians can easily incorporate royalty-free audio production into their workflow, which directly translates into lower development costs and faster turnaround times”.

“I'm totally blown away by the extreme music creation abilities ofSoundtrack”, said Charlie Clouser, producer, keyboardist and remixer forartists such as Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, The Deftones and Rob Zombie.“From the way it automatically blends musical elements on-the-fly, to itssuper intelligent loop searching, Soundtrack is more powerful than any otherloop-based audio software out there, giving professional musicians and musiceditors a must-have tool in their arsenal”.

Soundtrack offers creative professionals an intuitive and easy-to-navigateuser interface and workflow with each loop treated as an audio buildingblock that users simply drag and drop into a composition. Regardless of themusical key or tempo in which the loop was originally recorded, Soundtrackwill match the audio loops and sound effects within a composition inreal-time, making the project sound harmonious instantly. Such simplicity isalso prevalent in Soundtrack's powerful search engine, which gives users the means to quickly locate desired sounds by instrument, genre or mood. Thisadvanced search engine works with a new open audio format, called “AppleLoops”, or any AIFF, WAV and Acid format audio files.

With more than 4,000 royalty-free, professionally-recorded audio loops andsound effects included in Soundtrack, it is the perfect complement to otherdigital media creation applications, such as Final Cut Express, DVD StudioPro, and Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. Licensing music is traditionallyexpensive, but Soundtrack users have the unrestricted ability to distribute,broadcast and resell their music creations without having to pay anyadditional fees.

Soundtrack also ships with over 30 professional, high-quality audio plug-insfrom Apple and Emagic. Plug-ins like Platinum Verb, SpectralGate, MultibandCompressor and AutoFilter enable users to combine effects with individualtracks to create sophisticated audio. Furthermore, Soundtrack's support forMac OS X's Audio Units plug-in architecture allows users to further expandtheir capabilities with additional third-party audio effects developedthrough Apple's open-standard plug-in format.

Pricing & Availability:

Soundtrack will be available in August through the Apple Store and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested selling price of £249 (inc VAT). Full system requirements and more information on Soundtrack can be found at 102.p.syniva.es/ie/soundtrack.

Press Contacts:
Apple UK and Ireland Public Relations
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0)20 8218 1440