Apple introduces Soundtrack as standalone application

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 standalone product for $299 (US). 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 video editors without music backgrounds to save time and money by producing their own high-quality, royalty-free music scores,” said Sina Tamaddon, Apple’s senior vice president of Applications in the press release. “Customers tell us the need for producing original, royalty-free music is everywhere, and we think that other creative professionals such as web developers and DVD authors are going to find Soundtrack the easiest and most affordable tool for musicians and 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 and producer, BT (a.k.a. Brian Transeau) in the press release. “Soundtrack is already one of my most important audio production tools and is set to become a staple for serious composers and hobbyists.”

“Soundtrack is going to revolutionize music production for the Internet,” said Lynda Weinman, author, trainer and co-producer of Flashforward in the press release. “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 of Soundtrack,” said Charlie Clouser, producer, keyboardist and remixer for artists such as Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, The Deftones and Rob Zombie in the press release. “From the way it automatically blends musical elements on-the-fly, to its super intelligent loop searching, Soundtrack is more powerful than any other loop-based audio software out there, giving professional musicians and music editors a must-have tool in their arsenal.”

Soundtrack offers creative professionals an intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface and workflow with each loop treated as an audio building block that users simply drag and drop into a composition. Regardless of the musical key or tempo in which the loop was originally recorded, Soundtrack will match the audio loops and sound effects within a composition in real-time, making
the project sound harmonious instantly. Such simplicity is also prevalent in Soundtrack’s powerful search engine, which gives users the means to quickly locate desired sounds by instrument, genre or mood. This advanced search engine works with a new open audio format called, “Apple Loops,” or any AIFF, WAV, and Acid format audio files.

With more than 4,000 royalty-free, professionally-recorded audio loops and sound effects included in Soundtrack, it is the perfect complement to other digital media creation applications, such as Final Cut Express, DVD Studio Pro, and Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. Licensing music is traditionally expensive, but Soundtrack users have the unrestricted ability to distribute, broadcast and resell their music creations without having to pay any additional fees.

Soundtrack also ships with over 30 professional, high-quality audio plug-ins from Apple and Emagic. Plug-ins like Platinum Verb, SpectralGate, Multiband Compressor and AutoFilter, enable users to combine effects with individual tracks to create sophisticated audio. Furthermore, Soundtrack’s
support for Mac OS X’s Audio Units plug-in architecture allows users to further expand their capabilities with additional third-party audio effects developed through Apple’s open-standard plug-in format.

Soundtrack will be available in August through The Apple Store (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Soundtrack can be found [url=http://www.apple.com/soundtrack]http://www.apple.com/soundtrack[/url].