Emagic, Steinberg, Lexicon, and Frontier Design Announce Support for AudioX™

January 28, 1999 -- Los Angeles - Emagic (www.emagic.de), Steinberg (www.steinberg.net), Lexicon (www.lexicon.com), and Frontier Design Group (www.frontierdesign.com) announced support for AudioX™, the open driver specification proposed by Cakewalk that enables any audio software product to control the functionality of advanced PC audio cards. The news follows a similar announcement in December 1998, when audio hardware makers Yamaha, Event Electronics, and Digital Audio Labs revealed plans to deliver products that support AudioX. In addition, Microsoft announced today that it supports Cakewalk's objective to improve audio quality on the Windows platform and endorses Cakewalk's use of Microsoft's DirectSound API to enable advanced features.

"With top software and hardware companies now behind it, AudioX will rapidly emerge in 1999 as an industry wide, open, and cross-platform standard," said Tom Cook, president and chief executive officer, Cakewalk. Cakewalk developed the AudioX standard to eliminate incompatibilities between audio hardware and software, and introduced it in Fall 1998.

Existing Windows drivers provide a standard way for audio hardware and software to communicate but do not accommodate high-end audio capabilities like real-time digital signal processing (DSP), mixing and synchronization to film or video. As a result, a user purchasing a digital audio card with built-in DSP effects has no guarantee that available software will take advantage of those effects. Similarly, a user buying audio recording software has no guarantee that it will take advantage of the advanced features of a desired audio card.

AudioX extends the capabilities of today's driver models, eliminating these concerns. Buyers gain the freedom to choose the best product for an application without regard for compatibility; software developers gain support for every current and future sound card; and sound card makers gain the ability to market to the universe of buyers.

"It's very simple, everyone gains from standardization," said Dr. Gerhard Lengeling, Logic System Group Executive, EMAGIC GmbH. "AudioX used as a common standard will enable developers to quickly support and access specific qualities of any newly released audio hardware. With this increased depth and release of support for new hardware, everyone wins."

"Steinberg is very interested and actively supporting the definition of the AudioX format," states Steinberg's managing director, Manfred Ruerup. "Whenever there is a standard, it benefits both the customers and the manufacturers. It helps to plan and design the right products, making sure that there will be maximum compatibility."

"We're very pleased to be a part of the AudioX initiative," stated Barry Braksick, co-founder of Frontier Design Group. "Cakewalk has created a rich and extensible set of interfaces that will let users access the advanced features of our hardware without having to switch out of their preferred application environment. The open nature of AudioX will promote quick and universal adoption."

"Microsoft supports Cakewalk in its efforts to improve the quality of audio on the Windows operating system to meet the needs of the professional audio community," said Kevin Bachus, product manager of DirectX, Microsoft Corporation. "We're happy to see companies like Cakewalk utilize the extensible DirectX architecture by creating industry standard extensions like AudioX."

For more information, visit Cakewalk's web site at www.cakewalk.com.