Steinberg to License Apogee's MasterTools with UV22

March 11, 1998 -- Apogee Electronics of California and Steinberg of Germany are pleased to announce the licensing by Steinberg of Apogee's MasterTools mastering software package with proprietary UV22 word-length reduction feature.

Apogee's MasterTools TDM plugin has previously been available for the Digidesign Pro Tools system. Under the new license agreement, Steinberg will take over the development of the product on the Pro Tools platform, releasing a version for Pro Tools 24, as well as porting the new MasterTools UV22 over to Steinberg's VST, WaveLab and for the Microsoft standard DirectX platform as well, making it available on both Macintosh and PC computer systems.

MasterTools features Apogee's UV22, the word-length reduction system most favored by mastering engineers -- over eight out of ten hit records in the US are mastered with the system -- which takes a high-resolution signal, such as a 24-bit recording, and flawlessly translates it into the 16-bit signal required for DAT, CD and other mastering applications. The noise floor remains at the theoretical 16-bit level yet, as with an analog recording, you can hear additional detail "through" the noise floor. MasterTools UV22 includes a wealth of additional tools for mastering, including "over" protection and logging against timecode, a unique 3D historical metering system, and individual channel mutes, phase and stereo reverse.

"We are very pleased to be working with Steinberg on this project, which we hope will be the first of many," said Apogee's newly appointed president, Paul Rice. "UV22 has been a major hit with mastering engineers for several years. We are confident that licensing our already-successful MasterTools product to a leading software company like Steinberg will greatly expand the market and availability of UV22 and MasterTools." Steinberg is the latest in an impressive list of prestigious audio manufacturers who have licensed and endorsed the UV22 process, including SADiE and Mackie.

"Apogee is an internationally-recognized name in digital audio, and we are very exceited that our two companies are working together for the first time," said Steve Garth, VP Sales and Marketing for Steinberg North America. "With our background and expertise in music and audio software, Steinberg is in an ideal position to promote and distribute MasterTools UV22 and the Apogee name on software internationally," he went on. "We plan to localize the product for German, French and other European languages," said Steve, "and we will be giving the MasterTools UV22 the Steinberg 'look and feel' to integrate with our other products, without losing the essential nature of the original Apogee interface."

For more information, visit their web site at www.steinberg.net.