Products of Interest.

Broadcast Electronics/Sonic Foundry eSTREAM Studio

Broadcast Electronics has partnered with Sonic Foundry in an attempt to create a more integrated and powerful environment for streaming audio, and, more generally, streaming media production. eSTREAM Studio includes a Windows NT workstation, the eSTREAM PCI sound processing card, Sound Forge XP 4.5 for audio creation and processing, Vegas Pro for multitrack editing, and MaxxStream which optimizes the audio signal quality before encoding and streaming over the Internet. Processing plugins include DeEsser, S1 Stereo Imager, MaxxBass, Q10 Paragraphic EQ, C1 Compressor/ Gate, and Audiotrack, a parametric 4-band EQ. In addition to providing all necessary tools for the creation of Internet audio, eSTREAM Studio will process live audio feeds and direct them through a choice of encoders simultaneously.

eSTREAM Studio retails for US$ 3,000. Contact: Broadcast Electronics, Inc., 4100 North 24th Street, P.O. Box 3606, Quincy, Illinois 62305-3606, USA; telephone (217) 224-9600; fax (217) 224-9607; electronic mail bdcast@bdcast.com; World Wide Web www.audiovault.com/ estream_studio/estudio_idx.html.

SmartSound Soundtrack Creation Software

SmartSound provides a creation/editing environment for producing soundtracks for film, video, or other multimedia applications. A collection of Audio and Sound Palettes, issued separately as a series of CD-ROMs, provide a vast collection of pre-arranged music in different styles. The Maestro utility enables the user to search for particular selections according to stylistic criteria relating to the requirements of the visual cue. The Editor window provides tools for laying out and editing the music to fit the desired duration, particularities of the cue, etc. SmartSound is designed to automatically rearrange the music according to user-defined criteria, and also to provide alternative arrangements (e.g., "energetic," "laidback") for each track. Each pre-produced music selection has been marked into precise subunits, so that loops and re-orderings can be carried out automatically. The user may drag these fragments into the soundtrack window and combine them at will. The program provides visual "hints" as to the suitability of one unit following another. The "smoothing" utility can also be applied to create acceptable musical links between fragments.

Finished soundtracks can be exported in a variety of formats, and can then be imported into any multimedia editor for locking to visuals, recording to disc, etc. It is also possible to import soundfiles into SmartSound, though these user-defined blocks cannot be treated with the "smart" utilities (arranging, smoothing) of the program.

SmartSound is available in PC or Macintosh versions at 22 kHz (US$ 199) or 44.1 kHz (US$ 299) audio resolution. The Audio and Sound Palette CD-ROMs are available separately, again in 22 kHz (US$ 69) or 44.1 kHz (US$ 129) versions. Contact: Sonic Desktop Software, 9836 White Oak Avenue, Suite 209, Northridge, California 91325-1342, USA; telephone (800) 454-1900; fax (818) 718-9990; electronic mail info@sonicdesktop.com; World Wide Web www.smartsound.com.