San Francisco Ð A partnership between two third parties is leading NeXT into the emerging market for digital audio recording. At the Audio Engineering Society convention here last month, Singular Solutions and Metrosoft showed an audio workstation capable of recording, mixing, and editing CD-quality sound and MIDI data.
A NeXTstation with Singular's A/D64x Audio Interface and Metrosoft's MetroTracks software sells for less than $7900, considerably less than competitive systems based on other desktop systems, the companies said.
"Music is not a strategic market for NeXT, but it is an area in which we have a lot of advantages," said Rob Poor, a NeXT developer advocate who appeared on a panel at the show. "It is a happy surprise that there is a strong developer community growing without direct support from NeXT."
The Singular Solutions product provides two channels of ultralinear analog-to-digital conversion at multiple sampling rates, and digital audio input and output.
MetroTracks is the soft-ware equivalent of a multi-track audio recorder. It provides functions such as punch-in, punch-out, and track dubbing, while a waveform window permits graphical and time-based editing.
Metrosoft can be reached at 619/488-9411;
Singular Solutions is at 818/792-9567.