The major titles are: Sonic Solutions' Sonic Studio HD and DVD Creator, and Minnetonka's MASS 5.1
The highly popular Sonic Studio HD offers multitrack recording, editing, and mixing on a computer. "HD" means that it handles High Density audio with high sampling rates and high bit depths. The software can be used to master to CD, PMCD, DDP, DVD-Audio, audio for DVD-Video, and EMD. Sonic HD can provide surround mixes, multitrack sampling rates up to 192 kHz, and very fast editing.
Using HDSP processing architecture, Sonic HD can output 8 channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio or 4 channels of 24-bit 192 kHz audio. Sample-rate conversion is included. Other features are PQ code editing, ISRC codes, UPC editing and support for CD-R and DDP. The system can be expanded with the HDSP Plug-in Processor.
In SonicStudio HD is a feature called "OneClick DVD." If your program is audio only, you can assemble playlists with just a few mouse clicks, as if you were mastering a CD. Another feature is Smart Content, which lets you set coefficients for automatic 6-to-2 fold-downs or mixes of surround audio programs into stereo.
Sonic Studio DVD Creator is the first and the most popular DVD authoring program. It handles both DVD-Audio and DVD-Video formats. Like a mastering program, DVD Creator lets you assemble a playlist or a sequence of song mixes. Other media -- such as video or web links -- can be included. Since this article focuses on DVD-Audio, I won't go into the many DVD-Video authoring features of the program, but they are impressive.
System requirements for DVD Creator (and HD) are a Power Mac G3 or G4 with Mac OS 8.6 or later, 385 MB memory, 20 GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and perhaps a DVD-R recorder.
If you want to make pure audio DVD-Audio discs, Sonic HD will do the job. If you want to include video, etc. along with the audio, Sonic DVD Creator can handle it. You might first create your audio mixes with HD (maybe in surround and 24-bit/96kHz), then load them into DVD Creator.
Sonic DVD Creator includes Dolby Digital encoding and decoding, DVD-Video and DVD-Audio authoring, formatting, and an output to DVD-R (DVD Recordable discs) or DLT (high-capacity tape-drive backup). Other features are NoNOISE which removes noise, and an MPEG-2 video encoder.
Sonic Solutions is at
http://www.sonic.com. Sonic, Sonic Solutions, the Sonic logo, HDSP, SonicStudio HD and DVD Creator are trademarks of Sonic Solutions. System price is around $25,000.
Another major DVD-authoring package is MASS 5.1, a bundled product containing three items:
1. Minnetonka's Mx51 -- a program to mix 5.1 surround sound, including a "Build your own mixer" GUI and automated surround panners.
2. Minnetonka's MASS 5.1 -- a program to compile those mixes for DVD-Audio. You drag-and-drop soundfiles from one window to another to create your playlist. Then you press the Record button and burn the DVD-Audio disc.
3. A Pioneer S201 DVD-R recorder. This drive connects to your computer via a SCSI port. It can make data DVDs and audio DVDs.
In MASS 5.1, each channel's signal is a separate Wave file. MLP data compression is an option. As of May 2001, the price is $9495 for the complete package. The software runs under Windows 98, 2000 or NT. To see some screen shots, visit Minnetonka's web site at
http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com.
Créé le 19 Aoû 2001 12:28
