Sound Designer / Sound Designer II
Sound Designer by Digidesign was introduced and ported from the Mac in 1989, and was a universal MIDI Sample Editor, often called Sound Designer Universal, largely due to it being named so on the Mac, to distinguigh it from it's dedicated Sound Designer products. In it's Sound Designer II guise which followed in 1990, it is the software Sample Editor for the Sound Tools hardware package, and forerunner to Avid Technology's Pro Tools. To note, the Sound Tools package included:
-Sound Accelerator expansion card containing a Motorola 56001 DSP for the Atari Mega ST
-External stereo ADC
-Of course the Sound Designer II software
Ultimately Sound Tools provides a digital link between your Atari and hardware Sampler*, allowing faster transfers than the also supported MIDI. As such, the Sound Tools package is considered to be the first Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) when it arrived on the Mac. Accompanied by the Sound Tools hardware, Sound Designer II can record stereo sound in real time directly to your Atari's Hard Disk. Despite popular belief, Sound Designer can run on any Atari ST, however with Sound Tools, Sound Designer II was made with the Atari Mega ST in mind, specifically referring to the Atari Sound Accelerator to be fitted to the Mega ST. Via the Sound Tools audio input/ouput box, Sound Designer is capable of 16-bit stereo sample frequencies of up to 48 kHz. Two version were produced, Sound Designer and Sound Designer II, irrespective of sub versions. However as alluded to, Sound Designer II was available as a package in Sound Tools, which included not only the software, but aforementioned hardware. Both introduced the SD and SD2 file formats to the Atari platform.
- *Supported Samplers include: Any Sampler supporting MIDI SDS and, the Akai S700 / X7000, Akai S900, Casio FZ-1, Emu Emax, Ensoniq EPS, Ensoniq Mirage, Korg DSS-1, Korg DSM-1, Roland S-10 / S-220 / MKS-100, Roland S-50, Sequential P-2000 and Yamaha TX16W Samplers.
Overview
- Name: Sound Designer / Sound Designer II
- Type: Sampler / Sample Editor
- Sample Format: 16 bits
- Sample Rate: 1 to 48 kHz
- Sound Quality: Stereo
- Hardware ADC: Yes
- ADC Connection Type: Via internally fitted DAC to the Atari Mega ST
--Atari74user 23:05, 2 March 2016 (CET)
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