Due to high traffic on MacDev-1 and to conserve your mailbox space, the
following releases have been combined in this message:
* Allegiant publishes SoundMaker
* PowerFantasm Upgrade
* PowerTap
* Seapine Announces TestTrack 1.5 for Mac, W95 and NT
* Seapine Software and Datacraft Announce TestTrack/4D
* Seapine Software Introduces Solo Bug for Mac and Windows
Full text of each of these announcements is below. Each announcement
stands on its own and doesn't indicate any relation between companies or
products.
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Allegiant publishes SoundMaker
Allegiant Technologies, Inc.
9740 Scranton Road, Suite 300
San Diego, CA 92121
Tel.: 619/587-0500
Fax.: 619/587-1314
Internet: info@allegiant.com
Press Contacts:
Kathy Episcopo, Public Relations Manager
ext. 127
ALLEGIANT TO PUBLISH SOUNDMAKER
Innovative sound-editing software from Micromat to complement
Allegiant's award-winning line of multimedia and web authoring tools
SAN FRANCISCO- January 7, 1997 - Today at Macworld Expo, Allegiant
Technologies, Inc. and Micromat Computer Systems jointly announced an
agreement for Allegiant to publish and distribute SoundMaker(tm) under it's
own label. SoundMaker is a full-featured sound editor for easily
creating, editing and enhancing digital audio files.
A perfect complement to Allegiant's SuperCard(r) 3.0 multimedia and web
authoring tool, SoundMaker allows both beginning and advanced users to
create new and diverse sounds for use in multimedia content titles,
music, and custom applications. SoundMaker provides all of the tools
necessary for creating and modifying digital sounds. It's support for
a wide variety of sound formats, a plug-in special effects architecture
similar to Adobe Photoshop(r), and a multi-track capability for splicing
audio data from several sources should be a welcome addition for
multimedia producers, sound hobbyists, or developers wanting to add
sound to their custom programs. Users can even take sounds from audio
CDs, sample them straight into their Macintosh and then modify them.
SoundMaker provides multiple track recording and playback so users can
work on individual pieces and then later save them in a variety of
formats.
"In developing our line of telephony products for Macintosh, we saw a
real need for a feature-rich sound editor that was not only expandable,
but could be user-enhanced. SoundMaker gives users the power to not
only create CD-quality audio files but gives them the ability to be
creative with the sounds they've recorded," said Jeff Baudin, President
of Micromat. "Now, we're very excited to place a great product like
SoundMaker into the hands of Allegiant. Their core constituency of
multimedia developers around the world will be a perfect match for
SoundMaker," Baudin added.
"SoundMaker, like SuperCard 3.0, offers extraordinary power and
flexibility within an interface that is accessible to just about anyone,"
said Joel Staadecker, President and CEO of Allegiant. "This is clearly
the direction of multimedia tools. We are excited about the opportunity
to publish SoundMaker and contribute to defining that new direction,"
Staadecker added.
* SoundMaker Highlights
-- Dozens of special effects, including Reverb, Reverse, Fade, Waveform,
Doppler, Robotize, Vibrato and more
-- Plug-in architecture (like PhotoShop) to add new effect settings and
features
-- Creation of new plug-in effects without programming
-- Multiple track recording
-- Creation and conversion of sounds in many sample rates and formats
-- Save and open sounds in a variety of formats
-- Audio CD capture
* SoundMaker Testimonials
-- Full-Featured Editing - SoundMaker provides an unprecedented level of
control over all aspects of the audio waveform. Tristan Li Tom, Audio
Intern for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, commented, "SoundMaker is the
most user friendly and full-featured sound program for the Macintosh
I've ever used. And I've used them all..."
-- Professional Features - Featuring an attractive, intuitive user
interface that requires no previous technical knowledge, SoundMaker will
benefit every type of user from novice to power user or technical
professional. Multimedia developers will find SoundMaker bridges the gap
between complex studio programs and low-level sound editors. Brian Oliger,
a Washington DC radio personality, uses SoundMaker to improve his
productions. "As a voice-over artist and radio announcer, I do a lot of
sound editing and processing on my Mac. SoundMaker is one of the most
complete and easy-to-use tools that I've found, combining the best
features of several shareware and commercial sound editing programs into
one tight and versatile package. It's the Swiss Army Knife of sound
editing utilities for the Mac OS."
-- Wide Compatibility - While SoundMaker can take advantage of the
advanced audio features of newer systems, it is backward-compatible with
models as old as the Macintosh Plus. Even as far back as 1983, Apple saw
the potential of digital audio and incorporated waveform audio features
into the earliest Macs. SoundMaker gives users the potential to take
advantage of the audio hardware native to the Macintosh. Fred Argilan,
multimedia guru for Pathology Associates International, adds "SoundMaker
is a pleasure to use. It allows me to manipulate sounds as easily as I do
words with a word processor. It takes advantage of the latest Macintosh
technologies such as Drag & Drop, yet runs surprisingly well on my old
SE/30."
-- Multimedia Usage - SoundMaker is the perfect complement to a
multimedia producer's library. MacUser Magazine recently said,
"Multimedia users seeking a plethora of onboard effects will discover
that SoundMaker has them in spades. Among the dozens of effects were
all those found in SoundEdit 16 plus exotic extras. If you're not
satisfied with the included effects, you're able to create your own."
* System Requirements, Pricing and Availability
SoundMaker requires a Macintosh Plus or above, System software version
7.0 or better, a hard disk drive, and a minimum of 4 megabytes of RAM.
It is PowerPC native and works with the latest Macintosh models
including clones.
SoundMaker is available immediately and has a suggested retail price
of $150, with a typical street price around $99.95.
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PowerFantasm Upgrade
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lightsoft are pleased to announce that both Fantasm and PowerFantasm have been
upgraded to version 4.16.
The upgrades are available to registered users of V4.1.5. versions
via our WWW pages as a free download.
V4.1.6. contains some 70+ changes and is designed to make mixed projects
easier (i.e. 68k and PPC in the same application) and improve functionality
and ease of use. Full details are posted on our Web pages.
A working demo of PowerFantasm V4.1.6. is also available from the same place
(1 Meg download).
Also posted in December 1996 to our WWW pages was a paper describing PowerPC
cache usage and tips - a sometimes misunderstood area of PowerPC programming.
This paper may be beneficial to all developers, irrespective of the
environement
or programming language. Understanding the PowerPC cache and data alignment
can
provide BIG performance wins.
This article, along with many other useful texts, upgrades, demos etc can be
found at (http://www.tau.it/lightsoft)
Product information:
Fantasm(TM) and PowerFantasm(TM) are Macintosh(R) assembly language
development
systems combining integrated hyperjumping and syntax colouring editor,
assemblers and linkers along with a Librarian, libraries and headers.
Fantasm is for 68k development only, PowerFantasm handles both 68k and PowerPC
development without all the traditional TOC hassles.
Quick details - PowerFantasm:
Price: 45 U.K. Pounds anywhere in the world.
Processor: 68020 - needs PowerPC based machine to test PowerPC projects.
O.S.: System 7 minimum, prefers 7.5.x.
R.A.M. At least 2 Megabytes free. 3.4 Megabytes required for large projects.
Monitor: 13" or better, 14" 256 or greater colours prefered.
Hard Disk: Installation requires 20 MBytes free space.
Contact information:
Snail mail:
Lightsoft,
55 Sidney Street,
Grantham,
Lincolnshire,
NG31 8AZ,
England,
U.K.
Email:
(lightsoft@zedworld.demon.co.uk)
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PowerTap
Dateline---January 15, 1997
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fortner Research Introduces PowerTapx:
Transform An Ordinary Macintoshx Network
Into A Multi-Processing Powerhouse.
Sterling, VA--- Fortner Research, developer of affordable, user-friendly data
visualization software for scientists and engineers, announced today the
release of PowerTap, a unique software library that can add multi-processing
support to Macintosh applications. As new software becomes more complex,
hardware manufacturers are having to deliver comparably powerful desktop
systems. In turn, developers must spend additional resources reprogramming
applications to take advantage of this new hardware. Such development is
costly and may only reach small markets that purchase the new machines. This
is where PowerTap can make a difference.
PowerTap is a new software development tool that bridges the gap for
Macintosh developers in the never-ending race for the highest technology.
PowerTap provides two specific solutions to this problem. First, PowerTap
turns any Macintosh network into a multi-processing powerhouse by scheduling
tasks to run not only on the host CPU, but on any networked machine set up to
relinquish time to that application. By accessing these available processors,
applications can execute in a fraction of the time. Second, PowerTap makes
it simple to provide support to the new lines of multi-processing machines
released by Apple, Daystar and other Mac Clone manufacturers. PowerTap's
capabilities are extremely versatile and allow developers to harness the
power in a network or MP computer with literally no additional expenditures
in hardware.
An example of PowerTap's potential can be seen in the development of Adobe
Photoshop Plugins. In one case, PowerTap was used to execute a Gaussian
Analysis Photoshop plug-in. Several Macintoshes were PowerTap'd to complete
the job 2.4 times faster than if it was run on a single Macintosh. As seen
here, developers who add PowerTap to their applications can expand markets by
passing on these incredible speed gains to their customers.
PowerTap can be added to any C++, C, Fortran or Pascal program using
CodeWarrior, Symantec C++ and MPW.
For more information on PowerTap and other products by Fortner Research,
please contact Kathy Floam, Public Relations Coordinator at (410) 216-9447.
Visit Fortner Research's Web site at www.fortner.com. Fortner Research
welcomes product reviews and articles.
